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A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, injuring 16 people from shattering glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who have launched rockets in solidarity with Palestinians Gaza.
Another 14 people suffered minor injuries as they ran to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before dawn on Saturday, the army said.
The Houthis issued a statement on Telegram that they had directed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target, which they did not identify. The Israeli military said it was investigating, adding that “we emphasize that air defense is not hermetic.”
“A flash of light, a bang and we fell to the ground. Big mess, broken glasses everywhere,” said Bar Katz, a resident of a damaged building.
The attack came after Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people on Thursday. The strikes came hours after a rocket from Yemen hit a school building in central Israel. The Houthis also launched a drone strike on an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.
Israel’s military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 rockets and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they will not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli attacks on Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports leading to the “immediate and significant reduction of port capacity”, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port of Hodeida has been key to food shipments in Yemen during its decade-long civil war.
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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the attacks from both sides risk further escalation in the region.
Israeli attacks in Gaza kill a dozen children
Murderers in Gaza held funerals for 19 people – 12 of them children – killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and night.
One strike hit a residential building in the development Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and wounding 16 others, health officials said.
In Gaza City, a strike on a house killed 12 people, including seven children and two women, according to Al-Ahli Hospital where the bodies were taken.
One man cradled a small shrouded body as mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City. Women comforted each other when they cried.
Overall, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 21 people had been killed in the past 24 hours.
More than 45,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people and sparked the 14-month war. The Ministry of Health does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that more than half of the dead are women and children.
Israel is facing severe international criticism over the unprecedented levels of civilian death in Gaza. It says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.
Urgent appeal for supplies for hospital in northern Gaza
Gaza’s Ministry of Health issued an urgent appeal for medical and food supplies to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in largely isolated northern Gaza, while the hospital’s director described conditions as dire as Israel’s military last offensive presses.
The ministry reported continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital, saying “shells hit the third floor and the entrances of the hospital, causing a state of panic.”
Hospital director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said the facility had “severe shortages” and claimed that requests for essential medical supplies and ways to maintain oxygen, water and electricity systems “are largely unmet.”
He said 72 injured people were treated at the hospital.
“Food is very scarce, and we cannot provide food for the wounded,” Safiyeh added. “We are urgently calling on anyone who can provide supplies to help us.”
Aid groups have said Israeli military operations and armed gangs have hampered their ability to distribute aid.
The Israeli military organization that deals with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said on Saturday that it had led an operation that delivered thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north. It said UN World Food Program trucks were transporting them to distribution centers in the area on Friday.
Iran said on Saturday that unknown gunmen had killed a local staff member of the Iranian Embassy in Syria in Damascus, the official IRNA news agency said.
The report quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying that “terrorists” opened fire on Davood Bitaraf’s car last Sunday. It did not say what he did with the embassy.
Baghaei said Iran considers Syria’s interim government responsible for finding and prosecuting those behind the killing. Iran was a key ally of recently deposed Syrian leader Bashar Assad.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
