Israel has struck multiple targets in Yemen it said were controlled by Houthis, the last of the Iran-backed groups still fully engaged in the regional war that began 14 months ago.
Targets hit on Thursday included military infrastructure at the Sanaa International Airport and in the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
They also struck military infrastructure in the Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the western coast. At least three deaths were reported, according to the Houthi-operated Al-Masirah TV.
“We are determined to cut off this terrorist arm of Iran’s evil axis,” said Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. “We will persist in this until we complete the task.”
From liberal icon to Maga joke: the waning fortunes of Justin Trudeau
‘I’ll never forget the trail of bodies’: Magdeburg witnesses recount Christmas market attack
‘We need Macron to act.’ The view in Mayotte, the French island territory steamrolled by cyclone Chido
Gisèle Pelicot has rewritten her story – and electrified women all over the world. But what about men?
It was a rebuff to efforts by the Houthis to slowly escalate their attack on Israel to avoid full-out retaliation. Israelis viewed the nature of the attacks — mostly in the early hours of the night over the past week — as evidence that the rebel group was trying to inflict fatigue while keeping a cap on the confrontation.
With Hamas on the ropes after losing much of its forces in Gaza since it began the conflict in October 2023 and Hizbullah in an official truce, Houthis are the only group shelling Israel, although from some 2,000km away.
“We are witnessing escalation management by the Houthis,” said Uzi Rubin, an architect of Israel’s air defences and veteran defence ministry adviser. “They vowed to attack Tel Aviv because we attacked Sanaa, but they are not yet ready to inflict major civilian casualties. Pre-dawn strikes mean people aren’t out and about.”
In response to earlier attacks, Israel twice bombed the Hodeidah port, a key source of income and a conduit for imported goods for Houthis. It has also threatened to attack Houthi leaders. The US and UK have also attacked the militia.
The equilibrium the Houthis sought proved difficult to maintain. Of four ballistic missiles launched at Tel Aviv over the last week, Israel said it shot down three, but one exploded in a vacant playground, shattering the windows of homes and injuring three people.
The Israelis creating grandchildren from their dead sons' sperm
In statements on the launches, Houthis have pledged to keep battling Israel until an end to the war in Gaza, which began last year following surprise raids by Hamas into southern Israel. Houthis, like other Tehran-backed groups Hamas and Hizbullah, are designated as terrorists by the United States.
They have attacked countless ships in the Red Sea and Israel’s port of Eilat in solidarity with Hamas over the past 14 months. In recent strikes, Houthis claimed to be aiming for military installations in Tel Aviv — a relatively new target for the group.
In Gaza, authorities said an Israeli air strike killed five Palestinian journalists in a vehicle outside a hospital on Thursday but the Israeli army said the victims were Islamic Jihad militants posing as media workers.
Medics said the five were among at least 26 people killed in Israeli air assaults across the Palestinian enclave before dawn as Hamas and Israel traded blame over delays in reaching a ceasefire deal after more than 14 months of fighting.
The Palestinian Journalists Union said one strike killed five journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel who were in a broadcast vehicle in front of Al-Awda Hospital in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The union said more than 190 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began in October 2023.
The Gaza-based channel called the strike a massacre and said in a statement on Telegram the five “were killed as they carried out their media and humanitarian duty”. It has regularly featured Islamic Jihad leaders and provided day-to-day coverage of the war in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it “conducted a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat”.
Later, it issued a statement listing the names of the five TV crewmen and saying: “Intelligence from multiple sources confirmed that these individuals were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists.” — Bloomberg/Reuters