A media outlet controlled by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Al-Masirah TV, said the strikes caused deaths and injuries, and several people suffered severe burns. It said there was a large fire at the port and power cuts were widespread.
Health officials in Yemen said the strikes killed a number of people and wounded others, but didn’t elaborate.
The drone attack by Houthi rebels killed one person in the centre of Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the US Embassy on Friday.
Virtually all projectiles fired from the southern Arabian country toward Israel have been intercepted. Israel said air defences detected the drone but an “error” occurred. Experts have expressed doubt about the Houthis’ ability to overwhelm Israel’s air defence system from about 1600 kilometres away.
“The distance just makes it difficult to launch the kind of barrage that would be necessary to inflict major damage,” said Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Since January, US and UK forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis’ attacks on commercial shipping that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted weren’t linked to Israel.
The joint force airstrikes so far have done little to deter the Iran-backed force.
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Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. In recent years, US naval forces have intercepted a number of ships packed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and missile parts en route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
The Houthis have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones,” all capable of reaching southern Israel, according to weapons experts. The Houthis are open about their arsenal, regularly parading new missiles through the streets of Sanaa.
At least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials, as ceasefire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress.
Among the dead in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Associated Press journalists counted the 13 corpses.
Earlier, a medical team delivered a live baby from a Palestinian woman killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat on Thursday. Ola al-Kurd, 25, was rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told the AP that a baby boy had been delivered.
A Palestinian baby boy, not yet named, who was delivered prematurely after his mother Ola al-Kurd was killed in an Israeli strike, lies in an incubator at a hospital in Deir al-Balah.Credit: AP
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