A rocket fired from Yemen strikes an area of Tel Aviv overnight, lightly
injuring 16 people
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 [December 21, 2024]
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an
area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people slightly injured by
shattered glass from nearby windows, the Israeli military said Saturday.
A further 14 people sustained minor injuries as they rushed to shelters
when air raid sirens sounded before the projectile hit just before 4
a.m. Saturday, the military said.
The Houthis later issued a statement on their Telegram channel saying
they had aimed at a military target, which they did not identify, with a
hypersonic ballistic missile.
The attack comes less than two days after a series of Israeli airstrikes
on Yemen’s Houthi rebel-held capital, Sanaa, and port city of Hodeida
killed at least nine people. The Israeli strikes were in response to a
Houthi attack in which a long-range missile hit an Israeli school
building. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an
unspecified military target in central Israel on Thursday.
The Israeli military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more
than 200 missiles and drones during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The
Houthis have also been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of
Aden — attacks they say won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the
Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports “that will lead to the immediate and
significant reduction in port capacity,” United Nations spokesman
Stephane Dujarric said. The port at Hodeida has been key for food
shipments into Yemen in its decade-long civil war.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said both sides’ attacks risk
further escalation in the region and undermine U.N. mediation efforts.
Israeli strikes in Gaza claim more lives
In the Gaza Strip on Saturday, mourners held the funerals of 19 people —
12 of them children — killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.
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An Israeli soldier observes the site where the missile launched from
Yemen landed Jaffa district, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 21,
2024. (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum)
One strike Friday afternoon hit a residential building in the
built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least
seven Palestinians, including five children and one woman, and
injuring 16 others, health officials said.
In Gaza City, an Israeli strike on a house overnight killed 12
people, including seven children and two women, according to Ahli
hospital where the bodies were taken.
Mourners gathered at the hospital in Gaza City Saturday morning.
Women comforted each other as they wept over the bodies before they
were carried out of the hospital. One man, stony-faced, cradled a
tiny shroud-wrapped body in his arms as he carried it along the
funeral procession.
In the Aqsa hospital of Deir al Balah, white body bags containing
those killed in Nuseirat were taken from the hospital morgue and
loaded onto the back of an open truck to be taken for burial.
Israel faces heavy international criticism over the unprecedented
levels of civilian casualties in Gaza and questions about whether it
has done enough to prevent them.
Israel says it only strikes militants, and blames the Hamas militant
group for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in
residential areas.
More than 45,200 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since
October 2023, when a Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200
people and triggered the devastating 14-month war in Gaza. Local
health officials do not distinguish between civilians and
combatants, but have said more than half of the fatalities are women
and children.
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