The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Israel, their first since the war in the Middle East started.

Brigadier-General Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued the claim in a statement aired Saturday morning by the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television.

Attacks “will continue until the declared objectives are achieved, as stated in the previous statement by the Armed Forces, and until the aggression against all fronts of the resistance ceases”, Saree said.

The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile.

The attack came hours after Saree signaled in a vague statement Friday that the rebels would join the war that shocked the region and rattled the global economy.

He said the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.