Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a missile at Israel early Friday, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s main airport as the World Health Organization’s director-general was about to board a flight there.
Three people were killed and dozens were wounded in the Israeli airstrikes, including a member of the U.N. plane’s crew, the U.N. said. The crew member underwent surgery and was in stable condition, it said Friday.
The Israeli military said the Houthi missile was intercepted by its air defenses on Friday before it entered Israeli territory. For several days this past week, Houthi launches have set off air raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage by Palestinian militants. Around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, although only two-thirds are believed to still be alive.
Here’s the latest:
SANAA, Yemen — The international airport in Yemen’s capital Sanaa and the Red Sea port of Hodeida resumed operations Friday, a day after being struck by Israeli missiles, Yemeni officials said.
Deputy Transport Minister Yahya al-Sayani told a press conference that the Israeli airstrikes at Sanaa International Airport hit the control tower, navigation systems and the departures terminal. He said flights resumed on Friday as scheduled.
The strikes Thursday afternoon at the airport and the Hodeida seaport killed six people and wounded 40 others, according to the Health Ministry. The airport’s director, Khaled al-Shaif, said travelers were in the airport at the time of the strike.
Israel said its strikes targeted the infrastructure of Yemen’s Houthi rebels in retaliation for repeated volleys of missiles fired by the rebels toward central Israel in recent days.
The strikes on the airport came as the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was preparing to board a plane nearby. Ghebreyesus said Friday on X that a U.N. colleague wounded in the strike underwent surgery and was in stable condition, but has not yet been evacuated from Yemen.
BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes carried three airstrikes deep into eastern Lebanon on Friday for the second time since a ceasefire ended the war between Hezbollah and Israel a month ago, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said.
No casualties were reported in the strikes on the Bekaa Valley town of Qousaya and the target remained unclear. The Israeli military said its air force struck “infrastructure used to smuggle weapons via Syria” to Hezbollah near the Janta crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, about 9 kilometers (5 miles) north of Qousaya. Israel accused Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 of overseeing smuggling operations from Iran through Syria, adding that it had killed the unit’s commander in early October.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27, the Israeli army has conducted near-daily operations in southern Lebanon, including shootings, house demolitions, excavations, tank shelling and airstrikes. These actions have killed at least 27 people, wounded more than 30 and destroyed residential buildings, including a mosque.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, said it has observed “concerning actions” by Israeli forces, including the destruction of homes and road closures.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army accused Israeli troops of breaching the ceasefire by encroaching into southern Lebanon. Israeli bulldozers erected dirt barricades to block roads in Wadi Al-Hujayr.
The Lebanese army later on Thursday said that following intervention by the ceasefire supervision committee, Israeli forces withdrew, and Lebanese soldiers removed the barriers to reopen the road in the area.
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which ended the 14-month war, demands that Hezbollah and Israeli forces withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days, allowing Lebanese troops to gradually deploy south of the Litani River.
JERUSALEM — Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a missile toward Israel early Friday, hours after Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on Yemen’s main airport.
The Israeli military said the Houthi missile was intercepted by air defenses before it entered Israeli territory. Air raid sirens were set off in several areas in central Israel.
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