Tel Aviv, December 27 (RHC)-- Air raid sirens have sounded over a large part of the Israeli occupied territories following a missile attack from Yemen which targeted Tel Aviv early Friday, which caused Ben Gurion airport to shut down.

Israel’s emergency services reported that 18 settlers were injured in Tel Aviv while attempting to reach the safety of shelters.  Videos shared online showed Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system failing, as it attempted to intercept the incoming projectile.

The missile strike reportedly forced half of the occupied territories into lockdown, with Israeli outlets describing the incident as a failure of the regime’s defensive measures.

In a statement, the Yemeni armed forces said they "carried out a specific military operation targeting Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied  area of Yaffa [Tel Aviv] using a hypersonic ballistic missile of Palestine2 type".

"The missile succeeded in reaching its target despite the enemy's censorship, and the operation resulted in casualties and the cessation of navigation at the airport," it said.

Yemeni forces also carried out an operation targeting "a vital target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa with a drone, and the operation achieved its goal successfully" it added.

"The UAV force also carried out a military operation targeting the ship (Santa Ursula) in the Arabian Sea east of Socotra Island with a number of drones, and the hit was direct."  The ship, it said, was targeted "owing to the violation of ban decision of entry to the ports of occupied Palestine [Israel] by the company that owns the ship."

It came hours after Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes on Yemen’s capital Sana'a, and the port city of Hudaydah.

Israeli airstrikes hit Sana’a international airport and other locations in Yemen on Thursday.   Reports said the airport was struck by “more than six” attacks with raids also targeting the adjacent al-Dailami air base.

A series of strikes were also carried out against a power station in Yemen’s strategic western port city of Hudaydah, the al-Masirah television channel reported.

The spokesman for Yemen's Ansarullah movement, Mohammed Abdulsalam, called the strikes “a Zionist crime against all the Yemeni people.”

On Wednesday, a missile launched from Yemen triggered air raid sirens across central Israeli-occupied territories, sending millions of settlers looking for cover for the second night in a row.

Military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the new operation involved a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile and struck an Israeli military target in Tel Aviv.  It was the fourth time in a week that fire from Yemen set off sirens in Israeli settlements.

On Saturday, 16 people were injured when a missile hit Tel Aviv after Israel’s much-hyped air defense system failed to intercept it.

Israeli occupation since the regime launched its devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, which has so far killed at least 45,361 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Ansarullah has been also targeting ships linked to Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom to force an end to the Tel Aviv regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they will not stop their attacks until Israel’s ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.