Israel pounds Lebanon, Yemen as violence widens
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT—Israel said it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday, expanding its confrontation with Iran’s allies in the region after killing the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
The airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah were in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days, Israel said, amid fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and Israel’s main ally the United States.
The strikes took place as Israel attacked more targets in Lebanon, where its bombardment over two weeks has killed a string of top Hezbollah leaders.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks, without saying how many were civilians. The government said a million people—a fifth of the population—had evacuated.
The health ministry said 14 medics had been killed in airstrikes over the past two days.
Israeli drones hovered over Beirut overnight and for much of Sunday, with the loud blasts of new airstrikes echoing around the Lebanese capital.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire across the border since the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.
Widening offensive
Yemen’s Houthis have launched sporadic attacks on Israel throughout that time and disrupted Red Sea shipping.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Our message is clear—for us, no place is too far.”
Israel rapidly ramped up its attacks on Hezbollah two weeks ago with the declared goal of making northern areas safe for residents to return to their homes, killing much of the group’s leadership. Israel’s defense minister is now discussing widening the offensive.
Nasrallah’s death dealt a particularly significant blow to the group which he led for 32 years, and it was followed by new Hezbollah rocket fire on Israel, while Iran said his death would be avenged.
The United States has urged a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon, but has also authorized its military to reinforce in the region in a sign of the growing unease.
In Iran, which helped create Hezbollah in the early 1980s, senior figures mourned the death of a senior Revolutionary Guards member killed alongside Nasrallah, and Tehran called for a UN Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s killing, sources told Reuters.
Nasrallah’s body was recovered intact from the site of Friday’s strike, a medical source and a security source told Reuters on Sunday.
Nasrallah had not only made Hezbollah into a powerful domestic force in Lebanon during his 32 years as leader, but helped turn it into the linchpin of Iran’s network of allied groups in the Arab world.
In Beirut, some displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront.
