ANKARA

Yemen’s Houthi group claimed Sunday to have struck a military target in Jaffa, central Israel with a new “hypersonic” ballistic missile.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the missile traveled a distance of 2,040 kilometers (1,260 miles) and successfully hit its target, with Israeli air defenses failing to intercept it.

"Geographical obstacles, US-UK aggression, and espionage and interception systems will not prevent Yemen from supporting Palestine,” he added.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Houthi claim, but earlier the Israeli air force reportedly said it would investigate how the missile managed to travel so far without being intercepted.

The attack came hours after at least nine people were injured after a ballistic missile from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv early Sunday.

According to Haaretz daily, the debris from the interceptor missiles fell on a train station on the outskirts of Modi'in in central Israel, causing damage. A fire also broke out in an open area in Kfar Daniel in central Israel due to additional falling debris.

Yemen’s Houthi group has been targeting ships that are Israeli-owned, flagged, operated, or heading to Israeli ports in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones in solidarity with Gaza, which has been under a devastating Israeli onslaught since last Oct. 7.

With the US and UK launching retaliatory airstrikes against Houthi sites inside Yemen, the Houthis declared that they consider all American and British ships military targets.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi