Houthi rebels in Yemen said Israeli airstrikes on Thursday targeted the rebel-held capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida, following several days of Houthi launches that set off sirens in Israel.
The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at Sana'a international airport and the ports of Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with 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 learned.”
The Iran-backed Houthi media outlet reported the attacks in a Telegram post but gave no immediate details. The US military has also attacked 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 children's playground in Tel Aviv. Last week, Israeli planes struck Sanaa and Hodeidah, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis have also been attacking shipping in 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 they were all militants posing as journalists.
The attack hit a car outside Al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists worked for local media outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.
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Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and participated in the October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel that ignited the conflict. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that the 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 burned shell of a pickup truck, with press marks visible on the rear doors. Sobbing young people attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds and had blue vests over them.
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 missions.
Israel banned the pan-Arab network Al Jazeera and accused six of its reporters in Gaza of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage of the conflict, which has largely focused on civilian casualties of Israeli military operations.
Separately, Israel's military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza 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 in an attack on nearby military bases and farming communities. They killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250. About 100 hostages remain inside Gaza, and at least a third are believed dead.
Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half of the deaths have been women and children, but does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
Also on Thursday, people mourned the deaths of eight Palestinians during 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 was aware of uninvolved civilians who were wounded in the attack.
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