The Latest: Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claim responsibility for missile attack on Israel
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Israel as the war in the Middle East marks its one-month anniversary.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued a statement on Saturday on the rebel group’s Al-Masirah satellite television network. He said the Houthis fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
Israel’s military had earlier said it had intercepted a missile.
The attack came after Saree signaled in a vague statement Friday that the rebels would join the war.
It is the first time Israel has faced fire from Yemen since the start of the conflict last month. Houthi attacks on vessels during the Israel-Hamas war upended shipping in the Red Sea.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt will attend talks in Islamabad on Sunday aimed at ending the war, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said.
Here is the latest:
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement that 51 health workers in Lebanon have been killed this month. He also said “repeated attacks on health care are severely disrupting the delivery of services in southern Lebanon.”
This has been the second-deadliest month for health care workers in Lebanon since the U.N. agency began monitoring attacks on health care in the country in October 2023, he said.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said earlier that nine paramedics were killed in Israeli strikes Saturday, raising the death toll in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war to 46 paramedics and five other health care workers. Nine hospitals have been subjected to attacks and five closed as a result, he said.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of using medical facilities and ambulances for military purposes, without giving evidence.
Badr Abdelatty will take part in talks with his counterparts from Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia on the war in the Middle East.
In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the Egyptian foreign minister will hold consultations on regional developments and is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
But Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin declined to comment on uranium that he said is underground.
“There will be no nuclear weapons for Iran,” he added.
When asked about the Houthis, Defrin said Israel was preparing for a multi-front war.
“We will know how to defend Israeli civilians. … We act, we don’t talk,” he said, adding: “Anyone who threatens Israeli civilians, we will strike them.”
Magnitude beat race favorite Forever Young to win the Dubai Gold Cup in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday in the first major outdoors sporting event since the Iran war began.
The 4-year-old American horse, ridden by Jose Ortiz and trained by Steven Asmussen, successfully resisted a determined effort from Japan’s Forever Young with Ryusei Sakai on board, to win the almost $7 million prize.
Meydaan was third, followed by Imperial Emperor, both Irish horses.
Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi told a gathering of U.S. conservatives on Saturday that he’s ready to lead a transition away from the Islamic Republic and said when the “right moment arrives” he will call on the people of Iran to rise up.
Pahlavi spoke for nearly 30 minutes at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Dallas where he was interrupted several times by applause and cheers.
He praised President Donald Trump for initiating the military action against Iran’s current government.
The biggest crowd reactions came when he asked the crowd if they could envision Iran turning into a friend and ally of the United States.
“Can you imagine Iran going from death to America to God bless America?” he said.
Later, the crowd erupted again when he added: “President Trump is making America great again. I intend to make Iran great again.”
Hezbollah has launched some 250 projectiles from Lebanon in the past 24 hours, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines.
The official said most of the projectiles were aimed at Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and only 23 crossed the border into Israel. Northern Israel has still experienced constant sirens warning of projectiles from both Hezbollah and Iran.
The Israeli military said at least nine soldiers were injured, two severely, from Hezbollah rockets on Friday and Saturday.
-By Melanie Lidman
An Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian in southern Gaza on Saturday, according to a health official at Nasser hospital, where the body arrived. Earlier Saturday, another Israeli strike killed two Palestinians in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Gaza Strip has seen near-daily Israeli fire and strikes since a fragile ceasefire was reached in October, and nearly 692 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of violating the ceasefire.
The residence of Nechirvan Barzani, president of the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region of Iraq, in the city of Duhok was targeted Saturday, causing damage but no casualties, an official with the regional government told The Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the residence was empty at the time.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the attack in a phone call with Barzani, calling it a “heinous” act, according to a statement from his office.
Al-Sudani said a joint security and technical team from federal authorities and the northern Kurdish region’s government would investigate and take legal measures against those responsible.
Qubad Talabani, deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdish region, said that armed groups operating outside state control pose a growing threat to stability in the country.
- By Stella Martany
The Health Ministry in Beirut said Saturday that 47 people were killed and 112 wounded over the past 24 hours.
The ministry says 1,189 have been killed and 3,427 wounded since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2.
The Israeli military said it carried out widespread strikes overnight against Tehran, using more than 50 fighter jets to target weapons production infrastructure.
