Credit: X/ @ItalyBlumental
A US missile interception system was used in Israel on Friday for the first time since the Oct 7 attack.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as THAAD, was deployed to intercept a projectile from Yemen on Friday morning, sources told the Reuters news agency.
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including Sanaa International Airport, with Houthi media claiming that at least six people were killed.
Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
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One such strike prompted the deployment of the THAAD battery on Friday, which was operated by US troops in Israel.
Joe Biden’s decision to station the THAAD in Israel in late October came in response to an Iranian strike on Oct 1.
The decision marked a significant escalation of US support for Israel, and the first deployment of standing US troops on the ground since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began a year earlier.
THAAD is a critical part of the US military’s layered air-defense systems and added to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defenses.
The battery is operated from the ground, and uses radar detectors to identify an incoming ballistic missile, before launching a projectile to neutralise it before it reaches its target.
The “kill vehicle” launched from the battery is a kinetic weapon with no warhead, and can travel at more than 6,000mph with a range of 120 miles.
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After the Israeli airstrikes on Yemen, Julien Harneis, the top UN aid official in the country, said hitting the civilian Sanaa Airport could “paralyse humanitarian operations”.
“Parties to the conflict have an obligation to ensure that they are not striking a civilian target,” he told reporters.
“We don’t need to prove we’re civilians. They need to prove that they are hitting a military target. Sanaa Airport has not been a military target since 2016.”
The UN says more than half Yemen’s population – some 18 million people – need humanitarian help.
The country’s Houthi rebels, however, have consistently engaged in an exchange of fire with Israel and the US, including in the Bab al-Mandab Strait between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea – a major shipping route.
The Royal Navy has been deployed with US and French forces in the region on several occasions since Oct 7 to combat Houthi strikes.
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