Family and friends comfort Palestinian physician Najwa Alborno (C) as bodies of five members of the Alborno family were brought to Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City on Sunday after they were killed in reported Israeli bombardment of Zeitoun neighbourhood — AFP JERUSALEM, Sept 15 (AFP): A Yemeni rebel missile fired from Yemen triggered a rush to shelters in central Israel on Sunday, causing no injuries but again adding to regional tensions nearly a year into the Gaza war.
After the incident, AFP photographers saw firefighters putting out a brush fire near Lod and saw broken glass at a train station in Modin, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial hub.
Yemen's Huthi rebels, who claimed the attack, are among Iran-backed groups in the Middle East that have been drawn into the conflict after Hamas Palestinian militants' October attack against Israel triggered war in Gaza.
The rebels targeted an Israeli "military position" in the Jaffa area, around Tel Aviv, using a "ballistic missile that succeeded in reaching its target", Huthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement, adding that "the enemy's defences failed to intercept it".
In July, the Huthis claimed a drone strike that penetrated Israel's air defences and killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, at least 1,800 kilometres from Yemen.
Israel's military said "a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the East and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported."
"The missile was fired from Yemen," it added later.
Sirens sounded prior to the missile, the military said, leading to what local media described as a scramble for shelters in the greater Tel Aviv area.
A paramedic service said several people were slightly injured while "on their way to shelters."
Israeli police said they were at the scene near Shfela, east of Tel Aviv, where a fragment of an air-defence interceptor had come down, adding there were no casualties.
Yemen's Huthis have been launching attacks against Israel and its perceived interests in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The rebels are part of the "axis of resistance", which also includes Tehran-aligned militant groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Since November, the Huthis have carried out dozens of missile and drone strikes on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, waterways vital to global trade.
Several Filipino sailors have been killed in the strikes which have led to American military retaliation against Huthi targets.
Huthi missiles last month hit a Greek-flagged tanker carrying more than a million barrels of crude, leaving it ablaze off the coast of the Yemeni port of Hodeida and threatening environmental disaster.
A Greek defence ministry source on Saturday told AFP that the Sounion vessel was being towed northward under military escort in a salvage operation.
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