Here’s more on the airstrikes that were launched at Houthi targets in several parts of Yemen on Friday.
As we reported earlier, US officials told Associated Press that the US and UK militaries struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen.
But the Guardian now understands that that there was no UK involvement in the airstrikes today.
The strikes were targeted at weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at roughly five locations, according to the US officials.
According to the Houthi media, seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sana’a, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province, according to Houthi reports. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sana’a.
Key events
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday evening to begin a four-day trip that will end in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Barrot is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan over the weekend before arriving in Israel ahead of the 7 October anniversary, Reuters is reporting, citing a French diplomatic source.
His trip comes as France seeks to revive stalled diplomatic efforts in the region. Barrot visited Lebanon earlier this week, during which he said that Paris would step up its support for the Lebanese army.
UN condemns Israels ‘unlawful’ airstrike on West Bank refugee camp
The UN has condemned what it called an “unlawful” airstrike by Israel on a refugee camp in Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on Thursday that killed at least 18 people.
The Israeli strike is part of a “highly concerning pattern of unlawful use of force” by the Israeli security forces (ISF) during “military-like operations” in the occupied West Bank, the UN rights office said in a statement.
These operations have caused “widespread harm to Palestinians and significant damage to buildings and infrastructure.” it said.
Thursday’s strike was “another clear example of ISF’s systematic resort to lethal force in the West Bank that is frequently unnecessary, disproportionate, and therefore unlawful,” it said.
At least 18 people were killed in the airstrike on Tulkarm refugee camp that the Israeli military has claimed killed a local Hamas leader. Among the dead, according to Palestinan reports, was a family of four including two children, named as Mohammed Abu Zahra, his wife, Sajaa, and their two children, Karam and Sham.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the attack as a “heinous crime” and a “massacre”.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike in the northern West Bank, describing it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement.
The UN rights office called for an independent probe into the incident, adding:
The levelling of an entire building filled with people via aerial bombing shows flagrant disregard for Israel’s obligations.
The US and UK militaries struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, AP is reporting, citing US officials.
As we reported earlier, the strikes were targeted at weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at roughly five locations, according to the officials.
According to the Houthi media, seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sana’a, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province, according to Houthi reports. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sana’a.
Hisham Al–Omeisy, a political analyst, says the latest US airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen mark “a new phase of the escalation” in the country.
Previous US-led strikes on Houthi targets have been directed at the Red Sea coast and port, he writes.
According to Houthi media reports, Friday’s strikes targeted Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, Hodeida, as well as Dhamar, south of the capital, and Mukayras, southeast of Sana’a.
Looks like we just entered a new phase of the escalation in #Yemen. Airstrikes now targeted Sana’a, Dhamar and Hudaydah. No longer limited to the Red Sea coast and the port. It has been a while since jets bombed the capital, ever since ceasefire went into effect in 2022. pic.twitter.com/fwL6AT2cHL
— Hisham Al-Omeisy هشام العميسي (@omeisy) October 4, 2024
The US airstrikes carried out on Houthi targets in several parts of Yemen on Friday came after the Iran-backed group claimed they shot down a US military drone flying over Yemen earlier this week.
Since last year, the Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea, acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Iran-backed group have been firing missiles, sending armed drones and launching boats laden with explosives at commercial ships with ties to Israeli, US and UK entities.
Just last week, the Houthi group claimed responsibility for an attack targeted three US warships in the Red Sea as they were reportedly sailing to support Israel.
US official says air attacks struck a number of Houthi targets in Yemen
We reported earlier that Houthi media reports said US strikes targeted several parts of Yemen, including its capital Sana’a and the port city of Hodeida.
A US official has now confirmed to Associated Press that the US military struck a number of Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday.
US aircraft and ships targeted weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group, they said. Houthi strongholds were hit, the official added.
The exact number of targets was not yet available as the mission was just ending, AP reported.
