Sanaa (South24) 

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Today, the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, based in North Yemen, officially announced its participation in the war against Israel.

The Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Sarea, declared in a statement that their forces had attacked Israel with missiles and drones this morning.

“Our forces launched a large batch of ballistic and winged missiles and drones at various Israeli targets,” he said.

Related: The Houthis claim missiles and drones launched towards Israel

“This is the third attack against the Israeli enemy that our forces carried out in response to the massacres in Gaza,” the spokesman added.

Related: A second failed Houthi attack on Israel 

Sarea said: “The Israeli crimes in Gaza, with American support, force us to [intervene] for Gaza (..) based on our religious duty.”

 

The Houthi spokesman warned of the expansion of the conflict in the region , stating that the continuation of Israeli military operations in Gaza, with American support, would lead to this expansion.

The IDF said on Tuesday that it had intercepted a ballistic missile and a number of cruise missiles in the Red Sea heading toward Israeli territory, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

The popular free-to-air channel reported that the surface-to-surface ballistic missile was intercepted by Israel’s long-range defense system, marking the first use of this system since the start of the current war.

According to the channel, the Israeli Air Force intercepted the other cruise missiles.

Last Friday, the Houthis launched an attack on Israel using two drones, with the first landing in the Taba region in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, and the other falling over the Gulf of Aqaba.

On October 19th, the U.S. Navy announced their interception of drones and three cruise missiles north of the Red Sea, which had been launched by the Houthi militia toward Israel.

Related: Washington accuses Houthis of regional escalation 

Houthi officials have held numerous meetings with representatives from Hamas and Palestinian factions in Sanaa over the past several days.

On Sunday, the Houthis announced the donation of 132 million Yemeni riyals worth of financial aid to the Palestinian factions, from one of their armed factions.

In 2014, the Houthis took control of Sanaa and its strategic weapons stores for the Yemeni army loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh.