US military says it hit 15 Houthi targets in Yemen
US forces carried out strikes on 15 targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels, the US military has confirmed.
The Guardian understands that that there was no UK involvement in Friday’s airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted strikes on 15 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen today at about 5 p.m. (Sanaa time). These targets included Houthi offensive military capabilities. These actions were taken to protect freedom of… pic.twitter.com/w8dC2lacpP
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 4, 2024
Key events
US military says it hit 15 Houthi targets in Yemen
Israel should seek ‘other alternatives’ to striking Iran oil sites, says Biden
Death toll in Lebanon surpasses 2,000
Three hospitals in Lebanon suspend service amid ongoing Israeli bombardment
UN condemns Israels ‘unlawful’ airstrike on West Bank refugee camp
US official says air attacks struck a number of Houthi targets in Yemen
Houthi media reports US strikes on Yemeni cities
At least 29 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Friday, say medics
Israeli strikes force closure of Lebanon’s Marjayoun hospital after attack kills four paramedics – report
Sirens sound in southern Israel for first time in two months, Israeli military says
Death toll in Gaza reaches 41,802, says health ministry
Middle East ‘on precipice of a region-wide armed conflict’, ICRC warns
IDF: Hezbollah communications commander killed in strikes on Beirut
‘You constantly hear drones’: first person account of life in Lebanon amid Israel’s invasion
Summary of the day so far…
Aim is for second phase of Gaza polio campaign to begin in mid October – World Health Organization
Iran’s supreme leader says attack against Israel was ‘minimum punishment for Israeli crimes’
What did Khamenei say in his sermon?
Iran’s supreme leader delivers rare sermon in Tehran
Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon ‘significantly bombed’, UN says
Iran’s foreign minister lands in Beirut
Israeli military warns residents of over 20 more southern Lebanese towns to evacuate
Masnaa crossing: Israeli strike cuts off key road connecting Lebanon to Syria – report
Likely Nasrallah successor target of latest Israeli strikes on Beirut, US media reports
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to give first public sermon in five years
‘No action going on right now’, Biden says
At least 18 people killed in Israeli strike in occupied West Bank
Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak predicts large-scale attack on Iranian oil industry
Opening summary
Here’s more from Joe Biden’s briefing at the White House, during which he told reporters that he would consider alternatives to striking Iranian oilfields if he were in Israel’s shoes.
Asked if he thought that by not engaging in diplomacy, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Nentanyahu was trying to influence the upcoming US general election, Biden replied:
Whether he is trying to influence the election, I don’t know but I am not counting on that.
He added that “no administration has done more to help Israel than I have.”
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. … And whether [Netanyahu is] trying to influence the election or not, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
— Biden on whether Israeli PM Netanyahu is delaying a diplomatic agreement to influence the U.S. election. pic.twitter.com/VfxL2Fev8x
— The Recount (@therecount) October 4, 2024 Here’s our video report on the latest US airstrikes on more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen.
US forces carried out strikes on 15 targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels, the US military has confirmed.
The Guardian understands that that there was no UK involvement in Friday’s airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted strikes on 15 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen today at about 5 p.m. (Sanaa time). These targets included Houthi offensive military capabilities. These actions were taken to protect freedom of… pic.twitter.com/w8dC2lacpP
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) October 4, 2024 US president Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Washington just now, urged Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities.
If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oilfields.
On Thursday, Biden said the US was “discussing” with Israel the possibility of Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure.
His off-the-cuff remark, which immediately sent oil prices soaring, did not make clear whether his administration was holding internal discussions or talking directly to Israel, nor did he clarify what his attitude was to such an attack.
Asked to clarify those comments, Biden told reporters today:
Look, the Israelis have not concluded what they’re going to do in terms of a strike. That’s under discussion.
Joe Biden, the US president, has been speaking at a news conference on Friday.
Biden said no administration “has helped Israel more than I have” and that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “should remember” that.
He said Israel is “not going to make a decision immediately” on how to retaliate against Iran’s missile attacks earlier this week.
Israel has “every right to respond” to attacks on them from Iranians and others like Hezbollah, he said, adding:
But the fact is that [the Israelis] have to be very much more careful about dealing with civilian casualties.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, according to figures by the Lebanese government.
Most have been killed in the past two weeks, when cross-border fighting turned into a wide-ranging Israeli assault, the government said, Reuters reported.
Death toll in Lebanon surpasses 2,000
Most killed in the past 2 weeks when cross-border fighting turned into a wide-ranging Israeli assault
— Lebanese government
2,011 killed
9,535 wounded
— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) October 4, 2024 We reported earlier that a third UK government chartered flight for British nationals has left Lebanon on Friday.
Ireland’s Micheál Martin has confirmed that 24 Irish citizens and dependents have been evacuated from Lebanon on Friday.
Germany is flying another 219 of its nationals out of Lebanon on its third military flight this week. This brings to 460 the total number of German citizens evacuated from Lebanon on German military flights.
A flight carrying 11 Japanese citizens, a non-Japanese relative of one of them, and four French nationals left Lebanon and arrived in Jordan on Friday, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.
A Dutch military transport plane landed in Beirut earlier on Friday to pick up citizens of the Netherlands, with scores of people expected to board the plane.
The US state department said about 350 American citizens, green card holders and family members have now left Lebanon on US-organised contract flights this week.
Three Lebanese hospitals have announced the suspension of work amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment, which has led to the deaths of dozens of on-duty medics in the past week.
