A rocket from Yemen strikes Tel Aviv, injuring 16

TEL AVIV, Israel — A rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv overnight, leaving 16 people injured by shattered glass, the Israeli military said Saturday, days after Israeli airstrikes hit Houthi terrorists who have been launching missiles in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Another 14 people had minor injuries as they rushed to shelters when air raid sirens sounded before dawn, the military said.

The Houthis in a statement on Telegram said they had aimed a hypersonic ballistic missile at a military target that they did not identify. Israel’s military said it was investigating, adding that “we emphasize that aerial defense is not hermetic.”

“A flash of light, a blow and we fell to the ground. Big mess, broken glasses all over the place,” said Bar Katz, a resident of a damaged building.

The Houthis’ media office later reported airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, Sanaa. U.S. forces conducted airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command facility operated by the Houthis, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X.

The attack on Tel Aviv came after Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida killed at least nine people Thursday. The strikes came hours after a missile from Yemen hit a school building in central Israel. The Houthis also claimed a drone strike targeting an unspecified military target in central Israel that day.

Israel’s military says the Iran-backed Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and drones during the 14-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthis have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and say they won’t stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli strikes Thursday caused “considerable damage” to the Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Meanwhile, mourners in Gaza held funerals for 19 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Friday and overnight.

And Saturday night, large explosions could be seen on the Gaza skyline.

Israel says it only targets terrorists and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas.

The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in largely isolated northern Gaza said in an online message late Saturday that Israel’s military had told the facility to evacuate.

Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh said evacuating would mean transferring 66 patients.

Israel’s military had no immediate response to questions about the reported evacuation order.

Gaza’s Health Ministry earlier reported continuous gunfire and Israeli shelling near the hospital, and it issued an urgent appeal for medical and food supplies to be delivered to the facility.

Safiyeh has said the facility faced “severe shortages” including of food and asserted that requests for essential medical supplies and ways to maintain oxygen, water and electricity systems “have largely gone unmet.”

The Israeli military organization dealing with humanitarian affairs for Gaza said Saturday it had led an operation delivering thousands of food packages, flour and water to the Beit Hanoun area in the north..

In other Mideast news, Iran on Saturday said unknown gunmen killed a local staffer of the Iranian Embassy in Syria in Damascus last Sunday, the official IRNA news agency said.

Its report quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei as saying “terrorists” opened fire on Davood Bitaraf’s car.