Where the rocket was launched from Yemen got into the area Tel Aviv Overnight, 16 people were injured by broken glass, the Israeli military said on Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi rebels who fired rockets in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Another 14 people suffered minor injuries as they scrambled for shelters as air raid sirens sounded before dawn on Saturday, the military said.
The Houthis issued a statement on Telegram saying they had fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target they did not identify.
“A flash of light, a crash, and we fell to the ground. It was a big mess, broken glass everywhere,” said Bar Katz, a resident of the damaged building.
Tomer Appelbaum/AP
The attack came after Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's capital Sana'a and the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people on Thursday. The Israeli strikes were in response to a Houthi long-range missile that hit an Israeli school building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike on an unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.
The Israeli military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 rockets and drones during Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they will not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israeli strikes on Thursday caused “significant damage” to Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports, which will lead to an “immediate and significant reduction in port capacity,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The port of Hodeidah was key for food supplies to Yemen during the decade-long civil war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that attacks by both sides threaten to escalate further in the region.
Israeli strikes in Gaza claimed more victims
Funerals were held in Gaza for 19 people – 12 of them children – killed by Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.
One strike hit a residential building in the newly constructed Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least seven Palestinians, including five children and a woman, and wounding 16 others, health officials said.
In Gaza City, 12 people, including seven children and two women, were killed in a strike on a house, according to Al-Ahli Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
One man cradled a tiny body wrapped in a shroud as mourners gathered at a hospital in Gaza City. The women comforted each other while crying.
In total, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 21 people had died in the past day.
Abdel Karim Khan / AP
More than 45,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, when a Hamas attack on Israel killed around 1,200 and sparked a 14-month war. The Ministry of Health does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but said more than half of the dead were women and children.
Israel faces fierce international criticism for the unprecedented level of civilian casualties in Gaza. It says they target only militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its militants operate in residential areas.
Gaza's health ministry has issued an urgent appeal for medicine and food to the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in largely isolated northern Gaza, while the hospital's director described conditions as dire as the Israeli military continues its latest offensive.
The ministry reported continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital, saying “shells hit the third floor and entrances to the hospital, creating panic.”
The hospital's director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safieh, said the facility was facing “severe shortages” and claimed that requests for essential medical supplies and ways to maintain oxygen, water and power systems were “largely unmet.”
According to him, 72 wounded are in the hospital.
“Food is very scarce and we cannot provide food for the wounded,” added Sofia. “We are urging anyone who can provide supplies to help us.”
Aid groups said Israeli military operations and armed gangs were hampering their ability to distribute aid.
Israel's military-run humanitarian organization for Gaza said on Saturday it had led an operation to deliver thousands of food packets, flour and water to the northern Beit Hanoun district. On Friday, trucks from the United Nations World Food Program delivered them to distribution centers in the area.
Iran on Saturday said unknown gunmen killed a local employee of the Iranian embassy in Syria, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bagai as saying that “terrorists opened fire on Dawood Bitaraf's car last Sunday. There was no mention of what he did with the embassy.
Baghai said Iran holds Syria's interim government responsible for finding and prosecuting those behind the killing. Iran was a key ally of recently deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.