NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Communities and firefighters across Australia’s second-most populous state were preparing Thursday for potentially devastating wild fires as a heat wave fanned by erratic winds presented the worst fire conditions in several years.
With temperatures in Victoria state reaching 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) and with wind changes expected throughout the day, fire chiefs have issued stark warnings to rural communities to delay travel or leave their homes and seek safety at shelters.
Several fires are currently burning out of control across the state and Victoria deputy premier Ben Carroll said the possibility for further fires in the coming days was likely.
“Dangerous fire conditions are forming today and will go right through to Saturday,” he said at a press conference in Melbourne. “New fires can start anywhere and become dangerous very quickly.
The largest uncontained fire is located in the Grampians National Park and has burnt through 55,000 hectares so far, but no homes have reported to have been lost.
However, Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent said there were many residential properties on the fringes of the fire that could come under threat.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if we do have residential losses,” Nugent said. “Firefighters, I can say, are doing everything possible to protect life and protect property.”
An emergency warning was issued by fire authorities for the small town of Mafeking, 260 kilometers (160 miles) west of Melbourne, on Thursday.
Residents there were told "you are in danger and need to act immediately to survive. The safest option is to take shelter indoors immediately, as it is too late to leave.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported around 100 personnel from other Australian states are now in Victoria to assist local firefighters battling the blazes. Firefighters are being assisted by scores of water-bombing aircraft.
Parts of neighboring South Australia and New South Wales states are also on high alert due to the heat wave and elevated fire risks.
The hot, dry conditions are being compared to the Black Summer fires that gripped Australia's two most populous states for months in 2019-20 and burned through 104 thousand square kilometers, an area roughly the size of Ohio, and destroyed thousands of homes and killed 33 people.
In this photo released by the State Control Centre, smoke billows from an out of control bushfire in the Grampians National park, in Victoria state, Australia, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (State Control Centre via AP)
Country Fire Authority personnel rest outside a fire station in Halls Gap near the Grampians National in Victoria, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (James Ross/AAP Image via AP)
A sign shows the closure of the Grampians National park outside Halls Gap in Victoria, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (James Ross/AAP Image via AP)
In this photo released by the State Control Centre, Country Fire Authority personnel watch as smoke billows from an out of control bushfire in the Grampians National park, in Victoria state, Australia, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (State Control Centre via AP)
JERUSALEM (AP) — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X.
He added that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment.
The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in the cities of Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.
Israel's military didn't immediately respond to questions about Tedros' post but issued a statement saying it had "capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively.”
The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned" as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran.
The Iran-backed Houthis' media outlet confirmed the strikes in a Telegram post but gave no immediate details. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.
The United Nations has noted that the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014.
Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The U.N. Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting Monday in response to an Israeli request that the council condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying weapons to the rebels.
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the territory's Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said that all were militants posing as reporters.
The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists were working for the local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.
Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, which ignited the war. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups operate political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.
Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn't allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.
Separately, Israel's military said that a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza early Thursday. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation more than a year ago.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in an attack on nearby army bases and farming communities. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities have been women and children, but doesn't say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said that it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid.
Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the name of the local news outlet is Al-Quds Today, not the Quds News Network.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Smoke rises from the area around the International Airport following an airstrike, as seen from Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. The Israeli military reported targeting infrastructure used by the Houthis at the Sanaa International Airport, as well as ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib, along with power stations.(AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
Mourners carry the bodies of eight killed Palestinians, some are wrapped with the Islamic Jihad flag, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Mourners carry the bodies of killed Palestinians, some wrapped with the Islamic Jihad flag, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
A boy walks along of a damaged street after the latest Israeli military operation, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A mourner cries while she takes the last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A Palestinian killed during an Israeli army operation is buried in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A mourner cries after taking a last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Mourners cry while they take the last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral following the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Locals stand next to a damaged building after the latest Israeli military operation, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Relatives and friends mourn over the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A relative mourns over the body of one of the five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners react as they carry the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A relative mourns over the body of one of the five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Relatives and friends mourn over the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians, mostly journalists, gather around the bodies of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A woman reacts during the funeral of five Palestinian journalists who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
