Houthis say four killed, 29 wounded in Israel strikes in Yemen
30/9/2024 5:59
Israel said it
bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday and mounted further
airstrikes in Lebanon, expanding its confrontation with Iran's
allies in the region two days after killing the Hezbollah leader
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The airstrikes on Yemen's port of Hodeidah were a response
to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days, Israel said,
amid fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control
and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel's main ally.
The Houthi-run health ministry said at least four people
were killed and 29 wounded.
The strikes took place as Israel attacked more targets in
Lebanon, where its intensifying bombardment over two weeks has
killed a string of top Hezbollah leaders and driven hundreds of
thousands of people from their homes.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Israeli strikes on Sunday had
killed at least 105 people, including 32 in Ain Deleb in the
south and 33 people in Baalbek-Hermel in the northeast, and that
14 medics had been killed in air strikes over the past two days.
Israel on Sunday vowed to keep up its assault.
"We need to keep hitting Hezbollah hard," Israel's military
chief of staff Herzi Halevi said.
Israeli drones hovered over Beirut overnight and for much of
Sunday, with the loud blasts of new airstrikes echoing around
the Lebanese capital.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire across the
border since the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered
by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants. Yemen's Houthis have
launched sporadic attacks on Israel throughout that time and
disrupted Red Sea shipping.
Israel rapidly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah two weeks
ago, killing much of the group's leadership, as it aims to make
its northern areas safe for residents to return to their homes.
Israel's defense minister is now discussing widening the
offensive.
Nasrallah's death dealt a particularly significant blow to
the group he led for 32 years, and it was followed by new
Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel. Iran said his death would be
avenged.
The United States has urged a diplomatic resolution to the
conflict in Lebanon but has also authorised its military to
reinforce in the region.
U.S. President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the
Middle East could be avoided, said “It has to be." He said he
will be talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly said the bomb that Israel used to
kill Nasrallah was an American-made 2,000-lb (900-kg) guided
weapon.
In Iran, senior figures mourned the death of a senior
Revolutionary Guards member killed alongside Nasrallah, and
Tehran called for a U.N. Security Council meeting on Israel's
actions.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a
secure location in Iran after Nasrallah's killing, sources told
Reuters.
LEBANESE DEATHS
Nasrallah's body was recovered intact from the site of
Friday's strike, a medical source and a security source told
Reuters. Hezbollah has not said when his funeral will be held.
Nasrallah made Hezbollah into a powerful domestic force in
Lebanon and helped turn it into the linchpin of Iran's network
of allied groups in the Arab world.
Some Lebanese mourned him on Sunday.
"We lost the leader who gave us all the strength and faith
that we, this small country that we love, could turn it into a
paradise," said Lebanese Christian woman Sophia Blanche
Rouillard, carrying a black flag to work in Beirut.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said more than 1,000 Lebanese have
been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without
saying how many were civilians. The government said a million
people - a fifth of the population - have fled their homes.
In Beirut, some displaced families spent the night on the
benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on
Beirut's waterfront. On Sunday morning, families with nothing
more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep
on and made tea for themselves.
"You won't be able to destroy us, whatever you do, however
much you bomb, however much you displace people - we will stay
here. We won't leave. This is our country and we're staying,"
said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the
area.
The U.N. World Food Programme began an emergency operation
to provide food for those affected by the conflict.
Saudi Arabia and France said they were sending medical aid.
ISRAEL MILITARY ACTION
Israel's military said it struck dozens of targets in
Lebanon including launchers and weapons stores and had
intercepted eight projectiles coming from the direction of
Lebanon and one from the Red Sea.
It also said dozens of Israeli aircraft had attacked power
plants and Ras Issa and Hodeidah ports in Yemen, accusing the
Houthis of operating under Iran's direction and in cooperation
with Iraqi militias.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Our message is
clear - for us, no place is too far".
Nasrallah's death capped a traumatic fortnight for
Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of
communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely
assumed to have carried out that action.
Hezbollah's arsenal has long been a point of contention in
Lebanon, a country with a history of civil conflict. Hezbollah's
Lebanese critics say the group has unilaterally pulled the
country into conflicts and undermined the state.
However, Lebanon's top Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch
Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said Nasrallah's killing had "opened a
wound in the heart of the Lebanese". Rai has previously voiced
criticism of the militia.
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