Houthi rebels in Yemen said Israeli airstrikes on Thursday targeted the rebel-held capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida. The World Health Organization’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.
It 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 U.S. 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.
Israeli strike kills five journalists that IDF says were militants
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said all five were militants posing as reporters.
The strike hit a car outside the 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.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas, and took part in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel.
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.
Medics said the five were among at least 21 people killed in Israeli air assaults across the Palestinian enclave before dawn.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says over 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.Â
Israel has regularly denied targeting journalists and says its take steps to avoid hitting civilians.
Israel, Hamas trade blame over delayed ceasefire
On Wednesday, Hamas and Israel traded blame over their failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in past days.
Hamas said Israel had laid down further conditions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.
“The occupation has set new conditions related to withdrawal, ceasefire, prisoners and the return of the displaced, which has delayed reaching the agreement that was available,” Hamas said.
Netanyahu responded in a statement: “The Hamas terrorist organization continues to lie, is reneging on understandings that have already been reached, and is continuing to create difficulties in the negotiations.”
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
