Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Houthi militias on Thursday that they “will pay a heavy price” after Israel launched strikes in Yemen in response to a missile attack from the armed group.

The Iran-backed Houthis - who have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023, in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war with Hamas - said they had attacked Tel Aviv overnight, launching two ballistic missiles and hitting "precise military targets.”

As Israeli jets were in the air, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile headed towards central Israel which destroyed a school building in Ramat Efal in the western part of Tel Aviv with what a military spokesperson described as falling shrapnel.

“After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are nearly the last remaining arm of Iran's axis of evil. They are learning and they will learn the hard way, that whoever harms Israel - pays a very heavy price for it,” Netanyahu warned.

Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah are also allies of Iran.

The Israeli attack in Yemen, involving 14 fighter jets and other aircraft, came in two waves, with a first series of strikes on the ports of Salif and Ras Issa and a second series hitting the capital Sanaa, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

"We made extensive preparations for these operations with efforts to refine our intelligence and to optimize the strikes," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that Israel’s “long hand” will reach the Houthi leaders.