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Israel Attacks Yemeni Ports, Warns That Houthi Leader Is a Target

Smoke billows after Israeli strikes on Hodeidah port, Yemen, July 21, 2024. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows after Israeli strikes on Hodeidah port, Yemen, July 21, 2024. (Reuters file)
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Israel Attacks Yemeni Ports, Warns That Houthi Leader Is a Target

Smoke billows after Israeli strikes on Hodeidah port, Yemen, July 21, 2024. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows after Israeli strikes on Hodeidah port, Yemen, July 21, 2024. (Reuters file)

Israel struck Yemen's Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif on Friday, continuing its campaign to degrade Houthi military capabilities and warning that the group's top leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, could be targeted if attacks on Israel persist.

The Houthis have continued to fire missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, although they have agreed to halt attacks on US ships.

Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes in response, including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen's main airport in Sanaa and killed several people.

On Friday, the Israeli military said the ports of Hodeidah and Salif were being used to transfer weapons, reiterating its warnings to residents of those areas to evacuate.

Residents in Hodeidah said they heard four loud booms and saw smoke rising from the port following the Israeli strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement they would hunt down the Houthis' top leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

"If the Houthis continue to fire missiles at the State of Israel, they will be severely harmed, and we will also hurt the leaders," they said, adding that al-Houthi could join the list of militant figures killed by Israel, such as Hamas' Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah.

The Houthis are part of Iran's so-called "Axis of Resistance" against Israeli and US interests in the Middle East, alongside Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks toward Israel, most of which have been intercepted or landed short.

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Arab World

Kosovo Lawmakers Approve Proposed Gaza Troop Deployment

Kosovo Security Forces parade during celebrations to mark the 18th anniversary of independence, in Pristina, Kosovo, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP)
Kosovo Security Forces parade during celebrations to mark the 18th anniversary of independence, in Pristina, Kosovo, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP)
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Kosovo Lawmakers Approve Proposed Gaza Troop Deployment

Kosovo Security Forces parade during celebrations to mark the 18th anniversary of independence, in Pristina, Kosovo, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP)
Kosovo Security Forces parade during celebrations to mark the 18th anniversary of independence, in Pristina, Kosovo, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP)

Kosovo's parliament on Friday passed a law authorizing the potential deployment of a small number of troops to Gaza as part of a peacekeeping force proposed by US President Donald Trump.

According to local media, the government intends to send 22 members of the Kosovo Security Force if the plan goes ahead, although the number has not been officially confirmed.

"The Republic of Kosovo proves that it is a reliable partner and ready to act alongside allies in support of peace, security, protection of civilians and implementation of international mandates," Defense Minister Ejup Maqedonci said before the parliament unanimously approved the law.

Announced as part of a ceasefire agreement that halted two years of devastating war, the planned International Stabilization Force was proposed by the "Board of Peace", which is led by Trump.

Kosovo joined several other countries in Washington for the Board's first meeting earlier this year to discuss funding for rebuilding Gaza and the potential deployment of thousands of foreign troops.

Under US command, the hypothetical force could include up to 20,000 soldiers, with Indonesia so far pledging 8,000 troops.

In March, Kosovo's prime minister Albin Kurti said his country was willing to take part due to the role international forces, particularly NATO peacekeepers, have played in his country after its 1998-1999 war of independence with Serbia.

So far, the future of Trump's plan remains unclear, with Israel and Hamas maintaining contradictory demands in ongoing negotiations amid accusations of ceasefire breaches on both sides.

The ceasefire followed more than two years of war triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023, cross-border attack on Israel.

At least 766 Palestinians have been killed since the October 10 ceasefire was announced, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

Arab World

UN: Average of 47 Women and Girls Killed Daily During Gaza War

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli strike that took place on Tuesday, according to medics, at Al-Shati camp in Gaza City, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli strike that took place on Tuesday, according to medics, at Al-Shati camp in Gaza City, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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UN: Average of 47 Women and Girls Killed Daily During Gaza War

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli strike that took place on Tuesday, according to medics, at Al-Shati camp in Gaza City, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli strike that took place on Tuesday, according to medics, at Al-Shati camp in Gaza City, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

An average of at least 47 women and girls were killed each day during the war in Gaza, according to figures published by UN Women on Friday, and the agency warned that deaths have continued six months into a fragile ceasefire.

More than 38,000 women and girls were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, according to the report by UN Women, an agency that focuses on gender equality.

"Women and girls accounted for a proportion of deaths far higher than those observed in previous ⁠conflicts in Gaza," ⁠Sofia Calltorp, the agency's humanitarian action head, told reporters in Geneva.

"They were individuals with lives and with dreams," she added, according to AFP.

The agency expressed concern that the killing of women and girls has continued since an October ceasefire, though it does not know exactly how many have died due to ⁠a lack of gender-aggregated data.

October's ceasefire halted two years of full-scale war but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone that makes up well over half of Gaza, with Hamas in power in the remaining, narrow, coastal strip.

More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to local medics, while militants have killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas have traded blame for ceasefire violations.

Israel says it aims to thwart attacks by Hamas and ⁠other militant factions.

UN ⁠children's agency UNICEF said on Friday that children continued to be killed and injured at an alarming rate in Gaza, with at least 214 reported dead in the last six months.

Around one million women and girls are displaced in Gaza, UN Women said.

"Extensive damage to infrastructure has made it almost impossible for women and girls in Gaza to access their basic needs like healthcare," said Calltorp.

World Health Organization figures show more than 500,000 women lack access to essential services including antenatal and postnatal care and management of sexually transmitted infections.

Arab World

Lebanon Says Israeli Strike in South Kills One Despite Truce

An Israeli helicopter fires a projectile, as it flies over Lebanon, after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, as seen from Israel, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
An Israeli helicopter fires a projectile, as it flies over Lebanon, after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, as seen from Israel, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike in South Kills One Despite Truce

An Israeli helicopter fires a projectile, as it flies over Lebanon, after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, as seen from Israel, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
An Israeli helicopter fires a projectile, as it flies over Lebanon, after a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, as seen from Israel, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)

Lebanese state media said an Israeli strike on a motorcycle in the south killed one person on Friday, despite the start of a 10-day ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The truce, announced by US President Donald Trump, went into force at midnight (Thursday 2100 GMT), seeking to end more than six weeks of war that has killed nearly 2,300 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million.

"A motorcyclist was killed in the town of Kunin, in the Bint Jbeil district, after being targeted by an enemy drone," Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

Under the terms of the truce, Israel reserves the right to continue targeting Iran-backed group Hezbollah to prevent "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Israel also said it will maintain a 10-kilometer (six-mile) security zone along the border in southern Lebanon.

The ceasefire agreement makes no mention of an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the area between this security zone and the Litani River, located around 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Israel, had not yet been "cleared of terrorists and weapons", and that if diplomatic pressure did not achieve that goal, then military action could resume.

However, Trump said on his Truth Social network that "Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the USA. Enough is enough!!!"

After a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end the previous war between Hezbollah and Israel, the latter continued to bomb Lebanon, usually saying it was targeting Hezbollah.