IDF deploys air defences near Eilat in Israel’s south amid threats of attack from Yemen

The Israeli military has deployed air defence batteries around the southern city of Eilat in recent days amid concerns of an attack from the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.

The move came around the first anniversary of the United States killing of Qassem Soleimani, the influential head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ expeditionary Quds Force, in an airstrike in Iraq and a month and a half after Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Iran’s military nuclear program, was killed, allegedly by Israel.

אי שם היום בדרום הרחוק: מערך ההגנה האווירית של חיל האוויר מתגבר כוננות והיערכות באיזור אילת ובמקומות נוספים בדרום הרחוק בעקבות האיומים האיראניים לנקמה סביב יום השנה לחיסולו של קאסם סולימאני, כאשר הרמטכל אביב כוכבי דיבר באחרונה על המאמץ האיראני להתבסס גם בתימן. pic.twitter.com/hvcoae1p1d

— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) January 6, 2021

Iran has indicated plans to exact revenge for these two high profile killings. The Israeli military assessed that such retaliation was likely to come from an Iranian proxy, potentially from the Houthis, a Yemeni group that has conducted a number of attacks over the years against Tehran’s other rival in the region, Saudi Arabia.

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