As my colleague William Christou reported earlier, the entire staff of Marjayoun public hospital in south Lebanon were evacuated on Friday morning after an Israeli drone strike killed four paramedics, putting the hospital out of service, the country’s national news agency (NNA) reported.
The hospital was one of the major medical providers in south Lebanon, particularly as Israel’s intensified aerial campaign which started on 23 September displaced many medical staff from the region.
Sainte Therese hospital, on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, said it suffered “huge damage” after “Israeli warplanes’ target[ed] the vicinity” of the facility on Thursday which “led to the halt of hospital services”, AFP reported, citing a NNA statement.
The head of the Marjayoun government hospital, Mounes Kalakesh, told multiple news outlets that an Israeli airstrike “targeted ambulances at the main entrance to the hospital”. Five paramedics were killed and seven were wounded, he said.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at least 28 on-duty medics were killed in the space of 24 hours in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, earlier today urged the international community to pressure Israel “to allow rescue and relief teams to reach bombed sites and allow them to move” casualties.
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, where funerals were held on Friday for some of the 18 people killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Among those killed in the strike on Tulkarm refugee camp yesterday was a family of four including two children, according to Palestian reports
It was the first airstrike by an Israeli jet in the West Bank since the second intifada, which ran from 2000 to 2005.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but the current raids as well as comments by Israeli officials mark an escalation.
As we reported earlier, the UN rights office has condemned what it called an “unlawful” strike by Israel.
Here’s more on the airstrikes that were launched at Houthi targets in several parts of Yemen on Friday.
As we reported earlier, US officials told Associated Press that the US and UK militaries struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen.
But the Guardian now understands that that there was no UK involvement in the airstrikes today.
The strikes were targeted at weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at roughly five locations, according to the US officials.
According to the Houthi media, seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sana’a, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province, according to Houthi reports. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sana’a.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, will travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday evening to begin a four-day trip that will end in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Barrot is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan over the weekend before arriving in Israel ahead of the 7 October anniversary, Reuters is reporting, citing a French diplomatic source.
His trip comes as France seeks to revive stalled diplomatic efforts in the region. Barrot visited Lebanon earlier this week, during which he said that Paris would step up its support for the Lebanese army.
The UN has condemned what it called an “unlawful” airstrike by Israel on a refugee camp in Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on Thursday that killed at least 18 people.
The Israeli strike is part of a “highly concerning pattern of unlawful use of force” by the Israeli security forces (ISF) during “military-like operations” in the occupied West Bank, the UN rights office said in a statement.
These operations have caused “widespread harm to Palestinians and significant damage to buildings and infrastructure.” it said.
Thursday’s strike was “another clear example of ISF’s systematic resort to lethal force in the West Bank that is frequently unnecessary, disproportionate, and therefore unlawful,” it said.
At least 18 people were killed in the airstrike on Tulkarm refugee camp that the Israeli military has claimed killed a local Hamas leader. Among the dead, according to Palestinan reports, was a family of four including two children, named as Mohammed Abu Zahra, his wife, Sajaa, and their two children, Karam and Sham.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the attack as a “heinous crime” and a “massacre”.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike in the northern West Bank, describing it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement.
The UN rights office called for an independent probe into the incident, adding:
The levelling of an entire building filled with people via aerial bombing shows flagrant disregard for Israel’s obligations.
The US and UK militaries struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, AP is reporting, citing US officials.
As we reported earlier, the strikes were targeted at weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group.
Military aircraft and warships bombed Houthi strongholds at roughly five locations, according to the officials.
According to the Houthi media, seven strikes hit the airport in Hodeida, a major port city, and the Katheib area, which has a Houthi-controlled military base.
Four more strikes hit the Seiyana area in Sana’a, the capital, and two strikes hit the Dhamar province, according to Houthi reports. The Houthi media office also reported three air raids in Bayda province, southeast of Sana’a.
Hisham Al–Omeisy, a political analyst, says the latest US airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen mark “a new phase of the escalation” in the country.
Previous US-led strikes on Houthi targets have been directed at the Red Sea coast and port, he writes.
According to Houthi media reports, Friday’s strikes targeted Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, Hodeida, as well as Dhamar, south of the capital, and Mukayras, southeast of Sana’a.
Looks like we just entered a new phase of the escalation in #Yemen. Airstrikes now targeted Sana’a, Dhamar and Hudaydah. No longer limited to the Red Sea coast and the port. It has been a while since jets bombed the capital, ever since ceasefire went into effect in 2022. pic.twitter.com/fwL6AT2cHL
— Hisham Al-Omeisy هشام العميسي (@omeisy) October 4, 2024 The US airstrikes carried out on Houthi targets in several parts of Yemen on Friday came after the Iran-backed group claimed they shot down a US military drone flying over Yemen earlier this week.
Since last year, the Houthis have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea, acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Iran-backed group have been firing missiles, sending armed drones and launching boats laden with explosives at commercial ships with ties to Israeli, US and UK entities.
Just last week, the Houthi group claimed responsibility for an attack targeted three US warships in the Red Sea as they were reportedly sailing to support Israel.
US military says it hit 15 Houthi targets in Yemen
Israel should seek ‘other alternatives’ to striking Iran oil sites, says Biden
Death toll in Lebanon surpasses 2,000
Three hospitals in Lebanon suspend service amid ongoing Israeli bombardment
UN condemns Israels ‘unlawful’ airstrike on West Bank refugee camp
