Israel attacks Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas

Israel attacks Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas | Daily Tribune

The Middle East reeled Sunday from deadly violence as Israel bombed Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen in quick succession in response to attacks from Iran-backed militant groups.

Israeli warplanes flew to Yemen, 2,000 kilometers away, and struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida killing three people, wounding 87 others and leaving a raging fire and plumes of black smoke from destroyed fuel silos and a power plant.

The rebel-run health ministry said in a statement carried by Houthi media that most of the wounded had severe burns.

“The blood of Israeli citizens has a price,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after the attack of Hodeida, adding more operations against the Houthis would follow “if they dare to attack us.”

Gallant said the Hodeida strikes were also a warning to other Iran-backed armed groups around the Middle East that have claimed attacks on Israel during the Gaza war.

The port was targeted for serving “as a main supply route for the transfer of Iranian weapons” such as the drone which hit Tel Aviv and killed one civilian on Friday, military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday.

Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti swiftly threatened to “meet escalation with escalation,” in a social media post.

“Traders now fear that this will exacerbate the already critical food security and humanitarian situation in northern Yemen, as the majority of trade flows through this port,” said Mohammed Albasha, senior Middle East analyst for the United States-based Navanti Group.

Israel’s military on Sunday also intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, the latest in a series of Houthi weapons downed off the Red Sea resort town of Eilat in recent months.

Airstrike on Adloun

Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike on a town deep in the country’s south Saturday evening targeted an ammunitions depot, lightly injuring three people and causing rockets to explode.

The airstrike on Adloun about 30 kilometers from the border came after Hezbollah, which holds sway over large parts of Lebanon’s south, and its Palestinian ally Hamas fired rocket salvos and explosive-laden drones at Israeli positions.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said traffic on the highway had been interrupted in both directions, with videos circulating online showing several big explosions in the coastal town.

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

Earlier on Saturday, NNA said Syrian nationals, including children, had been injured after an “enemy drone targeted an empty four-wheel drive” near their tent, close to the border.

Doctor Mouenes Kalakesh, who heads the Marjayoun government hospital, said a woman and her three children, two of them minors, had been admitted for shrapnel injuries after the strike outside Burj al-Muluk.

Among them was an 11-year-old boy in critical condition after he sustained shrapnel injuries and a head wound, Kalakesh told Agence France-Presse.

Israel also pressed on with its offensive against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Dozens have been killed since Saturday across the Palestinian territory, the civil defense agency said, including in strikes on homes in the central Nuseirat and Bureij areas and displaced people near southern Khan Yunis.

Residents said a major operation was underway in the Saudi district of Rafah in the south, reporting heavy artillery and clashes.

Doctors in Gaza described delivering a newborn baby against incredible odds on Saturday, pulling him from his mother’s womb moments after she died of wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike.

At nine months pregnant, Ola Adnan Harb al-Kurd managed to survive just long enough to reach Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza after an overnight strike hit her home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, medics said.

Emergency department doctors rushed into action when they saw the heavily pregnant woman arrive in critical condition, the head of the obstetrics and gynecology department, Raed al-Saudi, said.