The United Arab Emirates said on Monday it had intercepted a ballistic missile that was fired by Yemen's Houthi as the Gulf state hosted Israel's President Isaac Herzog in a first such visit.

The Emirati defense ministry said the missile was intercepted and destroyed, adding that its debris fell on an uninhabited area. It did not say whether the missile was targeting the UAE's capital Abu Dhabi or Dubai, the Middle East's business and tourism hub.

The UAE civil aviation authority said air traffic in the Gulf country was going as usual and all flights operations were operating normally despite the attack, the state news agency (WAM) reported.

The incident on Monday marks the third attack on the Emirates this month, with three foreign workers killed in the first assault on January 17 and the second a week later that was intercepted.

It also coincides with the Israeli President Isaac Herzog's first official visit to the UAE after the two countries normalized relations in 2020.
However, a statement from his office on Monday said that he will "continue his visit as planned."

The Iran-backed Houthi have yet to comment on Monday's attack but said they will release a statement "in the coming hours" about an operation in the UAE.

The Houthi attacks are in response to a series of rebel defeats on the ground in Yemen inflicted by a UAE-trained militia. The UAE is part of a Saudi-led military coalition that supports Yemen's government against the Iran-backed Houthi.

In 2019, the UAE withdrew its troops from Yemen but remains an influential player.

Yemen's civil war began in 2014 when the Houthi seized the capital Sanaa, prompting Saudi-led forces to intervene to prop up the government the following year.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people directly or indirectly and left millions on the brink of famine, according to the UN, which calls it the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe.

(Cover image: A Yemeni fighter mans a position near the village of Jafra on the outskirts of Marib, Yemen, January 26, 2022. /CFP )

(With input from AFP)