The Egyptian air force has shot down a drone off the Sinai Peninsula down the coast from the Israeli border, state-linked media reports.

According to AFP, witnesses said they had seen a second flying object crash on land further up the coast.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they had fired multiple drones at southern Israel.

A Houthi spokesman said on X, formerly Twitter, that the operation, targeting “sensitive” sites inside Israel, was part of the rebels’ campaign to pressure Israel to halt its “aggression” in Gaza.

Egyptian television channel Al-Qahera reported “the crash of an unidentified flying object in Egyptian territorial waters near the city of Dahab”.

It quoted witnesses as saying “air defences detected the flying object and dealt with it immediately.” A source in the security services told AFP that it was a drone of which “the origin is still unknown”.