In fresh escalation, Yemen fires missiles towards Israel

As the situation in West Asia continues to escalate, Yemen launched a barrage of ballistic missiles towards Israel on Monday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.

Following the surface-to-surface missile launch, sirens sounded over the central parts of Israel, local media reported.

This comes nearly a week after Iran launched nearly 200 missiles on Israel.

According to IDF, the ballistic missile launched from Yemen at Israel was successfully intercepted by Israeli air defenses.

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, as reported by Times of Israel.

Earlier in the day, around 135 rockets were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel today, as of 5 pm (local time).

The latest escalation comes days after Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles towards targets in Israel and the United States military coordinated closely with the Israeli Defence Forces to help defend Israel against the attack.

This came days after Israel launched a decisive blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing its Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah in airstrike.

Earlier in July, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed inside Tehran. Iran had vowed to take revenge on both the occasions.

Notably, Monday also marks the first anniversary of October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, in which over 1200 people were killed and around 250 were held hostages.