Israel kills another 25 in Gaza, intercepts missile from Yemen

CAIRO: The unending Israeli military strikes killed at least 23 more Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including a local journalist and a senior rescue service official, local health authorities said.

On the other hand, Israel claimed it had intercepted a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthis.

The latest deaths from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

In Jabalia, they said local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an airstrike that hit his house earlier on Sunday.

Another airstrike in Nuseirat killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory’s civil emergency service, and his wife in their house, medics added.

There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said that Abu Warda’s death raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to 220.

In a separate statement, the media office said Israeli forces were in control of 77 per cent of the Gaza Strip, either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardment that keeps residents away from their homes.

The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza.

On Friday, the Israeli military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.

Israel has so far killed more than 53,900 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, and devastated the coastal strip.

HOUTHIS FIRE ANOTHER MISSILE

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards Israel in an attack by Yemen’s Houthis.

Sirens sounded in several areas in the country, the Israeli military said earlier.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have continued to fire missiles at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Most of the group’s missiles have been intercepted or have fallen short.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Sunday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.

President Donald Trump announced this month that the US would stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen because the group had agreed to stop attacking U.S. ships under an Oman-mediated ceasefire deal. However, the accord did not include Israel.