Israel strikes Yemen's Hodeidah as Hezbollah confirms death of commander

Body of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah removed from rubble in Beirut suburb

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At least four people have been killed and 29 injured in Israeli air strikes on the Yemeni city of Hodeidah, the Houthi-run health ministry said on Sunday, as aerial attacks on Lebanon over the weekend were revealed to have killed several high-ranking members of the Hezbollah militia.

Israel's military said dozens of its aircraft had attacked targets in Ras Isa and Hodeidah, both held by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group, including power stations and oil infrastructure, in retaliation for recent Houthi attacks on Israel.

The dead in Hodeidah included a port worker and three engineers at the Al Hali electricity plant, the group said in a statement posted to Telegram.

Civil defence teams were battling blazes at Al Hali and Al Khateeb power stations, and witnesses told The National they could see plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky near the port of Hodeidah.

“Over the past year, the Houthis have been operating under the direction and funding of Iran, and in co-operation with Iraqi militias in order to attack the State of Israel, undermine regional stability, and disrupt global freedom of navigation,” the Israeli army said.

The Houthis last claimed strikes on Israel on Saturday, when they said they had launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. The missile was intercepted by Israeli air defences.

Since October last year, the Houthis have repeatedly fired missiles towards Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians amid the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip.

The war in Gaza began on October 7, when Hamas and allied militant groups killed about 1,200 people and abducted about 240 during attacks on southern Israeli communities. Health authorities in Gaza say about 41,600 people have been killed in the enclave since the conflict broke out, while most of the territory's 2.3 million population has been displaced at least once.

Israel last struck Yemen in July, when its warplanes bombed a fuel depot in Hodeidah, a key supply line providing food and fuel for the population.

In Lebanon, where Israel continued its campaign of air strikes at the weekend, Hezbollah on Sunday announced the deaths of more of its senior members, just days after the Iran-backed militia's leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh on Friday evening.

Israel had said that Ali Karaki, commander of Hezbollah's southern front, was killed in a strike on September 24. This was denied by Hezbollah, and Mr Karaki was the target of another assassination attempt earlier last week.

Hezbollah on Sunday confirmed Mr Karaki's death “great pride and honour” in the attack that killed Nasrallah, in a statement carried by Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.

Mr Karaki, a member of Hezbollah's jihad council, had overseen the militia's operations in southern Lebanon since 1982, and was responsible for launching attacks on Israel since October 8.

The Israeli army said more than 20 members of Hezbollah and allied militant groups were killed in the strike on Friday, including Ibrahim Hossein Jazini, head of Nasrallah’s security unit, Samir Toufik Dib, an adviser to Nasrallah, and Abdel Amir Muhammad Sablini, whom Israel accused of “building the strength” of Hezbollah. The army said the building was near a UN-run school, echoing allegations it has made that Hamas operates from schools in Gaza.

Mr Karaki's death is the latest in a string of high-level killings over the past two weeks, which have dealt a major blow to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis form part of the “Axis of Resistance”, an Iran-led political and military coalition in the Middle East formed to oppose Israel. The coalition also includes armed groups in Syria and Iraq.

Ibrahim Aqil, also a member of Hezbollah's jihad council, was reported to have been promoted to Nasrallah's second in command after the July assassination of Fouad Shukr, but was killed in an air strike on Dahieh on September 20. Ibrahim Qubaisi, head of the group's missiles and rockets unit, was killed on September 24.

The confirmation of Mr Karaki's death came amid reports that Nasrallah's body was removed from the rubble in Dahieh, southern Beirut, on Sunday afternoon. His body had no direct wounds and it appeared the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast, sources told Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had “settled a score” by killing Nasrallah.

“We settled the score with the one responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French,” Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday. “Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist.”

His comments alluded to 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed 63 people at the US embassy, along with 241 US marines and 58 French paratroopers at their barracks.

As long as Nasrallah was alive, he “would quickly restore the capabilities we had eroded from Hezbollah”, Mr Netanyahu said. Nasrallah's death “changes the balance of power in the region for years to come”, he added.

“So, I gave the order – and Nasrallah is no longer with us.”

Many Israelis have celebrated Nasrallah’s killing, while protests against his death have been held across the region, including in Iraq, Yemen and Iran.

Mr Netanyahu also said his country was on the cusp of “what appears to be a historic turning point” in the fight against its enemies.

Meanwhile, in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel “did not achieve victory” by killing Nasrallah.

In comments carried by Iranian state media, Mr Khamenei said Nasrallah had been killed “while he was engaged in planning to defend the homeless people of Beirut suburbs and their destroyed houses and their loved ones, just as he had been planning and fighting for decades to defend the oppressed people of Palestine”.

Hezbollah has lost “an unparalleled leader”, Mr Khamenei said, but his demise will not be in vain, as Iran-backed groups “will gain strength” from his killing and intensify attacks on Israel.

“The blows of the resistance front against the weary and decaying body of the Zionist regime will, with the help of God, be more crushing,” he added, declaring five days of mourning in Iran.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon continued into Sunday, with strikes reported in the Baalbek-Hermel province and in the south. Six bodies were recovered from the rubble of a house in the Bekaa Valley, state media reported, with five others also believed to have been killed in the strike.

At least 24 people were killed and 29 injured in Israeli strikes on two buildings near the southern city of Sidon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The ministry reported that 33 people were killed on Saturday, bringing the total number of deaths over the past two weeks above 1,000 people. At least 6,000 have been injured.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday that Israeli attacks may have displaced up to a million Lebanese, about a sixth of the country's population.

“Lebanon is experiencing the largest wave of displacement in its history,” Mr Mikati said after a meeting of the government's emergency committee in Beirut. “Our priority is to halt the Israeli aggression through diplomatic efforts. We have no other choice.”

The violence is expected to intensify amid reports that Israeli troops may have already crossed the border. Photographs appear to show tanks on the Israeli side of the frontier, while US officials told ABC that cross-border operations have either begun or are imminent.

Israel does not yet appear to have decided whether to launch a ground operation, but is prepared for one, the officials said. If a ground operation does take place, its scope will be limited, they added.