The military said the main target of the strikes was Iran’s naval weapons production facilities. Iran did not immediately acknowledge any strikes on its marine or naval programs.
Qatar’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted a number of drones fired from Iran, the first attack the Gulf state reports in over a week.
Qatar sounded the alarms to warn citizens against incoming fire on Friday but did not report any attacks following the alarms, according to an AP journalist.
A Navy ship carrying around 2,500 Marines has arrived in the Middle East, U.S. Central Command announced Saturday.
The USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, as well as the elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit that are aboard, are based in Japan. They were conducting exercises in the area around Taiwan when it was ordered to the Middle East almost two weeks ago.
U.S. Central Command said that in addition to the Marines, the Tripoli also brings transport and strike fighter aircraft, as well as amphibious assault assets to the region.
The USS Boxer and two other ships, along with another Marine Expeditionary Unit, have also been ordered to the region from San Diego.
Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom now says 11 people were lightly wounded in the attack in Eshtaol, near Jerusalem. Some were injured from the impact of the explosion and others hurt while running to shelters.
Among the wounded were a 75-year-old man whose roof collapsed and a 47-year-old whose doorway was blown off, medics said.
That includes joint production, cooperation in the energy sector, investment and sharing battlefield experience, Ukraine’s president said. He spoke with journalists via Zoom during an official visit in Qatar, the latest in his tour in the region.
“Simple sales do not interest us,” Zelenskyy said. “We want systemic relationships, where exporters earn revenue and Ukraine receives sufficient funds to invest in domestic production.”
Zelenskyy said Kyiv has already signed a security-related 10-year agreement with Saudi Arabia and a 10-year deal with Qatar, with a similar agreement with the United Arab Emirates expected in the coming days.
Experts warn that the Iran-backed Houthis have the potential to create a disastrous economic shock around the world.
If the Houthis ramp up their role in this conflict by targeting vessels in the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, it would not only further push up oil prices but destabilize “all of maritime security,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, a research institution. “The impact would not be limited to the energy market.”
As Iran strangles the Strait of Hormuz, countries have scrambled for alternative routes. Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is particularly crucial as it controls traffic for vessels heading to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. To get around the Strait of Hormuz closure, Saudi Arabia is sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through the chokepoint.
About 12% of the world’s trade typically passes through that waterway, including oil, natural gas, grain and everything from toys to electronics.
The military said nine soldiers were injured in two different attacks in southern Lebanon.
Two officers were severely injured, the military said in a statement, adding that they occurred during anti-tank missile fire and a rocket launched toward Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the total number of soldiers wounded since the war began.
Iran’s military joint command made the claim in a statement run by state media, without offering evidence.
The Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters said over 20 Ukrainians were in the warehouse in the United Arab Emirates and their fate was unknown.
In a news briefing, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi, however, called the Iranian allegations a “lie,” according to Ukraine’s public broadcaster.
The claim came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the Gulf region for talks with leaders of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar.
The Houthis have so far refrained from attacking shipping routes in the Red Sea, a move -- which if it happened -- would further disrupt the shipping industry and the global economy.
Any Houthi attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait would disrupt traffic through the Suez Canal, a crucial waterway for vessels bearing oil, gas and sundry goods to the Mediterranean Sea.
About 10% of global maritime trade — including 40% of container ship traffic — chugs through the canal each year.
Any disruption would mean vessels having to reroute around the southern tip of Africa, adding to insurance costs and delays in cargo deliveries. It would also potentially disrupt Saudi oil export to Asia through the Saudi Yanbu pot on the Red Sea.
Houthi rebels attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels, between November 2023 and January 2025.
One of two journalists killed in a strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday was targeted for being a suspected Hezbollah intelligence operative, the Israeli military said, without providing evidence.
Israel’s statement about Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib mirrored past Israeli military allegations against Palestinian journalists targeted during the war on Hamas.
The Israeli army claimed that Shoeib, a prominent Lebanese war correspondent, was “operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” The army also accused him of maintaining contact with Hezbollah militants and inciting against Israeli troops and civilians, without elaborating.
Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV said its reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same airstrike, along with Shoeib. The Israeli military did not mention her in its statement.
Al-Manar TV did not respond to the Israeli allegations, but reported on his killing in an airstrike and describing him as “distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events.”
Iran is skeptical about recent diplomatic efforts to stop the war in the Middle East, its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Turkish counterpart in a phone call Saturday.
