Middle East updates: Israel strikes Houthi-held port

Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's port city of Hodeidah killed three people and injured 87 others, the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday, citing the Health Ministry.

Earlier reports did not cite a death toll and said 80 people were injured.

Several civilians were wounded when an Israeli airstrike hit a town in southern Lebanon, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border, Lebanese state media reported.

Videos posted to social media showed several big explosions in the coastal town of Aadloun.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said the strike targeted an ammunition depot.

"Shrapnel from the explosions flew to surrounding villages," the NNA said.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah and Hamas fired rockets and explosive-laden drones at northern Israel.

That attack was in apparent retaliation for Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Friday that wounded several civilians, including a boy who is in a critical condition.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his decision to launch airstrikes on Houthi military infrastructure at a port in western Yemen.

"The port that was targeted is not an innocent port," Netanyahu said in a video statement posted to X, formerly Twitter.

"It's used as the entry point for weapons that are supplied by Iran to its Houthi terrorist proxies," Netanyahu said. "The Houthis have used those weapons to attack Israel, to attack Arab states in the region, to attack many others."

The Israeli prime minister confirmed that targeting the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah was in retaliation for the Houthi's drone attack Friday in Tel Aviv.

"The aggression of the Houthis goes beyond that single attack. For the past eight months, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against Israel," he said.

Netanyahu thanked the United States, Britain, France and other members of the international maritime coalition that was created to repel Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.

"More than defensive action is needed to curtail the Houthis, offensive action is also needed. It's needed to ensure that Iran's terror proxies pay a price for their brazen aggression," he said.

Netanyahu closed the video with a message for Israel's enemies, saying: "Make no mistake. We will defend ourselves by all means, on all fronts."

At least 80 people were wounded in Israeli airstrikes on targets in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi-affiliated TV channel said, citing the Health Ministry.

Al-Masirah TV said most of those injured had severe burns.

The channel did not immediately report any deaths.

A correspondent for the AFP news agency in Hodeida reported hearing several large explosions and seeing smoke over the port.

Al-Masirah showed footage of casualties being treated in hospital, many of them bandaged and lying on stretchers in packed rooms.  

The broadcaster interviewed a man who said many of the wounded were port employees. 

Residents described power outages, while long lines have formed at closed gas stations. 

Israel's military said it targeted the military infrastructure of Yemen's Houthi rebels in airstrikes on the war-torn country, DW's correspondent Tania Krämer said from Israel.

She was speaking after Israeli fighter jets struck the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Saturday.

"They [the Israeli military] described them [the targets] as military infrastructure, infrastructure of dual-use and energy infrastructure," Krämer added.

Israel carried out the attacks in apparent retaliation for a Houthi drone strike on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Friday that killed one person.

As well as targeting shipping in the Red Sea in recent months, the Iran-backed Houthis have struck Israel's southern city of Eilat over the past month with over 220 drones, Krämer said.

But she said Friday's Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv was a "change of equation" for Israel.

Krämer cited Israeli officials as saying, "the time for restraint is over."

The Israeli military said dozens of rockets were launched from Lebanon on northern Israel on Saturday, marking a new high in hostilities with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that around 45 projectiles were detected after being fired from Lebanon in three barrages. Some were intercepted and the others fell in open areas, the military said.

The strikes came a day after Israeli missiles hit southern Lebanon, injuring several civilians.

Israel said Saturday's attacks were directed at the Golan Heights, where they started fires and caused other damage to buildings. No one was injured.

The Israeli military told the EFE news agency that Hezbollah launched at least 80 rockets against Israel on Friday, in at least 16 attacks.

Hezbollah and Israel have traded near-daily fire since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.

The United States said it disagreed with "the breadth" of a ruling by the International Court of Justice that said Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal.

"We have been clear that Israel's program of government support for settlements is both inconsistent with international law and obstructs the cause of peace," a US State Department spokesperson said on Saturday in an email.

"However, we are concerned that the breadth of the court's opinion will complicate efforts to resolve the conflict and bring about an urgently needed just and lasting peace, with two states living side-by-side in peace and security," the State Department added.

On Friday, the top UN court ruled that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories was unlawful, calling for it to end and for settlement building to stop immediately.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denounced the nonbinding opinion issued by a panel of 15 judges.

Meanwhile, the European Union said Saturday the ruling was "largely consistent with EU positions" on the issue.

"In a world of constant and increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions in a consistent manner, irrespective of the subject in question," the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. 

 

Israel on Saturday launched intense airstrikes on Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, media loyal to the Iran-backed Houthi militia reported.

The Houthi-owned al-Masirah TV said the strikes had targeted oil storage facilities at the port, triggering fires and thick smoke. The attacks left dead and injured people, the broadcaster added.

The Israeli military confirmed it had struck "military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime." 

The strikes were an apparent retaliation for a drone attack on Israel's Tel Aviv, claimed by the Houthis. Israel rarely confirms attacks on foreign soil.

A Houthi official said the airstrikes would be met with "escalation."

"The Zionist entity will pay the price for targeting civilian facilities, and we will meet escalation with escalation," Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said in a post on social media.

The Houthis have been targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea with drone strikes since shortly after Israel began its offensive in Gaza last October.

Israel's military operation was launched following the unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Hamas has been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, Germany and the European Union, among others.

Doctors in central Gaza have saved the unborn baby of a heavily pregnant woman who was killed in an Israeli attack, Palestinian media reported on Saturday.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said the child was delivered in an emergency operation at the al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat. 

At nine months pregnant, Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd survived just long enough to reach the hospital after an overnight strike hit her home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, medics said. 

Unable to save the mother, who medics said was in her 20s, doctors detected the unborn baby's heartbeat and performed an emergency cesarean section.

Al-Kurd was one of eight people killed in the Israeli strike, local media said. Her husband was wounded.

The still-unnamed newborn boy continues to be treated at the hospital and is said to be in a stable condition, WAFA reported.

A merchant vessel was attacked twice by drones in the Red Sea off Yemen on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

The incidents took place 13 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's Al Mukha, but the vessel and its crew were safe, UKMTO wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The post said a merchant vessel had reported being approached by 12 small craft. The drones stayed in an area around the ship for about an hour before leaving.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have targeted Middle East shipping lanes with drone and missile strikes in recent months, in what it calls acts of solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war in Gaza.

At least 88 commercial vessels have been attacked since November, according to a tally by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Among the damage caused, two vessels sunk, another was seized and at least three crew were killed.

mm/ab (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)