Houthi rebels in Yemen said Israeli airstrikes targeted the capital Sanaa and the rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Thursday, after several days of Houthi fire triggering sirens in Israel.
The Israeli army said it attacked infrastructure used by the Israeli army. Houthis at Sanaa International Airport and the ports of Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib as well as power plants. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Wednesday that “the Houthis will also learn what Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime and others have learned.”
The Iran-backed Houthi media outlet reported the strikes in a Telegram post but gave no immediate details. The US military has also targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days. The United Nations has noted that ports are important gateways for humanitarian aid.
Over the weekend, 16 people were injured when a Houthi missile hit a playground in Tel Aviv. Last week, Israeli planes struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also target shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the territory’s health ministry said. The Israeli military said all were activists posing as journalists.
The strike hit a car in front of Al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists worked for the local newspaper Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.
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Islamic Jihad is a smaller, more extremist ally of Hamas and participated 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 members found by soldiers in Gaza, confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups conduct political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.
Associated Press images showed the incinerated shell of a pickup truck, with press marks visible on the rear doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds and covered with blue press vests.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the conflict. Israel has not allowed foreign journalists to enter Gaza except on military assignment.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab network Al Jazeera and accused six of its journalists in Gaza of being militants. The Qatar-based channel denies the allegations and accuses Israel of attempting to silence its coverage of the conflict, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties of Israeli military operations.
Separately, the Israeli army said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed Thursday morning during fighting in central Gaza. 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 crossed the border attacking nearby military bases and farming communities. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250. Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to have died.
The Israeli air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half of the victims are women and children, but does not specify how many fighters died. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive caused massive destruction and drove around 90% of the 2.3 million inhabitants from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold and wet of winter.
Also on Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed Tuesday by Israeli military operations in and around the town of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers and that it knew uninvolved civilians were injured in the raid.
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