UPDATE - Missile from Yemen intercepted while en route to southern city: Israeli army

UPDATES WITH HOUTHI STATEMENT; CHANGES HEAD, DECK, LEDE

By Said Amouri

JERUSALEM (AA) — The Israeli army said Thursday that it intercepted a missile launched towards its southern city of Eilat from Yemen, where Houthi rebels later claimed launching a strike on the country.

The missile "did not breach Israeli airspace," said the army statement, which came after a kamikaze drone caused an explosion inside an Eilat schoolyard.

Houthi rebels in northern Yemen said they had launched ballistic missiles targeting southern Israel, without specifying the time of the attack.

"We launched a batch of ballistic missiles at various sensitive targets of the Zionist enemy entity (Israel) south of the occupied territories, including military targets in Eilat," Yehia Sarie, the group's military spokesman said in a statement on Telegram.

"The operation successfully achieved its objectives and led to direct hits on the specified targets, despite the enemy's silence about it," he said, asserting that the group would continue its attacks in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Last Monday, the group had vowed to "carry out more military operations to support the Palestinian people's plight and in response to the calls of our people and all the nations of the Ummah (Islamic community) until the savage Israeli aggression on Gaza comes to a halt."

At least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women, have been killed in Israeli air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.

*Writing by Ziad Aslan and Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara