Houthi rebels in Yemen said Israeli airstrikes targeted the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida on Thursday, after several days of Houthi rocket fires setting off sirens in Israel.
The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Israeli army Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and in the ports of Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib as well as power plants. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech on Wednesday that “the Houthis will also learn what Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad’s regime and others have learned.”
Iran-backed Houthis media reported the attacks in a Telegram post but did not provide immediate details. The US military has also targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days. The United Nations has noted that the ports are important access points for humanitarian assistance.
Over the weekend, 16 people were injured when a Houthi rocket hit a playground in Tel Aviv. Last week, Israeli warplanes attacked Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people. This is a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis have also targeted shipping in the Red Sea corridor, calling them solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, an Israeli attack killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the territory’s health ministry said. The Israeli military said they were all militants posing as reporters.
The attack hit a car in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists worked for local news agency Al-Quds Today, a television channel linked to the militant group Islamic Jihad.
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Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel that sparked the conflict. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad militants found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were linked to the group.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups engage in political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.
Associated press footage showed the burnt shell of a van with press marks visible on the rear doors. Weeping young men attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds and blue press vests were draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the conflict began. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except in military camps.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab network Al Jazeera and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage of the conflict, which focuses heavily on civilian casualties in Israeli military operations.
Separately, the Israeli military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed in fighting in the central Gaza Strip early Thursday. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground operation began more than a year ago.
The conflict began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border and attacked nearby army bases and farming communities. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages are still in the Gaza Strip, and at least a third are believed to be dead.
According to the Health Ministry, more than 45,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli air and ground offensive. It says more than half of the fatalities were women and children, but it does not say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and forced around 90% of the 2.3 million residents from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps along the coast, offering little protection from the cold, wet winter.
People mourned on Thursday eight Palestinians killed in Israeli military operations in and around the town of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers and that it knew innocent civilians were injured in the attack.
&Copy 2024 The Canadian Press
