Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip): Israeli airstrikes in Yemen Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida, and the World Health Organisation’s director-general said the bombardment occurred as he was about to board a flight in Sanaa, injuring a crew member.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few metres from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, adding that he and WHO colleagues were safe.
“We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave.” He didn’t mention the source of the bombardment.
The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports at Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib along with power stations. It didn’t immediately respond to questions about Tedros’ statement.
The latest strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned”. Netanyahu monitored the new strikes along with military leaders, his government said.
The Iran-backed Houthis’ media outlet confirmed the strikes in a Telegram post but gave no immediate details. The US military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.
The United Nations has noted that the ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid.
Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in Tel Aviv. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
5 journalists killed 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 that all were militants posing as reporters.
The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists were working for the local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, which ignited the war. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups operate political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.
Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn’t allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.
Another Israeli soldier killed
Separately, Israel’s military said that 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 start of the ground operation more than a year ago.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in an attack on nearby army bases and farming communities. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities have been women and children, but doesn’t say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and driven around 90 per cent of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said that it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid.
AP
