Huthis fire two more missiles at Israel

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said Tuesday that they had fired two missiles at Israel, hours after the Israeli military said it had intercepted a projectile launched from the country.

"The first (attack) targeted Ben Gurion Airport" in Tel Aviv, and the second was fired at a power station south of Jerusalem, a Huthi military statement said.

The rebels also said they had attacked the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. There was no immediate comment from the US military.

Late on Monday, the Israeli military said it had shot down a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.

The Huthis, who control much of war-torn Yemen, have been firing missiles and drones at Israel, and at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Last week, Israeli fighter jets carried out retaliatory strikes that killed four people at Sanaa international airport, where the World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was waiting for a flight.

Earlier, the Israeli military said that it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have been firing missiles and drones at Israel and ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in what they describe as solidarity with Palestinians since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out in October of last year.

In recent weeks, they have claimed to have fired several missiles at Israel, triggering retaliatory strikes from Israel targeting the rebels' strategic assets and infrastructure.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Israel's emergency service provider, Magen David Adom, reported that it had received no reports of any casualties so far.

On Saturday, Israel intercepted a similar missile launched from Yemen.

The Iran-backed Huthis have controlled large parts of Yemen since seizing Sanaa and ousting the government in 2014.

They have stepped up their attacks since November's ceasefire between Israel and another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has also struck Yemen, including targeting Sanaa's international airport on Thursday.

An Israeli statement said its targets included "military infrastructure" at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida -- a major entry point for humanitarian aid -- as well as other facilities at several ports.

Huthis use these sites "to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials", the statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the Huthis, saying that Israeli strikes against them would "continue until the job is done".

"We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil," he said in a video statement last week.

Defence Minister Israel Katz also recently declared: "We will hunt down all of the Huthis' leaders –- nobody will be able to evade the long arm of Israel."

The latest warnings from top Israeli officials came after a missile fired by the Huthis wounded 16 people in Israel's main commercial city of Tel Aviv.

That attack prompted strikes by the United States against the rebels in Sanaa.

American and British forces have repeatedly struck rebel targets in Yemen this year in response to Huthi attacks on shipping in Red Sea-area waters vital to global trade.

In July, a Huthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting the first Israeli retaliation on Hodeida.

Two killed in Gaza as aid convoy looted

Two people have been killed in northern Gaza as gunmen attacked an aid convoy, the World Food Programme said Monday, prompting Hamas to accuse to UN agency of having failed to coordinate security.

Gazans face dire conditions after nearly 15 months of war, triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with humanitarian agencies repeatedly warning not enough aid was reaching Palestinians in need due in part to looting as well as Israeli restrictions.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that "a coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners" on Sunday "was faced with violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two".

"Amidst the armed looting, five trucks of commodities were lost," it added.

Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that "a catastrophic mistake" by the WFP "claimed the lives of two citizens and injured dozens with bullets".

"We hold it fully responsible and demand that it not violate the protocol followed regarding coordination to secure aid trucks," the statement said.

The WFP said in its statement that for the past two weeks, "nearly every movement of aid through crossings in south and central Gaza has resulted in violence, looting and tragic deaths due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza."

The organisation said that it was still following "procedures of coordination set in place in previous months" and that it had "repeatedly warned of the dangers of movement in the absence of law and order" in the Palestinian territory.

For months, both Israel and aid agencies including the WFP have noted widespread looting by armed gangs, as well as civilians desperate for supplies.

Humanitarian agencies also say the delivery routes they take through Gaza are sometimes blocked by Israeli military activity.

Aid organisations have repeatedly warned of the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, saying civilians are starving and that aid shipments in recent months have been lower than at any time during the war.