DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched another round of heavy airstrikes in Yemen on Wednesday, killing dozens just days after Houthi rebels carried out a drone attack that struck an Israeli airport.
The strikes killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 130 others, the Houthi-run health ministry said. Search crews were continuing to dig through the rubble.
Most of those killed were in Sanaa, the capital, where a military headquarters and a fuel station were among the sites hit, the health ministry said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meanwhile, said she would seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip. The move adds to Israel’s already unprecedented global isolation as it grapples with the fallout from its strike targeting Hamas leaders in U.S.-allied Qatar on Tuesday.
Al-Masirah, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel, said one of the strikes on Yemen hit a military headquarters building in central Sanaa. Neighboring houses were also damaged, it reported.
Israel has previously launched waves of airstrikes in response to the Houthis’ firing missiles and drones at Israel. The Iran-backed Houthis say they are supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and on Sunday, sent a drone that breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses and slammed into the country’s southern airport.
‘No safe zone’
Israel reiterated its calls for some 1 million people to evacuate Gaza City, where it has been bombing high-rises and ramping up a new offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, already devastated from earlier raids and experiencing famine.
The Israeli military said Wednesday it soon will increase the pace of targeted strikes near Gaza City as it readies for the next phases of its operation in what it calls Hamas’ last remaining stronghold.
Palestinians have been ordered to head south to a designated safe zone where hundreds of thousands already live in squalid tent camps and where Israel regularly strikes what it says are militant targets. Many have refused to leave Gaza City, saying they no longer have the strength or money to relocate.
“There is no safe zone in the Gaza Strip,” Fawzi Muftah said as people walked alongside a line of vehicles loaded with mattresses, carpets and other belongings. ”Danger is everywhere."
Amal Sobh, displaced with 30 relatives — including 13 orphans — said a three-wheel vehicle carrying their belongings broke down and they have no fuel, leaving them stranded Wednesday.
“We don’t have good blankets or good beddings, and winter is coming, what do we do for our children? We don’t even have a proper tent to shelter us,” said Sobh, whose husband was arrested during the war.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the bodies of another 41 people killed by Israeli fire, including 12 who were seeking humanitarian aid, have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours. Another 184 people were wounded, it said.
The 27-nation EU is deeply divided in its approach to Israel and the Palestinians, and it’s unclear whether a majority will be found to endorse the sanctions and trade measures called for by von der Leyen.
Airstrikes on Yemen
Israel’s strikes in Yemen followed earlier attacks that killed the Houthi prime minister and other top officials in a major escalation of the nearly 2-year-old conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.
The strikes on Wednesday hit a station that provides fuel to hospitals in the capital, Essam al-Mutawakel, spokesman for rebel-run Yemen Petroleum Company, told the Al-Masirah news channel. Residents said they heard violent explosions in multiple areas of the city, with fire and smoke in the skies.
The Houthi media office said Israel also hit a government facility in the strategic city of Hazm, the capital of northern Jawf province. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said rebels fired surface-to-air missiles at the Israeli fighter jets.
Houthi-backed President Mahdi al-Mashat vowed on Wednesday to continue the attacks, warning Israelis to “stay alarmed since the response is coming without fail.”
‘Man-made famine’
The Gaza Health Ministry says 126 Palestinians, including 26 children, have died of causes related to malnutrition since international experts announced famine in Gaza City on Aug. 22. A total of 404 people, including 141 children, have died of causes related to malnutrition since the war began.
“Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity. This must stop,” von der Leyen said Wednesday, to applause in the European Parliament at its meeting in Strasbourg, France.
Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza and says it allows in enough humanitarian aid. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a social media post, said von der Leyen had succumbed to pressures that undermine Israel-Europe relations.
Von der Leyen plans to freeze support to Israel given by the European Union’s executive branch although it was not immediately clear how much it provides to Israel and what it is used for.
Outrage over strike on Qatar
The strike on Qatar, a U.S. ally, drew widespread condemnation from countries in the Mideast and beyond. It also marked a dramatic escalation in the region and risked upending talks aimed at ending the war and freeing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas claims its senior leadership, who were weighing a new U.S. ceasefire proposal, survived the strike, which killed two lower-ranking members and three bodyguards.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Forty-eight hostages are still held inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says women and children make up around half the dead.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas. Large parts of major cities in Gaza have been completely destroyed.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Cook from Brussels.
___
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war