According to a readout of the call on Iranian state-run media, Araghchi accused the U.S. of making “unreasonable demands” and exhibiting “contradictory actions” that raised doubts about the prospect of an agreement.
Recent U.S. moves, he said, have been “increased pessimism” on the Iranian side, without specifying which actions.
The Iranian readout said Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan assured Araghchi that “Iran’s pessimism toward the other side is understandable because Iran has twice been subjected to attack and military aggression in the midst of negotiations.”
The United Arab Emirates said its air defense systems responded to 20 ballistic missile and 37 drone attacks on Saturday.
The attacks wounded six people in an industrial zone in the capital, Abu Dhabi, where three fires were reported, authorities said.
The UAE’s Defense Ministry has reported 413 missile and 1,872 drone attacks since the start of the war. The attacks have killed 10 people, including two troops, and wounded 178 others, the ministry said.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said that its correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed Saturday in southern Lebanon, while Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV said its reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same airstrike.
Shoeib was well-known war correspondent in the country where he had covered south Lebanon for Al-Manar for nearly three decades.
Ftouni had made a live report from southern Lebanon just before the strike in Jezzine region.
The strike came days after an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.
A U.S. aircraft carrier has anchored in Croatia on its route from the Middle East amid the U.S. and Israeli monthlong war against Iran.
The U.S. 6th Fleet said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, anchored in the Port of Split in Croatia following its Adriatic Sea transit from Souda Bay, in Greece, where it conducted repairs and refueled.
The carrier docked last month at the American naval base at Souda Bay, stirring up protests on Crete ahead of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered the war.
Kuwait’s ports of Mubarak Al Kabeer and Shuwaikh have been damaged in drone and missile attacks in the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The ministry said forces responded to four ballistic missiles, one cruise missile, and seven drones attacked the oil-rich county in the past 24 hours.
No casualties were reported, it said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the UAE and met with his Emirati counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to discuss regional security in the Middle East.
“For Ukraine, this is also a matter of principle: terror must not prevail anywhere in the world. Protection must be sufficient everywhere,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X following his meeting with the Emirati leader. He said they had discussed “the security situation in the Emirates, Iranian strikes, and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which directly affects the global oil market.”
The Emirates News Agency said the two leaders discussed “security developments in the region amid ongoing military escalation and their implications for regional and international peace and security, as well as their impact on international navigation and the global economy.”
Zelenskyy said last week that Kyiv is helping five countries in the Middle East and Gulf region — the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan — to counter drone attacks on their territory.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday he has held “extensive discussions” with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on the ongoing regional hostilities and efforts aimed at end war.
Pezeshkian was briefed on Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts made by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to engage the United States as well as Gulf and other Islamic countries to help create conditions conducive to peace talks, Sharif’s office said in a statement.
Sharif expressed hope that “a viable path toward ending hostilities could be found collectively” during the conversation that lasted more than an hour.
Pezeshkian praised Pakistan’s peace efforts, stressing the need to build trust to facilitate dialogue and mediation., according to the statement.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt will attend talks in Islamabad on Sunday aimed at ending the war, Dar has said.
Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. 5th Fleet, said Saturday its air defense systems have responded to 20 missile and 23 drone attacks in the past 24 hours.
That brings the total number of projectiles fired at the Shiite majority country to 174 missiles and 385 drones since the start of the war in the Middle East on Feb. 28.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt will attend talks in Islamabad aimed at ending the war between the United States and Iran and easing regional tensions, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and officials said Saturday.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty will arrive Sunday for a two-day visit to “hold in-depth discussions on a range of issues, including efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region,” according to a statement.
The visiting ministers will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who said in a televised speech that Pakistan is pursuing “sincere and robust diplomatic efforts” to help stop the conflict through mediation.
The casualty toll from a missile attack early Saturday in Abu Dhabi has risen to six.
The Abu Dhabi Media Office said an additional Pakistani national was injured by falling debris in the vicinity of Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi when air defense systems intercepted a ballistic missile.
The attack caused three fires in the area which have been brought under control, it said.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Israel, their first since the war in the Middle East started.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued the claim in a statement aired Saturday morning by the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television.
The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile.
The attack came hours after Saree signaled in a vague statement Friday that the rebels would join the war that shocked the region and rattled the global economy.
He said the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
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