The US military said Sunday its forces shot down a cruise missile fired at an American destroyer warship from Huthi controlled areas of Yemen.
The attack appears to be the first against a US destroyer amid a growing number of missile and drone strikes or attempted strikes by the Huthis, on what they deem Israeli-linked shipping on the key Red Sea trade route.
"On January 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time) an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Huthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea," the United States Central Command said in a statement.
"The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hodeida by US fighter aircraft," according to CENTCOM. "There were no injuries or damage reported."
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The Huthis have said they are acting in solidarity with Gaza, where Hamas militants have been battling Israel for more than three months.
Earlier the United States denied Yemeni rebel reports that it carried out new attacks Sunday on rebel targets in Yemen.
Huthi media said US and British strikes had hit rebel-held Hodeida, but a US defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said, "No US or coalition strike occurred today."
US and British forces on Friday said they hit scores of rebel targets across Yemen, heightening fears that Israel's war with Palestinian Hamas militants could engulf the region.
Late Friday the US military said it had conducted a "follow-on" strike against a Huthi radar site, following an initial barrage early Friday against rebel military facilities.
Around 12 percent of global trade normally passes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea entrance between southwest Yemen and Djibouti, but the rebel attacks have affected trade flows.
Washington last month announced a maritime security initiative, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to protect maritime traffic in the area. But the Huthis have kept up attacks despite several warnings.
Hamas releases video showing three hostages alive
Palestinian militant group Hamas on Sunday released video footage it claimed showed three hostages alive in its custody in Gaza after being taken to the territory during the October 7 attack on Israel.
In the video, one woman and two men appear talking in Hebrew calling on the Israeli authorities to act for their return home. It was unclear when the footage was filmed.
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Many of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are likely to have been killed, a spokesman for the group's armed wing said Sunday, blaming the Israeli leadership for their fate.
"The fate of many of the enemy's hostages and detainees has become unknown in recent weeks and the rest have all entered the tunnel of the unknown due to the Zionist aggression," Abu Obeida said in a televised statement.
"Most likely, many of them were killed recently, the rest are in great danger every hour and the enemy's leadership and army bear full responsibility."
Abu Obeida said the group's allies from the "axis of resistance" had informed Hamas they would "expand their attacks" against Israeli troops in the coming days.
"After 100 days of battle... this is the enemy's leadership, gulping down pain and wading through the mud of failure and setback," he said.
Abu Obeida also accused Israeli forces of launching a "religious war" by destroying mosques in the Gaza Strip.
"The Zionist enemy, within 100 days, destroyed most of the mosques in the Gaza Strip," he said.
"He desecrated, burned, and bulldozed those that his vehicles reached on the ground, and stopped the call to prayer... in a clear religious war."
Three fighters, two Israelis die in clashes near Lebanon border
Three gunmen who crossed into Israel from Lebanon and two Israelis were killed in clashes and a strike along the frontier between the two countries on Sunday, the army and medics said.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip erupted on October 7, the Israel-Lebanon border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a televised speech on Sunday, said the Israelis had "failed" to achieve any of their goals in Gaza.
The Israeli military said troops patrolling a contested border area "identified a terrorist cell who crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and fired at the forces" overnight.
Three gunmen who clashed with troops were shot dead, the army said, revising an earlier statement that said four militants had been killed.
The army said five soldiers were wounded in the firefight.
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A group calling itself Kataeb Al-Ezz Al-Islamiya later said the fighters were from its ranks, Lebanese media reported.
The group said the assault was in response to the killing of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Aruri in a suburb of Beirut on January 2. A US defence official has told AFP that Israel carried out the strike that killed Aruri.
Later on Sunday, the Israeli military said warplanes struck Hezbollah positions following a missile strike on a house in the border community of Kfar Yuval that wounded multiple Israelis.
The Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said an Israeli man was pronounced dead after the missile strike in Kfar Yuval and a 70-year-old woman was in a serious condition.
The local municipality said later that the woman had died and the man who had died was her son.
The army earlier said the son was a member of a local village defence force but later a military spokesman said the two killed in Kfar Yuval were civilians.
Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks on Sunday including in Kfar Yuval, where it claimed to target Israeli soldiers, adding there were "injuries and deaths".
Violence on the border since October 7 has killed 190 people in Lebanon, including more than 140 Hezbollah fighters and over 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP tally.
In Israel's north, at least 15 people, including nine soldiers, have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
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Israeli forces kill five Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, including two who were shot dead when their car broke through a checkpoint, sources on both sides said.
Troops chased a car that had run a checkpoint near the city of Hebron and "fired toward the terrorists and neutralised them", the Israeli army said in a statement.
The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah confirmed the men were killed, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it had received their bodies.
Late on Sunday, the health ministry said two teenagers had been killed by Israeli troops near Ramallah in another incident.
The army said two assailants had thrown an explosive at soldiers at a military base in the area.
"The soldiers neutralised the assailants. No IDF (army) injuries were reported," the army said in a statement.
In a third incident further north, the Palestinian health ministry said another young man had been shot dead by Israeli forces in a refugee camp near the city of Jericho.
Medical sources in Jericho told an AFP correspondent that a 16-year-old was killed during an army raid on the camp to arrest a wanted man.
No clashes were reported and the Israeli army has not yet commented on the incident.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since October 7, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that sparked a full-scale conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 343 people in the West Bank since then, according to an AFP tally based on sources on both sides.
More than 520 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank last year, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Over the same period, Palestinian militants carried out attacks in Israel and the West Bank that killed at least 41 people, according to the Shin Bet security agency.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.
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