Air raid sirens sounded this morning in the city of Eliat, the southernmost city of Israel, which is located at the intersection of four countries. Minutes later, the Israeli army announced in a statement that an armed drone had been spotted and shot down.
Local media reported that the armed drone took off from Yemen and flew across the Red Sea to reach Ilyat.
The Israeli military has not yet confirmed that the Iran-backed Houthis have sent drones to Elyat. But security sources who spoke to Haaretz said that the bomb-laden drone apparently came from Yemen.
Eilat is also a resort town where thousands of Israeli evacuees from settlements surrounding Gaza are currently staying in hotels.
Israel, which has been clashing for days with Hezbollah, the most dangerous military force in Lebanon, in the north, faces the possibility that the Houthis loyal to Iran, who control western Yemen on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, will open a new front. From the south.
It is also reported that the drone sent by the Houthis, who also control the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to the Gulf of Aqaba, may be a suicide drone waiting for its target.
It is reported that not only the Israelis stationed at the resort, but also the soldiers rushed to the shelter when the sirens sounded in Iliat, which is about 1,660 kilometers from Yemen.
This is not the first time an attack on Israel has been attempted from Yemen in the Middle East, where the war broke out on October 7. The US military announced last week that it had shot down missiles and drones launched by the Houthis towards Israel.
The Gulf of Aqaba, where Iliat is located at the southernmost tip of Israel, is the intersection of four countries. A few kilometers from Elyat lies the Jordanian city of Aqaba. To the west is Taba, Egypt’s holiday hub, and a drone crashed in the city last week.
Another missile hit the center of Nuweiba district, about 50 kilometers south of Taba, meaning that the radius of the war increased to 250 kilometers. In the east of the Gulf of Aqaba there are Saudi resorts.
(tags for translation)Israel