• Earlier in December, Egyptian air defenses shot down a suspected drone near Dahab

CAIRO: Explosions were heard off the coast of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, state-linked media said, with witnesses reporting that they saw something fall into the Gulf of Aqaba.

Al Qahera News television, which has links to state intelligence, said the blasts occurred about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Egyptian seaside town of Dahab.

“We heard a loud explosion coming from the direction of the sea, and then we saw a strange object falling into the water,” an eyewitness told AFP.

No casualties have been reported.

Dahab lies around 125 kilometers (75 miles) south of Eilat on the southern tip of Israel, which has been waging a deadly war with Hamas militants in Gaza for more than 11 weeks.

Flying objects have been repeatedly downed near south Sinai, with the Egyptian military at times pointing to “drones coming from the south of the Red Sea.”

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched a flurry of attempted drone and missile attacks toward Israel since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

Most have failed to reach their targets and are often intercepted.

The Houthis say the strikes are in solidarity with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the health ministry says more than 20,900 people have been killed in the conflict.

Israel declared war on Hamas after militants from the Palestinian Islamist group streamed across Gaza’s border with Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israel figures.

In late October, six people were wounded in Egypt when two drones came down in Taba, which borders Israel.

The Egyptian air force earlier this month shot down a drone that had been detected over Egypt’s territorial waters, also near Dahab, though a security source said the origin of the drone was “unknown.”

AFP