Israel launches strikes on Yemen, kills four: Houthis

Israel says it has bombed Houthi targets in Yemen in response to missile fire by the Iran-aligned rebels at Israel over the past two days, marking another front in fighting in the Middle East.

The Israeli strikes killed at least four people and wounded 29, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said in a statement, and residents said the bombing had caused power outages in most parts of the port city of Hodeidah.

Israel's military said in a statement that dozens of aircraft, including fighter jets, had attacked power plants and a sea port in Hodeidah and the port of Ras Issa.

It was the second such Israeli attack on Yemen this year.

??BREAKING: The IAF struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in Yemen in response to their recent attacks against Israel. The targets included power plants and a seaport, which were used by the Houthis to transfer Iranian weapons to the region, in? pic.twitter.com/QaWSD3uMEJ? Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 29, 2024

In July, Israeli warplanes struck Houthi military targets near Hodeidah after a Yemeni drone hit Tel Aviv and killed one man.

"Over the past year, the Houthis have been operating under the direction and funding of Iran, and in co-operation with Iraqi militias in order to attack the State of Israel, undermine regional stability, and disrupt global freedom of navigation," the military statement said.

Yemen's Houthi militants have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

In their latest attack, the Houthis said they had launched a ballistic missile on Saturday towards the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, which Israel said it had intercepted.

Israel intercepted another Houthi missile on Friday.

In a post on X, Mohammed Abdulsalam, a spokesman for the Houthis, said Sunday's Israeli strikes would not cause the group to "abandon Gaza and Lebanon".

The Houthis had taken precautionary measures ahead of the strikes, emptying oil storages in the ports, another Houthi spokesman, Nasruddin Ammer, said.

Iran condemned the Israeli strikes, saying they had targeted civilian infrastructure, and President Masoud Pezeshkian said Israel should not be allowed to attack countries in the Iran-aligned "Axis of Resistance" one after the other.

The Houthi movement earlier mourned Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah following his death in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.

The strikes in Yemen took place as Israel attacked more targets in Lebanon, where its intensifying bombardment over two weeks has killed a string of top Hezbollah leaders and driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Israel vowed to keep up its assault.

"It has lost its head, and we need to keep hitting Hezbollah hard," Israel's military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said Israeli strikes on Sunday had killed 32 people in Ain Deleb in the south and 21 people in Baalbek-Hermel in the east and that 14 medics had been killed in air strikes over the past two days.

Israeli drones hovered over Beirut overnight and for much of Sunday, with the loud blasts of new air strikes echoing around the Lebanese capital.

Israel rapidly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah two weeks ago with the declared goal of making northern areas safe for residents to return to their homes, killing much of the group's leadership.

Israel's defence minister is now discussing widening the offensive.

Nasrallah's death dealt a particularly significant blow to the group which he led for 32 years, and it was followed by new Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel, while Iran said his death would be avenged.

The United States has urged a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon but has also authorised its military to reinforce in the region in a sign of the growing unease.

US President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, said "It has to be".

He said he will be talking to Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu but did not elaborate.

US Senator Mark Kelly, who leads a Senate Armed Services subcommittee, said the bomb that Israel used to kill Nasrallah was a US-made 900kg guided weapon.

Nasrallah's body was recovered intact from the site of Friday's strike, a medical source and a security source told Reuters on Sunday.

Hezbollah has not yet said when his funeral will be held.

with AP