According to the Houthi media, seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sana’a, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province, according to Houthi reports. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sana’a.
The Israeli army says its forces have hit more than 2,000 sites during its four-day incursion into southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah positions, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
“Over 2,000 military targets have been struck,” including militants, military buildings, weapons and more, the Israeli military statement says.
Houthi media reports US strikes on Yemeni cities
Strikes by the United States targeted three rebel-run cities in Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida, AFP reports, citing the Houthi-run Al Masirah television network.
Al Masirah reported several US strikes on Sanaa and Hodeida, where AFP correspondents heard loud explosions, as well as additional strikes on Dhamar, south of the capital, but did not specify if the attacks caused any damage or casualties.
Two Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade have been killed in combat, and two others severely injured, in northern Israel, the country’s military announces.
Reuters reports that the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Shi’ite armed factions opposed to US and Israeli presence in the region, claimed responsibility for three dawn attacks, targeting sites in the Golan Heights and Tiberias.
Israeli media report that a military investigation has found two soldiers were killed in a drone attack launched from Iraq.
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 29 Palestinians, medics say, while sirens blare in southern Israel in response to renewed rocket fire from militants in the Palestinian enclave.
The new rocket salvoes indicate Hamas-led militant factions in Gaza are still able to fire projectiles into Israel despite a year-long Israeli aerial and ground offensive that has turned wide areas of the enclave into wasteland.
Citing the Israeli military, Reuters says the sirens sounded in southern Israel for the first time in around two months.
Almost a year after 7 October, Hamas is still threatening our civilians with their terrorism and we will continue operating against them.
The Lebanese authorities, communities and humanitarian agencies are struggling to shelter and provide the necessities of life to more than a million people fleeing Israel’s airstrikes and invasion in the south, Oxfam says.
The charity says people most need mattresses, bedding, and cooking and sanitation items. Women also need sanitary pads, towels and underwear. Bachir Ayoub, Oxfam’s Lebanon country director, says:
The ground invasion and bombardment that includes Beirut and the southern suburbs will create a serious challenge for the humanitarian system in a few short days. People are being forced to flee with little to no notice, and often having to leave everything behind, to shelters that are inadequate, or share crowded homes with few essential supplies.
No one knows when they can return. Without a ceasefire the number of people desperately in need will only grow, as will their needs. The shelter system is set to collapse if there is no peace.
A third government-chartered flight for British evacuees has left Lebanon, the UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy says.
A third UK government charter flight has left Lebanon to help British nationals leave.
The situation is volatile. Flights are limited but seats are available. British nationals who want to leave should register their presence now to receive details on how to request a seat.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vows Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will emerge with new leaders, and not back down, during his sermon.
The Israeli military estimates it has killed about 250 Hezbollah fighters, including several battalion and company commanders, since the start of its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this week, a military spokesperson says.
Reuters quotes Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani as saying the military is still assessing the damage caused by airstrikes in southern Beirut on Thursday night, which he says targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.
Here is some more on the deadly Israeli strike in Tulkarm’s refugee camp, one of the most densely populated in the occupied West Bank (see earlier post at 06:13 for more details).
As my colleague Peter Beaumont reports in this story, Thursday’s strike on the camp killed 18 people, reportedly including a family of four.
On Friday, paramedics were seen searching the rubble inside a destroyed coffee shop, which was struck in the attack, gathering human remains into small boxes.
A source within the Palestinian security services told the AFP news agency that the attack was the deadliest in the West Bank for more than two decades.
“We haven’t heard this sound since 2002,” Nimer Fayyad, owner of the cafe, whose brother was killed in the strike, told Reuters.
“The missiles targeted a civilian building, a family was wiped from the civil registry. What was their fault? … There is no safe place for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves.”
Residents said the strike took place after a rally in the middle of the camp by armed fighters based there. When the rally ended, some went to the coffee shop.
The Israeli military said the strike killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, head of the Hamas network in Tulkarm.