Israel’s military said on Saturday there was no indication of a security incident in the Red Sea port city of Eilat after reports of explosions were heard there, Reuters reports.
“A short while ago, reports were received regarding explosions heard in the area of Eilat. It was found that no projectiles were fired toward the area of the city and no interceptor was launched. There is no indication of a security incident,” the military said.
At least 80 people were wounded in strikes by Israeli fighter jets on targets in the area of Hodeidah port in Yemen, Almasirah TV reported on Saturday, citing the health ministry.
Airstrikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure, sparking a huge blaze. It was the first direct hit on Yemen since Houthi rebels there began targeting Israel with missiles and drones last year.
Almasirah TV is the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Houthi movement.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck military targets in the Hodeidah port in Yemen “in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the state of Israel in recent months”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said later in the evening that the port was targeted as it was used “for military purposes”.
The strike, he added, “makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the state of Israel will not reach”.
The latest airstrikes in Hodeidah come after a Houthi drone struck central Tel Aviv, killing one man and injuring 10 other people. The Houthis immediately took responsibility for the attack, claiming they had used a new type of drone undetectable to radar and air defence systems.
Hamas said it fired rockets from Lebanon toward an Israeli army post in the northern Israeli village of Shomera in retaliation for the attacks in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has carried out such attacks from Lebanon over the past several months, but they have been rare, Reuters reports.
Israeli forces targeted several areas across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing at least 39 Palestinians, according to health officials, as tanks advanced deeper into western and northern Rafah.
Among those killed on Saturday were local journalist Mohammad Abu Jasser, his wife and two children in an Israeli strike on their home in the northern Gaza Strip, a medic said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office said Abu Jasser’s death raised to 161 the number of Palestinian media personnel killed by Israeli fire since 7 October.
Just before midnight, an Israeli air strike on an encampment housing displaced Palestinian families killed at least 10 people, medics and Hamas media said.
In al-Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, an Israeli air strike on a house on Saturday killed three people and wounded eight others, medics said.
Earlier in the day an Israeli missile struck a multi-floor building in the camp, and wounded several people, including two local journalists, rescue workers said.
In Rafah, where Israel said it aimed to dismantle the last battalions of Hamas’ armed wing, residents said tanks advanced deeper into northern areas of the city and took control of a hilltop in the west, amid fierce gun battles with Hamas-led fighters.
The army said troops continued operations in Rafah, eliminating many gunmen over the past day in the area of Tel al-Sultan on the western side of the city. In central Gaza, the military said it conducted raids on militants’ infrastructure.
Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said that its fighters fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday, targeting a kibbutz for the first time in nine months in retaliation for an Israeli drone strike earlier in the day that wounded several people including children.
Lebanese media said the Israeli strike in Adloun targeted an ammunitions depot, lightly injuring three people and causing rockets to explode.
The airstrike about 30km from the border came after Hezbollah, which holds sway over large parts of Lebanon’s south, and its Palestinian ally Hamas fired rocket salvos and explosive-laden drones at Israeli positions.
“The raid on the town of Adloun targeted an ammunition depot,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said, after earlier reporting “the Israeli enemy launched a raid” on the area, with “rocket still exploding” and the blasts “lightly injuring three citizens”.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s 7 October attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli strikes on Saturday targeted a depot storing ammunition belonging to Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, security sources told Reuters.
The strikes on the town of Adloun, about 40km (25 miles) north of Lebanon’s border with Israel, set off a string of loud explosions heard by witnesses across the south of Lebanon.
At least four civilians in Adloun were wounded in the strikes, a medical source and a security source told Reuters.
The strikes on South Lebanon were on the same day that Israeli fighter jets struck Houthi military targets in the area of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, which Hezbollah said will mark a “new and dangerous phase” in the region.
Israel launched the strikes on Yemen a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis hit Tel Aviv.