Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu says Israel will ‘exact heavy price’ for Houthi attack

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a surface-to-surface ballistic missile that landed a few miles south-east of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned the group it would pay a “heavy price”.

The missile triggered air sirens across the country at about 6.30am, with local media airing footage of people racing to shelters at the international airport. According to reports, the missile hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, sparking a fire near Kfar Daniel. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

The Israeli military is investigating if the fire was the result of falling fragments due to the interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if the rocket had actually penetrated Israeli air defences as the Houthis have claimed, saying the group had used a hypersonic missile for the first time. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they made several attempts to intercept the missile using their multi-tiered air defences but had not yet determined whether any had been successful.

“An initial inquiry indicates the missile most likely fragmented in mid-air,” the IDF said, with “several interception attempts made by the Arrow and Iron Dome aerial defence systems”. It added that “the entire incident is under review”.

Lorenzo Tondo

Israel is allegedly recruiting asylum seekers from Africa to take part in military operations in Gaza in exchange for residency rights, according to an investigation by Israel’s daily newspaper Haaretz.

According to the report, based on testimonies of asylum seekers and defence officials, speaking off-the-record, Israel’s defence establishment is “offering African asylum seekers who contribute to the war effort in Gaza assistance in obtaining permanent status in Israel”.

Haaretz reported that the programme was being carried out in an “organised manner” under the supervision of “defence establishment” legal advisers.

Sources who spoke with Haaretz said: “While there were some inquiries about granting status to asylum seekers who assisted in the fighting, none were actually given status. At the same time, the defence establishment sought to provide status to others who contributed to combat efforts.”

Contacted by the Guardian, the IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment, citing it is still reviewing and “checking” the allegations.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office said Sunday.

It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address.

• A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children.

• A missile fired at central Israel from Yemen hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports. Moments earlier, air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, sending residents running for shelter. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said.

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Houthis in Yemen should have known that Israel would exact a heavy price after an attack on Israeli soil. At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel “will not continue,” and that he was determined to do everything possible to return northern evacuees to their homes.

• Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday. “It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history,” the military spokesperson for the Houthis said in a statement.

• Hezbollah’s second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more, AFP reports. Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front.

• At least 41,206 Palestinians have been killed and 95,337 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday.

• Thousands of people again took to the streets of Israel’s main cities on Saturday in a bid to increase pressure on the government to secure the release of hostages in Gaza, AFP reports. Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli government, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining hostages.

• Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case.

• Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.

• Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.

• At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count.

• The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governantes, the humanitarian organisation shared on X.

• Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to.

• A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Houthis in Yemen should have known that Israel would exact a heavy price after an attack on Israeli soil.

At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel “will not continue,” and that he was determined to do everything possible to return northern evacuees to their homes.

Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday.

“It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history,” the military spokesperson for the Houthis said in a statement.

A missile fired at central Israel from Yemen hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Moments earlier, air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, sending residents running for shelter.

“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said.

Loud booms were also heard in the region, which the military said came from missile interceptors that had been launched. It added that its protective guidelines to Israel’s residents were unchanged.

Smoke could be seen billowing in an open field in central Israel, according to a Reuters witness, though it was unclear if the fire was started by the missile or debris of an interceptor.

A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away.

Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children.

The war in Gaza has overshadowed spiralling conflict in the West Bank, which has seen weeks of Israeli military operations and violence has reached “unprecedented levels, placing communities at risk,” Unrwa said.

For more on this story:

Welcome back to our live coverage on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Tom Ambrose.

The UN says a sniper killed one of its employees on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade.

Meanwhile, a missile fired at central Israel from Yemen has hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports.

More details on those stories shortly, in other recent developments:

• Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case.

• Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike.

• Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added.

• At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count.

• The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governantes, the humanitarian organisation shared on X.

• Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to.

• A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.