The United Arab Emirates said on Monday it had intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi as the Gulf state hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the first such visit.
The Emirati Defense Ministry said the missile was intercepted and destroyed, adding that its debris fell in an uninhabited area. It did not say whether the missile was targeting Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, or Dubai, the Middle East’s trade and tourism hub.
The UAE Civil Aviation Authority said air traffic in the Gulf country was operating as usual and all flights were operating normally despite the attack, the state news agency (WAM) reported.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen in a seven-year-old conflict that has killed thousands and pushed the poor country to the brink of starvation.
Yemen’s Houthi military spokesman said on Twitter late Sunday that the group would disclose within hours about a new military operation inside the United Arab Emirates. He did not provide any other details.
The Houthis launched a deadly attack on Abu Dhabi on January 17 and a second failed missile attack on Monday, when UAE-backed Yemeni militias intervened where the Houthis had infiltrated last year.
The UAE’s Defense Ministry said coalition warplanes destroyed missile launchers based in Yemen.
Last week, the Gulf state’s public prosecutor said it had called on several people to share videos showing defense systems preventing a previous missile attack by the Houthis. There were no social media posts on this interception.
Monday’s attack came as Herzog discussed security and bilateral ties with the de facto ruler of the UAE, Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi.
Herzog spent the night in Abu Dhabi, an Israeli official told Reuters. His office said he would continue his UAE visit despite the Houthi attack.
The United Arab Emirates, along with Bahrain, signed US-brokered normalization agreements with Israel in 2020, dubbed the “Abraham Agreement”.
The UAE has significantly reduced its military presence in Yemen since 2019, but it still dominates through the large local forces it has created and armed.
The war in Yemen has escalated dramatically over the past months as the coalition intensified airstrikes on Yemeni cities, and the Houthis intensified cross-border attacks.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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