Posted on 12/31/24
| News Source: Times of Israel
Air defenses intercepted a ballistic missile launched at Israel from Yemen that triggered sirens across central Israel late Monday night, the military said, in the seventh such nighttime attack in less than two weeks.
The missile was intercepted “before it crossed into Israeli territory”, the military said, and sirens sounded across the center of the country shortly after 11 p.m. for fear of falling debris.
The missile was shot down with the Arrow long-range missile defense system, which is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside the atmosphere. Despite being intercepted outside the country’s borders and at a high altitude, fragments can continue to fall at a similar trajectory and reach Israel.
There was no major damage as a result of the missile debris, although a large fragment crashed in the Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef neighborhood in the city of Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem.
At the scene of the impact on Nahal Hakishon Street, local residents, most of them ultra-Orthodox Jews, crowded around the remains of the Houthi missile.