Drone blasts hit two Egyptian Red Sea towns

CAIRO/JERUSALEM - Drones caused explosions that rocked two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea on Friday, the Egyptian army said, while Israel said Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike Israel.

The explosions injured six people and illustrated the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Gaza conflict. There was no claim of responsibility.

Israel's foreign ministry said the Iran-backed Houthi launched drones and missiles "with the intention of harming Israel."

Egypt's military spokesman Colonel Gharib Abdel-Hafez said two drones were fired from the southern Red Sea aiming north. Yemen is at the south end of the sea and Israel at the north.

One drone crashed into a building adjacent to a hospital in the Egyptian town of Taba on the border with Israel, injuring six, in the early hours of Friday, Egypt's military said.

The second drone was downed outside Egyptian airspace on Friday morning, and the debris fell in a desert area of Nuweiba town, about 70 km (43 miles) from the Israeli border, Egypt said.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that combat helicopters had been scrambled when "an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region".

"To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat," he added in a televised briefing before Israel's foreign ministry attributed the drones to the Houthi.

Witnesses in Taba and Nuweiba, popular tourist destinations on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, said they heard explosions and saw smoke as well as Egyptian warplanes flying overhead.

Egypt exposed

"The air force and air defence force are intensifying efforts to secure Egyptian airspace on all strategic directions," the Egyptian military said.

The Israeli spokesman said, "Israel will work with Egypt, and the United States, and bolster regional defences against threats from the Red Sea region."

The US said last week a Navy warship in the Red Sea intercepted projectiles launched by the Houthi, potentially toward Israel.

Bordering both Gaza and Israel, Egypt is exposed to the conflict that blew up after Hamas' October 7 assault on Israel and the subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Cairo has been prominently advocating for aid flows into Gaza, the release of Hamas' hostages and a ceasefire.

On Wednesday, Hamas said it had targeted the Israeli town of Eilat, across the border from Taba, with a missile in what appeared to be the Islamist group's longest-range Palestinian attack since October 7.