Yemen drone attack wounds 22 in Israeli resort town: Army, rescuers
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Footage shared on social media showed a drone flying above the resort town before crashing with smoke rising from the impact area.
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- A drone from Yemen struck Eilat, Israel, on Sept 24 after air defences failed to intercept, injuring 22 people.
- The drone fell in Eilat's city centre, causing damage. Eilat's mayor called for retaliation against Yemen's Houthis.
- The Houthis have launched repeated attacks on Israel since the Gaza war began, claiming solidarity with Hamas.
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TEL AVIV - Israel’s military said a drone launched from Yemen struck the southern resort town of Eilat on Sept 24, with rescuers reporting nearly two dozen wounded.
A military statement said the drone “fell in the area of Eilat” on the Red Sea coast after air defences had failed to intercept it, in the second such incident within days.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said its teams had treated 22 casualties, including two men, aged 26 and 60, who were in serious condition with shrapnel wounds.
One person was moderately injured with a shrapnel wound to the back, and 19 others were in light condition suffering “from shrapnel and other injuries”, the medical service said.
Police said the drone fell in Eilat’s city centre, causing damage in the area frequented by tourists.
Footage shared on social media, which AFP could not independently verify, showed a drone flying above the resort town before crashing with smoke rising from the impact area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed similar attacks throughout the Gaza war since late 2023.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Eilat mayor Eli Lankri called on the government to “strike the Houthis hard” in retaliation for the drone attack. Mr Lankri added that repeated Houthi attacks have disrupted operations at the Eilat port.
The army earlier said air raid sirens rang throughout Eilat, a popular resort town at Israel’s southern tip near the Egyptian and Jordanian borders where Israeli authorities had reported a drone strike on Sept 18.
Yemen’s Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drone at Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, with the rebel group saying it was acting in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas whose October 2023 attack sparked the war.
In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military on Sept 24 pressed its assault on Gaza City, from where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee. AFP
