ISTANBUL 

At least 50 people were injured Wednesday when a drone launched from Yemen hit a tourism center in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, medics said.

Israel’s national ambulance service MDA said the injured included three people who sustained serious injuries.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the drone struck near the Mall Hayam shopping center, a busy tourism hub in the Red Sea city.

The Israeli army confirmed that the drone had been fired from Yemen and fell in Eilat despite interception attempts.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, for his part, confirmed the attack, saying his group carried out “a qualitative military operation using two drones.”

He said the drones targeted two Israeli sites in Eilat and “successfully hit their targets.”

Last week, Israeli warplanes launched a new wave of airstrikes targeting Houthi sites in the coastal city of Al Hudaydah.

An Israeli strike in the Yemeni capital Sanaa last month killed 12 top Houthi officials, including Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi, and nine other ministers.

The Houthis and Israel have exchanged attacks in the past months amid rising tension over Tel Aviv’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, where more than 65,400 people have been killed since October 2023.