Israeli military says it has struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to attacks

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The Israeli army said Saturday it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day.

The Israeli strikes appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, and they threatened to open a new front in the region as Israel battles proxies of Iran.

A number of “military targets” were hit in the western port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold, the Israeli army said, adding that its attack was in response to “hundreds of attacks” against Israel in recent months.

“The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.

The Ministry of Health in Sanaa said that 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll of the strikes in Hodeidah, most of them with severe burns.

Israel’s military said it alone carried out the strikes and “our friends were updated.” An Israeli Defense Forces official didn't say how many sites were targeted, but told journalists that the port is the main entry point for Iranian weapons. The official didn't say whether it was Israel’s first attack on Yemen.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on X that the “blatant Israeli aggression” targeted fuel storage facilities and the province’s power station. He said the attacks aim “to increase the suffering of the people and to pressure Yemen to stop supporting Gaza.”

Abdulsalam said the attacks will only make Yemen's people and armed forces more determined to support Gaza. “There will be impactful strikes,” Mohamed Ali al-Houthi of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen wrote on X.

A media outlet controlled by Houthi rebels in Yemen, Al-Masirah TV, said the strikes on storage facilities for oil and diesel at the port and on the local electricity company caused deaths and injuries, and several people had severe burns. It said there was a large fire at the port and power cuts were widespread.

Health officials in Yemen said the strikes killed a number of people and wounded others, but didn't elaborate.

The drone attack by Houthi rebels killed one person in the center of Tel Aviv and wounded at least 10 others near the U.S. Embassy early Friday.

Virtually all projectiles fired from the southern Arabian country toward Israel have been intercepted. Israel said air defenses detected the drone on Friday but an “error” occurred. Experts have expressed doubt about the Houthis’ ability to overwhelm Israel’s air defense system from about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away.

"The distance just makes it difficult to launch the kind of barrage that would be necessary to inflict major damage,” said Fabian Hinz, a missile expert and research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Since January, U.S. and U.K. forces have been striking targets in Yemen, in response to the Houthis' attacks on commercial shipping that the rebels have described as retaliation for Israel's actions in the war in Gaza. However, many of the ships targeted weren't linked to Israel.

The joint force airstrikes so far have done little to deter the Iran-backed force.

Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran denies. In recent years, U.S. naval forces have intercepted a number of ships packed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and missile parts en route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The Houthis have long-range ballistic missiles, smaller cruise missiles and “suicide drones,” all capable of reaching southern Israel, according to weapons experts. The Houthis are open about their arsenal, regularly parading new missiles through the streets of Sanaa.

Also Saturday, at least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes that hit refugee camps in central Gaza overnight, according to Palestinian health officials, as cease-fire talks in Cairo appeared to make progress.

Among the dead in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps were three children and one woman, according to Palestinian ambulance teams that transported the bodies to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Associated Press journalists counted the 13 corpses.

Earlier, a medical team delivered a live baby from a Palestinian woman killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat on Thursday. Ola al-Kurd, 25, was rushed by emergency workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in the hope of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told the AP that a baby boy had been delivered.

The still-unnamed newborn is stable, but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, Dr. Khalil Dajran said on Friday.

Al-Kurd's “husband and a relative survived yesterday’s strike, while everyone else died,” Majid al-Kurd, the deceased woman's cousin, told the AP on Saturday. "The baby is in good health based on what doctors said.”

The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.

Hamas’ attack in October killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 20-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces late Friday. Commenting on the shooting, the Israeli army said its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians hurling rocks at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar.

A witness said that Ibrahim Zaqeq wasn't directly involved in the clashes and was standing nearby. Zaqeq "just looked at them, they shot him in the head,” Thare Abu Hashem said.

On Saturday, Hamas identified Zaqeq as one of its members.

Violence has surged in the territory since the war in Gaza began. At least 577 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since then, according to the Ramallah-based Health Ministry, which tracks Palestinian deaths.

In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, are continuing to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel that would release Israeli hostages captive by the group in Gaza is “inside the 10-yard line,” but added "we know that anything in the last 10 yards are the hardest.”

Wafaa Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Jack Jeffery reported from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the first name of the U.S. secretary of state is Antony, not Anthony.

