Middle East latest: WHO chief says he was at Yemen airport as Israeli bombs fell nearby

A wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's main airport Thursday just as the World Health Organization’s director-general said he was about to board a flight there. One of the U.N. plane’s crew was wounded, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by Yemen's Houthi rebels at the international airport in the capital Sanaa, as well as power stations and ports, alleging they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.

Last week, Israeli jets bombed Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.

Israel's latest wave of strikes in Yemen follows several days of Houthi launches setting off air-raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

Here’s the latest:

Israeli attorney general orders investigation after TV report alleges that Netanyahu’s wife harassed political opponents

JERUSALEM — Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and witnesses in the Israeli leader’s corruption trial.

The Israeli Justice Ministry made the announcement in a terse message late Thursday, saying the investigation would focus on the findings of a recent report by the Uvda investigative program into Sara Netanyahu.

The program uncovered a trove of WhatsApp messages in which Sara Netanyahu appears to instruct a former aid to organize protests against political opponents and to intimidate Hadas Klein, a key witness in the trial.

The announcement did not mention Sara Netanyahu by name, and the Justice Ministry declined further comment.

However, earlier Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the Uvda report as “lies.”

The US says it pushed retraction of a famine warning for north Gaza. Aid groups express concern.

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say they asked for — and got — the retraction of an independent monitor’s warning of imminent famine in north Gaza.

The internationally Famine Early Warning System Network issued the warning this week. The new report had warned that starvation deaths in north Gaza could reach famine levels as soon as next month. It cited what it called Israel’s “near-total blockade” of food and water.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, criticized the finding as inaccurate and irresponsible. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funds the famine-monitoring group, told The Associated Press it had asked for and gotten the report’s retraction.

USAID officials tell AP that it had asked the group for greater review of discrepancies in some of the data.

Humanitarian and human rights officials expressed fear of U.S. political interference in the world’s monitoring system for famines. The U.S. Embassy in Israel and the State Department declined comment. FEWS officials did not respond to questions.

FEWS Net said in its withdrawn report that unless Israel changes its policy, it expects the number of people dying of starvation and related ailments in north Gaza to reach between two and 15 per day sometime between January and March.

The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is two or more deaths a day per 10,000 people.

FEWS was created by the U.S. development agency in the 1980s and is still funded by it. But it is intended to provide independent, neutral and data-driven assessments of hunger crises, including in war zones.

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By Ellen Knickmeyer

Iran condemns Israeli strikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday strongly condemned Israeli airstrikes on the main airport in Yemen's Houthi rebel-held capital as well as key energy and port infrastructure.

Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, said Thursday's Israeli strikes were part of a policy for "destroying and weaking Islamic countries” and urged “immediate action” by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as well as other regional and international bodies.

Baghaei said the U.S. and Britain were “accomplices” in the strikes and had supported them, adding that the attacks were a breach of all international regulations and norms, particularly the U.N. Charter. It also criticized the “passivity” by U.N. about Israel allegedly breaching international law.

The Iran-backed Houthis have launched drones and missiles at Israel in recent days, setting off air-raid sirens, and Israeli strikes on Yemen last week killed nine people. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.

Israel said the strikes Thursday targeted infrastructure used for military purposes by the Houthis, as well as smuggling in Iranian weapons and the entry of senior Iranian officials.

WHO chief says he was meters away when Israel bombs fell on airport in Yemen’s capital

UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. health agency says he and his team were about to board a flight in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa when the airport came under aerial bombardment.

“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters (yards) from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

He said one of the U.N. plane’s crew was injured but he and his WHO colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave.”

The Israeli military said Thursday it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the airport as well as power stations and ports in rebel-controlled areas. Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to questions about Tedros’ comments but issued a statement saying it had “capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively.”

Tedros said the U.N. team was in Yemen to negotiate the release of U.N. staff detained by the Houthis and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in the country, which faces one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

Israel strikes Houthi rebels in Yemen’s capital and ports

JERUSALEM — Houthi rebels in Yemen said Israeli airstrikes on Thursday targeted the rebel-held capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida, following several days of Houthi launches that set off air-raid sirens in Israel.

The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports at Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib along with power stations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech on Wednesday that “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned.”

The Iran-backed Houthis’ media outlet reported 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 ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid.

Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in 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.

Kurdish-led group holds funeral for 6 fighters killed in northeast Syria fighting

QAMISHLI, Syria — Thousands of people in northeastern Syria attended a funeral Thursday for six fighters from a Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed force who were killed in ongoing clashes with Turkish-backed militias.

The Turkish-backed groups are launching attacks to take the Arab cities west of the Euphrates River that are under the control of the Kurdish group . The Turkish-supported groups helped overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s rule of Syria, and have since kept pushing eastward against the Kurdish groups.

“We thought that Syria today has entered a new stage after the fall and escape of Assad. We thought that we got rid of all of this, but this attack on us changed everything and those who came in are taking orders from Turkey,” said Nihayet Hassan, the uncle of a killed fighter.

The fighters were killed during attacks on Tishreen Dam near the strategic city of Manbij in recent days. The bodies were returned to the city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria where the U.S.-backed group, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, has a strong presence.

Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey classifies as a terrorist organization. Turkish-backed armed groups backed by Turkish jets have for years attacked positions where the SDF are present across northern Syria, in a bid to create a buffer zone free from the group along the Turkish border.

“It is obvious that Turkey’s issue is with the Kurds. It is not about an organization, or the PKK, no, their target are the Kurds,” said Ahmad Ammo, a Qamishli resident who attended the funeral.

The U.S. has about 2,000 soldiers in eastern Syria to help fight the Islamic State group and protect critical oil fields there.

Lebanese military says Israel violated ceasefire agreement by entering southern Lebanon

BEIRUT — The Lebanese military said Thursday that Israeli troops encroached on areas of southern Lebanon, violating a ceasefire agreement that ended the war between Israel and the Hezbollah group.

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire that went into effect a month ago called for Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops to leave southern Lebanon over a 60-day period as Lebanese army soldiers gradually deploy in the country south of the Litani River. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reported incident.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli bulldozers are setting up dirt barricades that would close off the road between Wadi Slouqi and Wadi Hujeir.

Lebanon’s military said it brought reinforcements into the areas entered by Israeli troops. NNA said the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, sent a patrol unit to an area near the southern town of Qantara where Israeli forces are present.

UNIFIL in a statement expressed its “concern at continuing destruction by the IDF (Israeli military) in residential areas, agricultural land, and road networks in south Lebanon.”

Lebanese army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun traveled to Saudi Arabia earlier Thursday as part of ongoing efforts by the cash-strapped military to find financial support to deploy in larger numbers.

The Lebanese military and government have complained about Israeli strikes and overflights in the country to a new monitoring committee headed by the U.S. that also includes France.

Israeli strike kills five Palestinian journalists, Gaza Health Ministry says

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The Israeli army said it had targeted a group of militants.

The strike hit a car outside the Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the territory. The journalists were working for the local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group.

The military said it targeted a group of fighters from Islamic Jihad, a militant group allied with Hamas, whose Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel ignited the war. Associated Press video showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings still visible on the back doors.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says over 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel has not allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.

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This post has been corrected to show that the name of the local news outlet is Al-Quds Today, not the Quds News Network.

China pledges 2 more shipments of aid to Gaza

BEIJING — China has pledged two more shipments of humanitarian aid to Gaza, in an indication of support for the Palestinian Authority, state media reported Thursday. The agreement was overseen in Cairo by Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang and Palestinian Ambassador to Egypt Diab al-Louh.

“To ease the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, the Chinese government has continued to provide assistance to Palestine,” Liao was quoted as saying. The types and quantities of aid to be delivered via Egypt were not given, but China has previously shipped food and medicine to Gaza. China has longstanding ties with the Palestinian Authority but has also sought to strengthen economic and political relations with Israel.

Al-Louh “voiced appreciation for China’s consistent and firm support for the just cause of the Palestinian people and for raising this issue on international occasions," state media said.

UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Houthi attacks

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday at Israel’s request to discuss recent attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Israel’s U.N. Mission said Wednesday the meeting will take place at 10 a.m. Monday.

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said he expects the council will condemn the Houthi attacks.

He urged the council “to enforce international law and hold Iran, the Houthis’ patron, accountable.”

Alluding to Israeli retaliation for the attacks, Danon said ”It seems that the Houthis have not yet understood what happens to those who try to harm the state of Israel.”