The Israeli Air Force is investigating why air defense systems failed to intercept the Houthi missile launched at Israel on Friday night, including the possibility that the missile contained cluster munitions.

Iran fired several cluster munitions, which fire smaller explosives over a wide area, during Operation Rising Lion.

Initial reports said that the missile disintegrated in midair over Israel, and several interceptors launched at the fragments failed to intercept them, including Israel’s Arrow, David’s Sling, and Iron Dome systems and the American THAAD system.

One of the fragments exploded in the yard of a home in the Ginaton moshav, near Ben-Gurion Airport. B’Chasdei Hashem, the homeowner had entered her bomb shelter and was not injured, but her home sustained light damage.

Shortly after the attack, a senior Houthi official published a video saying that “this is a historic moment in which a Yemeni missile split up into several missiles over Israel.”

A Houthi spokesperson later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that the terror group launched a Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missile at Ben-Gurion Airport and claimed that the missile can travel at 16 times the speed of sound and has stealth technology to evade radar.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)