Israel claims to have intercepted projectile from Yemen as firefighters battle blazes – Middle East crisis live

Israel claims to have intercepted projectile from Yemen, fires reported from debris

Israeli firefighters were battling blazes Monday west of Jerusalem, with the army saying the fires were sparked by debris from an intercepted missile fired from Yemen, AFP reports.

Firefighters were working to douse the blazes, conducting scans around Beit Shemesh to rule out more fires and “damage from interceptor/missile shrapnel”, the Jerusalem region fire service said.

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the IDF said:

Following the sirens that sounded in the Shfelat Yehuda, Yehuda, and Lakhish areas of central Israel, the IAF intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen. The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory. Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol.

Asked directly about the incident by AFP, the Israeli military said the interception of a projectile from Yemen caused fires in the Bet Shemesh area resulting from debris from that interception.

In a separate development, Reuters reports Al-Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi movement, said early on Monday that a series of airstrikes targeted the Amran and Saada governorates, which they claim were carried out by the US and Britain.

Key events

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reports five people have been injured, including a child, by Israeli fire during a raid on the Jalazone refugee camp north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Taiwan prosecutors close probe into pager explosions in Lebanon

Taiwan on Monday said it had closed its probe into pagers that exploded in Lebanon in September, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved.

Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has asserted that it did not make them. Taiwan’s government has also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan.

“There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, violating the counter-terrorism financing act, or engaging in other illegal activities,” Reuters reports the prosecutors said in a statement.

“No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity, following a comprehensive investigation.”

The series of explosions, which killed dozens of people and injured thousands more in both Lebanon and Syria, have been widely ascribed to an Israeli intelligence operation against Hezbollah, although Israel has not formally claimed responsibility.

Israel’s Channel 13 has this image of firefighters attending a small blaze caused by falling debris in Western Galilee after Israel’s military intercepted a projectile.

Israel’s military reports that warning sirens have sounded in Avivim, northern Israel.

Avivim is a moshav adjacent to the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon, and it has been repeatedly targeted by rocket fire from inside Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to flee their homes in the north of the country due to the near constant rocket barrages by Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has set their ability to peacefully return to their homes as one of its war aims.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports Israeli planes carried out airstrikes again overnight on locations in the south of the country. There are, as yet, no reports of any casualties.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel.

Trucks with humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip queue at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

Forklift vehicles travel towards the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

At least three killed in central Gaza by Israeli airstrike on tent shelter

Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least three people, including the parents of twins, reports Associated Press.

The strike late Sunday in the Nuseirat refugee camp wounded the two children, aged 10, who were being treated for serious injuries at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.

The details of the casualties were listed in hospital records and an Associated Press reporter saw two of the bodies.

Reuters has a quick snap that Yemen’s Houthis, via a spokesperson, have claimed responsibility for firing missiles which they say were aimed at an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv.

Israel’s military reports on its official Telegram channel that overnight it “successfully intercepted four UAVs that approached Israel from the east.”

When IDF statements say generically “from the east” they usually mean from the direction of Iraq.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports more arrests overnight made by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It reports a young man was arrested in Shuafat refugee camp, in East Jerusalem, after forces raided his home.

In addition, during an Israeli raid on the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramalla, one man was injured by fire from Israeli security forces, and two people were detained.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in Gaza, writes for the network that a journalist and his wife were killed in overnight Israeli attacks on their tents in Gaza.

He writes:

They had set the tents up seeking protection from the unpredictable Israeli bombs after their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp was destroyed a few months ago. This particular area of the northern Nuseirat refugee camp is very close to the edge of the Netzarim Junction. The Israeli army has a very strong and visible presence there. That area has been relentlessly attacked, and people there are exposed to daily terror, from the heavy machineguns, the quadcopters and the drones that are hovering at a very low level.

Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Outgoing US president Joe Biden is due to meet with Israel’s president Isaac Herzog on Tuesday, according to a report from Reuters. The meeting comes as a deadline set by the US for improved delivery of humanitarian aid to the beseiged northern part of the Gaza Strip comes closer to expiry.