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A Houthis ballistic missile reached Israel from Yemen but disintegrated after air defenses were activated.
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The attack highlights the threat posed by the Houthi rebels and offers Iran insight into Israel’s defense.
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Israeli systems Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 intercepted the missile, challenging the claim that it was a hypersonic missile.
A Houthis ballistic missile reached Israel from Yemen for the first time on Sunday, breaking up in mid-air after Israel activated its air defenses. While the attack caused no casualties or significant damage, it shows the increased threat The Houthi rebels could pose as a threat and likely provide their Iranian supporters with insight into Israeli missile defenses.
“I think Iran will view the attack as one that has some symbolic value, but it still reflects the limited capabilities of Iranian-produced ballistic missiles to actually pose a threat to Israel,” Sim Tack, a military and geopolitical analyst, told Business Insider.
The Israeli army confirmed tuesday that it had fired multiple interceptor missiles at the Houthi projectile on Sunday morning. These include Arrow 2, part of the upper tier of Israel’s multi-layered air defenses.
“It is now known that at least one Arrow interceptor managed to hit the incoming missile, but only damaged it, but this was still sufficient to prevent the missile from reaching its target,” Tack said. “On the Israeli side, the attack is likely to prompt additional consideration of procedures to address these recurring threats and the possibility of large ballistic missiles falling on Israeli soil in the event that interceptions are not entirely successful.”
The Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 both conducted their first-ever combat interceptions against Houthis missiles on October 31 and November 9, 2023, respectively. The Arrow 3 fires an interceptor missile that hits an incoming ballistic missile outside the Earth’s atmosphereand has superior range and speed over its predecessor, the Arrow 2. It is also a hit-to-kill missile, while the Arrow 2 destroys incoming targets by exploding nearby.
The Israeli military, which said it would investigate why the Arrow failed to destroy the approaching threat on Sunday, also disputed the Houthis’ dubious claim that the missile is hypersonic – the group even said the word “hypersic” painted in English on it.
Hypersonic missiles are a class of weapons that can develop and maneuver at speeds above Mach 5 to evade interceptor missiles. There is no evidence that the missile fired by the Houthis belongs to this class, other than the paint job.
The Houthis named the rocket Palestine 2, which analysts believe is a “hybrid” of Iran’s short-range Fateh-110 and Kheibar Shekan medium-range ballistic missiles. The group has previously displayed mockups of both the Fateh-110 and Kheibar Shaken.
The first Palestinian rocket, which closely resembles the one used in Sunday’s attack, was unveiled in Junewith the Houthis claiming it was used in an attack on the southern Israeli port city of Eilat. The Palestinian rockets are solid-propellant rockets, making them more advanced than the liquid-propellant rockets previously used by the group.
“I suppose the Houthis always hope that their missiles will penetrate Israeli air and missile defenses, but this missile was not fundamentally different from previous types fired at Israel,” Tack said. “So at best this appears to be a rehash, and of course a source of propaganda statements, regardless of the outcome of such attacks.”
Sunday’s rocket went on a straight linewhich traveled about 1,200 miles from Yemen and reached Israeli airspace in less than 12 minutes. In July, the Houthis managed to hit Tel Aviv with a long-range Samad drone for the first timeone was killed. The drone flew on a less direct and predictable 16-hour route of 1,600 miles, approaching Israel from the west and catching air defenses by surprise.
“At this point, it seems more likely that the isolated nature of the attack — one missile — was not perceived by Israel’s air defense network as a threat enough to trigger a sustained response,” Ryan Bohl, a senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence firm RANE, told BI.
“Israel claims to have intercepted the missile, so I don’t think anyone can conclude that it slipped out on its own,” Bohl said. “Instead, the geographic reach of Yemen is probably the most striking part, because it indicates that Yemen is a viable path for such long-range attacks by Iran and its allies and proxies.”
Most Houthi missiles and drones are based on Iranian designs. Iran Israel directly attacked first in April 2024, launching a massive ballistic missile and drone barrage in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Iranian officers in Syria. Iran telegraphed the unprecedented attack in advance, and Israel, with the help of its allies, successfully intercepted the vast majority of the incoming munitions. The few Iranian Emad missiles that reached their target, a major air base in southern Israel, turned out to be significantly less accurate than previously estimated.
“When it comes to large-scale drone and missile attacks, Iran must rely on large volumes to defeat Israeli air and missile defenses,” Tack said.
“If Tehran could achieve strategic surprise with such an overwhelming attack, it is possible that additional missiles could penetrate Israeli defenses, but the recent attacks hardly change that reasoning or knowledge,” Tack added.
Unless the Houthis are able to fire more advanced missiles at the same time, it is doubtful they can achieve more than an “occasional lucky hit” against their distant enemy, Tack said.
“For the Houthis, the attack — successful or not — is a political achievement that serves their domestic goals. It will boost recruitment and allow them to use this as propaganda,” Bohl said. “They certainly learned that Israel’s air defenses are robust, but they probably didn’t learn much more from the incident than they already knew from the Iran incident in April 2024.”
For Israel, the RANE analyst pointed out that using other, less expensive systems than the Arrow 3 makes sense for single or small-scale missile attacks. By doing so, Israel can retain the Arrow 3 to counter larger, more challenging, and technologically advanced attacks.
Besides Arrow and the short-range Iron Dome, Israel is operating the David’s Sling system, which covers the middle layer of its air defense. It decided to phase out its older, American-made Patriot PAC-2 systems earlier this year.
Given their geographic distance from Israel, the Houthis are unlikely to be prioritized over other Iranian-backed militias in the current conflict, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon, which a huge arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles.
“The Houthis are an increasing threat to Israel. If Iran has a steady supply of such missiles, it could compete with Hezbollah in terms of threat in major attacks,” Bohl said.
“But that requires a sustained buildup that I think is still a long way off,” Bohl added. “For now, Iran, followed by Hezbollah, pose the most direct threats to Israel through rockets and missiles.”
Steven Horrell, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis’ Transatlantic Defense and Security Program, said Sunday’s attack was “very illustrative of the general positions” in both Iran and Israel.
“For Iran, the Houthis and others continue to be a cost-effective and consistent way to disrupt the rules-based international order and attack Israel,” Horrell told BI.
“Israel has a lot of confidence in its multi-layered missile defense, but this is a reminder that it is not perfect. The risk is never reduced to zero,” Horrell said.
While the US Navy intercepted The CEPA official said that given the numerous Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea, these measures amount to “shooting arrows and not taking out the archer.”
Read the original article at Company Insider
