Gaza war: Yemen's Houthis claim missile attack on central Israel

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The government’s media office in Gaza said Sunday the number of journalists killed by Israel’s offensive since October 7 has risen to 173, following the latest killing of reporter Abdallah Shakshak.

Palestinian sources familiar with Gaza ceasefire talks told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Sunday that the Egyptian and Qatari mediators were trying, along with the US, to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal on ending the war and returning Israeli captives in return for Palestinian prisoners.

The Israeli military on Sunday said there was a "high probability" an Israeli airstrike was responsible for the deaths of three hostages who were killed in Gaza in November.

The bodies of the three hostages, Corporal Nik Beizer, Sergeant Ron Sherman and French-Israeli Elia Toledano, were brought back to Israel in December following their deaths the previous month.

"The findings of the investigation suggest a high probability that the three were killed as a result of a byproduct of an IDF [Israeli army] airstrike, during the elimination of the Hamas Northern Brigade commander, Ahmed Ghandour, on November 10th, 2023," the military said in a statement, referring to the three captives.

Hamas' Osama Hamdan told AFP that the group wants "joint Palestinian rule" in Gaza once war ends in the besieged territory.

"Clearly we said that the next day must be Palestinian... the day after the battle is a Palestinian day," the senior official told AFP during an interview in Istanbul.

Hamas' Osama Hamdan told AFP on Sunday that the United States was not doing enough to force concessions from Israel that could lead to a truce in the war in Gaza.

"The American administration does not exert sufficient or appropriate pressure on the Israeli side," the senior official told AFP during an interview in Istanbul. "Rather it is trying to justify the Israeli side's evasion of any commitment."

Hamas on Sunday vowed that Israel "will not enjoy security" unless it ends its offensive in Gaza, as the Palestinian group praised Yemen's Houthi rebels for their rare missile attack on Israel.

Hamas considers the missile attack a "natural response to the Zionist entity's aggression against our Palestinian people ... We affirm that the Zionist enemy will not enjoy security unless it ceases its brutal aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip," the group said in a statement.

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian movement had ample resources to continue fighting Israel despite losses sustained over more than 11 months of war in Gaza.

"The resistance has a high ability to continue," Osama Hamdan told AFP during an interview in Istanbul. "There were martyrs and there were sacrifices... but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on September 24, the first day of the high-level General Debate by world leaders at the annual UN General Assembly, his office said Sunday.

It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until September 28 in the United States, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address.

Israeli premier Netanyahu says the current situation in the northern Israel "will not continue" amid ongoing cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, and Netanyahu said on Sunday that the current situation was not sustainable.

"The existing situation will not continue. We will do everything necessary to return our residents safely to their homes," he said.

"We are in a multi-arena campaign against Iran's evil axis that strives to destroy us."

He described speaking with residents and authorities in the north, saying, "I hear the distress, I hear the cries."

"The status quo will not continue. This requires a change in the balance of power on our northern border."

The Israeli military has claimed that the missile fired earlier on Sunday from Yemen "most likely fragmented in mid-air."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Yemen's Houthi rebels of retaliation after the group claimed a missile attack on central Israel.

"This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office.

The Gaza Strip's health ministry said on Sunday that at least 41,206 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive, now in its 12th month.

The toll includes 24 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 95,337 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Sunday claimed a missile attack on central Israel hours after the Israeli military said a missile fell into an open area, causing no injuries.

The rebels "targeted a military position of the Israeli enemy in the Jaffa area" using a "ballistic missile that succeeded in reaching its target", Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement, adding that "the enemy's defences failed to intercept it".

Head of the Yemeni news agency Saba, Nasruddin Amer, has written in a post on X: "An important statement by the Yemeni Armed Forces at 11:30 am Sana’a time (830 am GMT) to announce a qualitative military operation targeting the depths of the Zionist enemy in occupied Palestine."

Amer, a Houthi spokesman, appears to be claiming the group’s responsibility behind the missile attack which struck central Israel on Sunday.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid is expected to visit to Washington this week to discuss the issue of Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip.

The Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported on Saturday that Lapid "will make a sudden and diplomatic move to Washington," similar to the visit made by former minister Benny Gantz to the American capital.

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over the border town of Wazzani in southern Lebanon calling on residents in the area and its surroundings to evacuate, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.