A rocket fired from Yemen hit a range of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people injured by broken glass, Israel's military said on Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have been launching missiles in coordination with Palestinian in Gaza.
Another 14 people were slightly injured as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before dawn on Saturday, the military said.
The Houthis released a statement on Telegram saying they were aiming a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify.
“A flash of light, a bang and we fell to the ground. Big bang, broken glass all over the place,” said Bar Katz, a resident of a damaged building.
Tomer Appelbaum / AP
The attack came after Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's Houthi capital, Sanaa, and the port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people on Thursday. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi long-range missile that hit a school building in Israel. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.
Israel's military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and say they will not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel's strikes on Thursday caused “massive damage” to Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports that will lead to an “immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port of Hodeida has been important for food shipments into Yemen during the decade-long civil war.
The Secretary-General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, said that the attacks on both sides are at risk of further escalation in the region.
Israeli strikes in Gaza are claiming more lives
Mourners in Gaza held funerals for 19 people – 12 of them children – killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.
One strike hit a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and injuring 16 others, health officials said.
In Gaza City, a strike on a house killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.
One man cradled a tiny, wrapped body as mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City. Women comforted each other as they wept.
In total, the Gaza Ministry of Health said that 21 people were killed over the past 24 hours.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
More than 45,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed around 1,200 people and sparked the 14-month war. The Ministry of Health does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but has said that more than half of the deaths are women and children.
Israel faces strong international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian deaths in Gaza. He says he only targets terrorists and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.
Gaza's Ministry of Health issued an urgent appeal for medical and food supplies to be delivered to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in largely isolated northern Gaza, while the hospital's director said the situation was terrible, as the Israeli military presses its latest offensive.
The ministry reported continued Israeli gunfire and shelling near the hospital, saying “shells have hit the third floor and entrances of the hospital, creating a panic situation. “
Hospital director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said there was a “severe shortage” at the facility and said requests for essential medical supplies and ways to maintain oxygen, water and electricity systems “have gone largely unfulfilled.” “
He said that 72 injured people were being treated in the hospital.
“Food is very scarce, and we cannot feed the wounded,” said Safiyeh. “We are urgently asking anyone who can provide supplies to help us.”
Aid groups have said that Israeli military operations and armed groups have hampered their ability to distribute aid.
Israel's military agency that deals with humanitarian issues for Gaza said on Saturday that it had led an operation delivering thousands of packages of food, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north. They said trucks belonging to the UN World Food Program transported them to distribution centers in the area on Friday.
Iran said on Saturday that unknown gunmen had killed a local employee of the Iranian embassy in Syria, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Their report said that foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said that “terrorists” opened fire on Davood Bitaraf's car last Sunday. He did not say what he did with the embassy.
Baghaei said that Iran is considering an interim Syrian government responsible for finding and prosecuting those behind the assassination. Iran had been a key ally of recently ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
