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Israeli Military Says it Intercepted Missile Fired from Yemen; Houthis Claim Responsibility

Smoke rises from a position at a neighborhood following US airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 19 March 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Smoke rises from a position at a neighborhood following US airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 19 March 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Israeli Military Says it Intercepted Missile Fired from Yemen; Houthis Claim Responsibility

Smoke rises from a position at a neighborhood following US airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 19 March 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Smoke rises from a position at a neighborhood following US airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 19 March 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Friday, one day after shooting down two projectiles launched by Houthi militants.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement in the early hours of Saturday.
Saree said the attack against Israel was the group's third in 48 hours.
He issued a warning to airlines that the Israeli airport was "no longer safe for air travel and would continue to be so until the Israeli aggression against Gaza ends and the blockade is lifted", reported Reuters.
However, the airport's website seemed to be operating normally and showed a list of scheduled flights.
The group's military spokesman has also said without providing evidence that the Houthis had launched attacks against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.
The group recently vowed to escalate attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to US strikes earlier this month, which amount to the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The US attacks have killed at least 50 people.
The Houthis' fresh attacks come under a pledge to expand their range of targets in Israel in retaliation for renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds after weeks of relative calm.
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the US military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
The Houthis are part of what has been dubbed the "Axis of Resistance" - an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran.

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Thousands Trapped in Rafah as Israel Says Won’t Stop Until Hamas No Longer Controls Gaza 

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, March 24, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, March 24, 2025. (Reuters)
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Thousands Trapped in Rafah as Israel Says Won’t Stop Until Hamas No Longer Controls Gaza 

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, March 24, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Gaza City, March 24, 2025. (Reuters)

Thousands of people are trapped in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after Israeli forces encircled part of it on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.

Israel ordered the evacuation of the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, telling people to leave by a single route on foot to Muwasi, a sprawling cluster of tent camps along the coast.

Thousands fled, but residents said many were trapped by Israeli forces.

The Rafah municipality said Monday that thousands were still trapped, including first responders from the Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government, and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel blames Hamas

Israel’s defense minister said it is trying to avoid harming civilians as it strikes Hamas in Gaza.

Israel Katz’s statement came nearly a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.

Katz said Monday that “Israel is not fighting the civilians in Gaza and is doing everything that international law requires to mitigate harm to civilians.”

He went on to blame Hamas for any civilian deaths, saying the group “fights in civilian dress, from civilian homes, and from behind civilians,” putting them in danger.

He said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hamas releases all its hostages and is no longer in control of Gaza or a threat to Israel.

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 25 Palestinians, including several women and children, according to three hospitals. The strikes come nearly a week after Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas with a surprise bombardment that killed hundreds.

Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City received 11 bodies from strikes overnight into Monday, including three women and four children. One of the strikes killed two children, their parents, their grandmother and their uncle.

Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis received seven bodies from strikes overnight and four from strikes the previous day. The European Hospital received three bodies from a strike near Khan Younis.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the Palestinian death toll from the 17-month war has passed 50,000. It has said that women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

Israel says it has killed some 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence. Hamas-led gunmen killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

‘Traumatized a second time’

Meanwhile, an American trauma surgeon working in Gaza says most of the patients injured in an Israeli attack on the largest hospital in southern Gaza had been previously wounded when Israel resumed airstrikes last week.

Californian surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, who is working with the medical charity MedGlobal, said Monday he had been in the intensive care unit at Nasser Hospital when an airstrike hit surgical wards on Sunday.

Most of the injured had been recovering from wounds suffered in airstrikes last week when Israel resumed the war, he said.

“They were already trauma patients and now they’ve been traumatized for a second time,” Sidhwa, who was raised in Flint, Mich., told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Sidhwa said he had operated on a man and boy days before who died in the attack.