Yemen's Houthi rebels fire 'Palestine' missile at Israel that resembles Iran's hypersonic weapon, report says

• Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a solid-fuel missile, the “Palestine,” in Eilat, Israel, AP reported.

• The missile resembles Iran's Fattah missile which can reach hypersonic speeds.

• The Houthis say the missile is “locally manufactured,” according to the AP, although defense experts doubt this.

Yemen's Houthi rebels announced they had fired a new solid-fuel missile called “Palestine” on Monday at the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

The missile would be capable of flying at hypersonic speeds and would resemble one unveiled by Iran earlier this year, the Associated Press reported.

The attack did not result in any damage or injuries, according to AP.

Images released Wednesday appear to show a missile, which the Houthis claim is Palestinian, with a warhead painted in the style of the Palestinian keffiyeh, raised into a firing position and then launched.

Pro-Palestinian supporters around the world have taken to wearing the checkered keffiyeh as a sign of solidarity with the struggling population of Gaza. The enclave has been subject to an Israeli military campaign for eight months that has killed more than 36,000 people, according to Hamas-led health authorities. It was sparked by the October 7 terrorist attacks in southern Israel by Hamas, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Most Houthi attacks have targeted ships in the Red Sea corridor with missiles and drones as part of a campaign to pressure Israel and the West over the war in Gaza. Strikes in the United States and the United Kingdom have raised the stakes in recent months.

The Israeli port city of Eilat, located on the Gulf of Aqaba, whose waters flow into the Red Sea, has been targeted 53 times since October 7, according to the US Congressional Research Service, according to the Jerusalem Post.

According to the Arms Control Association, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, solid-fueled missiles “require less maintenance and preparation time” than liquid-fueled missiles because “solid-fueled missiles together contain the fuel and oxidizer, while liquid-fueled missiles must keep the two separate until just before deployment.

The Houthis say the missile is “locally manufactured,” according to the AP, although they are unlikely to be able to build this level of advanced weapon, according to defense experts.

Fabian Hinz, a weapons expert at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote on X that the Palestine missile reassembled the Iranian-developed Fattah 1 and Kheybarshekan 2, both solid-fuel missiles.

Iran unveiled Fattah last year. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed the missile could reach speeds of Mach 15, or 15 times the speed of sound, and had a range of 870 miles.

Missiles that travel at more than five times the speed of sound are considered “hypersonic.” According to a British government research report, the speed, maneuverability and altitude of hypersonic missiles “could challenge existing missile defenses.”

“So far, the ballistic missiles used by the Houthis against Israel all appear to be less advanced liquid-propellant missiles, without terminal guidance,” Hinz wrote about X.

“While we cannot say with certainty which exact version 'Palestine' is, we can say with great certainty that it is an advanced, precision-guided solid-propellant missile developed by the IRGC and provided by Iran,” the expert said.

Read the original article on Business Insider