Jerusalem, Undefined – The Israeli military said Saturday it had launched “extensive strikes” in the Gaza Strip over the past day as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive on the besieged Palestinian territory.
Gaza’s civil defence agency earlier said Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed 100 people on Friday.
The offensive, known as “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”, comes as Israel faces pressure to lift a sweeping aid blockade in return for a US-Israeli hostage released by Hamas.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian group in October 2023.
That assault resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 2,985 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,119.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the military had stepped up its offensive in line with a plan approved by the government earlier this month, though there had not been any formal announcement of an expanded campaign.
The military said its forces had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.
Israel threatens Huthi leaders after striking Yemen ports
Israel threatened to target the leadership of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels after the air force struck two rebel-held ports on Friday, following repeated Huthi missile attacks in recent days.
But the rebels vowed to keep up their strikes on Israel despite the deal and fired three missiles in as many days this week that triggered air raid warnings in major cities.
The Huthis’ Al-Masirah television reported strikes on the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, a key entry point for aid, as well as the port of Salif further north.
An AFP correspondent in Hodeida reported hearing several loud explosions.
The Huthi-run health ministry said at least one person was killed and nine wounded in the strikes.
The Israeli military said 15 fighter jets dropped over 30 munitions on Huthi targets in the air force’s eighth round of strikes in Yemen.
It said the ports were “used to transfer weapons” and that prior warnings had been issued to Yemeni civilians to evacuate.
The Huthi administration said the strikes “will be met with a painful response”, according to the Huthi-run Saba news agency.
The Huthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, began firing at Israel-linked shipping in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
They later broadened their campaign to target Israel, saying it was in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Huthi leadership there was “more to come” after Friday’s strikes.
“We are not willing to sit on the sidelines and let the Huthis attack us. We will hit them far more, including their leadership and all the infrastructure that allows them to hit us,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Huthi leaders that if the missile attacks continued, they would face the same fate as Hamas leaders slain by Israel in Gaza.
UN scales back aid
“If the Huthis continue to fire, we will also hit the heads of the terror groups, just as we did to (slain Hamas military chief Mohammed) Deif and (the) Sinwars (Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed Sinwar) in Gaza,” Katz said in a post.
“We will also hunt down and eliminate the Huthi leader, Abd al-Malek al-Huthi.”
In early May, a Huthi missile struck an area at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, gouging a hole near its main terminal building and wounding several people in a rare penetration of Israeli air defences.
Israel retaliated by striking the airport in Yemen’s rebel-controlled capital Sanaa and three nearby power stations.
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that exchange marked a “dangerous escalation” and was a reminder that the war-torn country is “ensnared in the wider regional tensions.”
The United Nations meanwhile announced that it was scaling back its humanitarian aid goals in Yemen in the latest fallout from a drastic drop in funding from member states.
It said the cuts are putting millions of lives at risk around the world.
In January, the UN launched an appeal for $2.4 billion to help 10.5 million people in war-torn Yemen this year, far below the 19.5 million people it deems as being in need of assistance.
But with funding down, the global body and its humanitarian aid partners established new priorities so as to be able to help at least the neediest.
Now the focus in Yemen will be on 8.8 million people with a forecast budget of $1.4 billion, said Stephanie Tremblay, a spokeswoman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.
UN agencies are scaling back operations and staffing around the world as they grapple with big cuts in contributions from member states, in particular the United States under President Donald Trump.
