Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed a missile launch toward Israel early Saturday, their first since the war in the Middle East started.
The Israeli military said it intercepted the projectile.
The war, now marking its one-month anniversary, erupted after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, which retaliated with strikes against Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states.
The conflict has upended global air travel, disrupted oil exports and caused fuel prices to soar.
Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway, has also exacerbated the economic fallout of the war.
Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities hours after threatening to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran on Friday.
Iran vowed to retaliate and struck a base in Saudi Arabia, wounding more than a dozen US service members and damaging planes.
Before Saturday’s attack, there appeared to be a breakthrough as Tehran agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the strait.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, claimed responsibility in a statement aired Saturday morning on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television.
He said the Houthis fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
The attack came hours after Saree signaled in a vague statement Friday that the rebels would join the war.
Sirens went off around Israel’s southern city of Beer Sheba and the area near Israel’s main nuclear research center as Iran and Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel overnight. Loud explosions also filled the air in Tel Aviv and Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said it was responding to 11 different impact sites across the metro area.
