Israel blames Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the use of drones that hit Egypt
Israel today accused Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels of firing “missiles and drones” aimed at the Jewish state but hitting two Red Sea tourist towns in Egypt, wounding at least six people. “Israel condemns the damage inflicted on the Egyptian security forces by the rockets and drones fired by the Houthi terrorist organization with the intent to harm Israel,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said on X (formerly Twitter ). The spokesman pointed out that the Houthis were “representatives of the terrorist regime” of Iran, a country he accused of “controlling” the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and the Palestinian militias Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which he described as “terrorist organizations.” designated.
The Houthis control part of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and have launched numerous cross-border attacks from there in recent years, most of them targeting Saudi Arabia. According to the Egyptian Armed Forces, six people were injured this Friday after a drone crashed near a medical facility in the Egyptian city of Taba, on the shores of the Red Sea and on the border with Israel at the eastern end of the Sinai Peninsula. Another “strange object” fell in a desert area of Nuweiba, a tourist town about 70 kilometers south of Taba. According to the army, both objects fell on Egyptian territory after being intercepted outside the airspace in the Gulf of Aqaba. The Yemeni Houthis have repeatedly warned that they “will not stand idly by and watch the genocidal war in Gaza” and warned that “crossing red lines forces Yemen to fulfill its religious and principled duties.”