JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel launched a new round of airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday, targeting the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, despite the World Health Organization’s director-general being in the vicinity.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO chief, said that the airstrikes occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured. He said that the air traffic control tower, departure lounge, and runway were damaged, but he and his colleagues were safe.
The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib, as well as power stations. The military claimed that the targets were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.
The 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” as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran.
The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings, and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes.
The U.N. has said that the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014.
In other developments, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in Gaza overnight, the territory’s Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said all were militants posing as reporters.
Separately, Israel’s military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 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 hunger and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