An injured Yemeni worker receives medical treatment at Al Thawrah hospital in Hodeidah, in western Yemen, following attacks, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

An injured Yemeni worker receives medical treatment at Al Thawrah hospital in Hodeidah, in western Yemen, following attacks, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

Oil tanks burn at the port in Hodeidah, Yemen, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

Oil tanks burn at the port in Hodeidah, Yemen, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

Oil tanks burn at the port in Hodeidah, Yemen, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

Oil tanks burn at the port in Hodeidah, Yemen, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

In this image from video, smoke and flames rise from a site in Hodeidah, Yemen, on Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army says it struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

In this image from video, smoke and flames rise from a site in Hodeidah, Yemen, on Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army says it struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. (AP Photo)

A Palestinian baby boy, not yet named, who was delivered prematurely after his mother Ola al-Kurd was killed in an Israeli strike, lies in an incubator at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Friday, July 19, 2024. The latest casualties follow a rare moment of hope in war ravaged Gaza, after a medical teams recovered a live baby from a heavily pregnant Palestinian mother killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening. The still-unnamed newborn is stable but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, doctors said. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian baby boy, not yet named, who was delivered prematurely after his mother Ola al-Kurd was killed in an Israeli strike, lies in an incubator at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Friday, July 19, 2024. The latest casualties follow a rare moment of hope in war ravaged Gaza, after a medical teams recovered a live baby from a heavily pregnant Palestinian mother killed in an airstrike that hit her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening. The still-unnamed newborn is stable but has suffered from a shortage of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, doctors said. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An abandoned, 22-story building in Lake Charles, Louisiana — once an icon in the city that became a symbol of destruction from hurricanes Laura and Delta — was imploded Saturday after sitting vacant for nearly four years.

The Hertz Tower crashed down in a matter of seconds after a demolition crew set off a series of explosions inside. The tower fell in a large cloud of dust into a pile about five stories high.

The building, formerly known as the Capital One Tower, had been a dominant feature of the city's skyline for more than four decades. However, after a series of hurricanes ripped through southwest Louisiana in 2020, the building became an eyesore, its windows shattered and covered in shredded tarps.

For years the owners of the building, the Los Angeles-based real estate firm Hertz Investment Group, promised to repair the structure once they settled with their insurance provider Zurich in court, The Advocate reported. The estimated cost of bringing the building back up to code was $167 million. Eventually, the two parties settled for an undisclosed amount.

The demolition was funded by $7 million in private money secured by the city. Hertz still owns the property and the future of the site is undetermined, according to the city.

Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter described the implosion of the building as “bittersweet.”

“I know how hard the city tried to work with several development groups to see it saved, but ultimately ... it proved to be too tall a task,” Hunter said before the implosion. He was in office during the hurricanes. “At this juncture, I am ready for a resolution. It’s been four years. It’s been long enough.”

Lake Charles, which sits on the banks of the Calcasieu River and is a two-hour drive from Houston, is home to around 80,000 residents. While the city is known for its copious amounts of festivals, bayous, casinos and its Cajun flair, it also has been labeled by the Weather Channel as America's “most-weather battered city.”

Hurricane Delta crashed ashore in southern Louisiana in October 2020 just six weeks after Laura took a similar, destructive path onto the U.S. Gulf Coast. At the time, Lake Charles was already reeling from damage caused by Laura, which battered roofs, claimed more than 25 lives in the region and left mud and debris filling streets.

The Hertz tower offers an example of the city’s long road to recovery following back-to-back hurricanes that inflicted an estimated $22 billion in damage, according to the National Hurricane Center.

While there are signs of rebuilding and growth in much of Lake Charles, there are still buildings that remain in disarray and residents living in the same conditions as four years ago — waiting for financial relief to rebuild their homes, looking for affordable housing after the hurricanes' destruction exacerbated the housing crisis or stuck in court with their insurance provider to get a fair payout.

FILE - This aerial photo shows broken windows of the Hertz Building from Hurricane Laura, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, in Lake Charles, La. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - Debris surrounds damaged buildings, including the Hertz Building, in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, Aug. 27, 2020, near Lake Charles, La. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)