Israeli, US strikes kill dozens in Gaza, Yemen

US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 80 people, Huthi rebels said Friday, in the deadliest attack of Washington's 15-month campaign.

The strikes on Ras Issa aimed to cut off supplies and funds for the rebels that control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, the US military said.

Images broadcast by a Houthi-run television channel showed large blazes lighting up the night sky following the latest in an intensified barrage of attacks under US President Donald Trump.

Health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said rescuers were still searching for bodies at the fuel terminal on the Red Sea, suggesting the number of dead could rise.

The rebels' Al-Masirah TV, citing local officials, said the toll from the strike had "risen to 80 dead and 150 wounded".

Officials will discuss major steps to restore support for Syria from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund at spring meetings next week, though sanctions remain a major obstacle to rebuilding the country, a U.N. official said on Friday.

Abdallah Dardari, assistant secretary-general for the U.N. Development Programme, told Reuters in Damascus that a roundtable on Syria hosted by the Saudi government and World Bank would take place on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the international financial bodies in Washington.

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed two people in the south on Friday, with Israel announcing attacks in the same areas targeting Hezbollah.

Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has continued to conduct near-daily strikes in Lebanon in breach of the truce.

An Israeli attack on "a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead", a Lebanese health ministry statement said on the fourth straight day of Israeli attacks in the south.

Hours later, the ministry said another Israeli strike on a vehicle around Aita al-Shaab had also killed one.

The death toll for the US strikes on fuel port in Yemen has risen to 74 people, Houthi rebels said on Friday, in the deadliest attack of Washington's 15-month campaign against the Iran-backed group.

The strikes on Ras Issa aimed at cutting off supplies and funds for the rebels that control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, the United States military said.

Images broadcast by a Houthi-run television station showed large blazes lighting up the night sky, following the latest in an intensified barrage of attacks under US President Donald Trump.

Huthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said rescuers were still searching for victims at the fuel terminal on the Red Sea, suggesting the number of dead could rise.

"The death toll... has risen to 74 martyrs and 171 wounded in a non-final count," he said. 

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, stated that it estimates that 420,000 people have been displaced since the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza one month ago.

the agency said it is currently running 115 shelters across Gaza, with 90,000 Palestinians living in them.

"An already dire situation is deteriorating due to bombardment and the siege blocking the entry of humanitarian and commercial supplies."

President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, arrived today in the Syrian capital of Damascus for an official visit to Syria, where he is due to meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Abbas senior Syrian officials to discuss matters of mutual interest and regional developments.

Israel has struck several cities and neighbourhoods on Friday, including Zeitoun in Gaza City and central Khan Younis.

At least 7 people have been killed in Zeitoun.

Houthi rebels vowed Friday to hit back at intensifying US raids, announcing they targeted two US aircraft carriers and Israel following the deadliest American strikes on Yemen in more than a year.

"The American military buildup and continued aggression against our country will only lead to more counter-attack and attack operations, clashes and confrontations," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree told a rebel-organised protest in the capital Sanaa, adding the group had targeted a military site near Israel's main airport and two US aircraft carriers.

A Hezbollah official said Friday that the Iran-backed movement categorically refused to discuss handing over its weapons to Lebanon's army unless Israel withdrew completely from the south and stopped its "aggression".

A ceasefire agreement in November ended more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel sparked by the Gaza war, including two months of open warfare that decimated the group's leadership.

"It is not a question of disarming," Wafic Safa said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Nur radio station.

"What the president (Joseph Aoun) said in his inauguration speech is a defensive strategy."

Safa, said by experts to belong to the movement's most radical faction, said Hezbollah had conveyed its position to Aoun, who on Tuesday said he sought "to make 2025 the year of restricting arms to the state" alone.

In his interview, Safa asked: "Wouldn't it be logical for Israel to first withdraw, then release the prisoners, then cease its aggression... and then we discuss a defensive strategy?"

"The defensive strategy is about thinking about how to protect Lebanon, not preparing for the party to hand over its weapons."

Israel's military said it killed a Hezbollah operative in a strike in south Lebanon on Friday, after the Lebanese health ministry reported one dead in an Israeli attack on a vehicle in the same area.

"Earlier today (Friday), the IAF (Israeli air force) conducted a precise strike in the area of Sidon and eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Jaafar Mannah Asaad Abdallah," a military statement said, adding Abdallah was "responsible, among other things, for the deployment of Hezbollah's communication systems throughout Lebanon".

Defence Minister Israel Katz on Friday affirmed Israel's unwavering commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying it had a "clear course of action" to prevent this.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I, along with all relevant bodies, are committed to leading a clear course of action that will prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," Katz said in a statement.

At least 34 people have been killed in attacks across the Gaza Strip, medical sources confirmed to Al-Jazeera.

Attacks on Friday have taken place in Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, and overnight in Khan Younis.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday cast doubt over the intentions of the United States a day ahead of a second round of nuclear talks with Washington.

"Although we have serious doubts about the intentions and motivations of the American side, in any case we will participate in tomorrow's negotiations," said Araghchi during a press conference in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Hamas on Friday urged the international community to exert immediate pressure to end Israel's complete blockade on the Gaza Strip that has been in place since March 2.

"The international community is required to intervene immediately and exert the necessary pressure to end the unjust blockade imposed on our people in the Gaza Strip," Hamas's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement.

Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, and the head of its Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, are in Paris to meet US envoy Steve Witkoff ahead of nuclear talks between the US And Iran, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on Friday.

Ravid's post on X cited three Israeli sources. 

🚨Scoop: Israeli minister Ron Dermer and Mossad director Barnea traveled to Paris for a meeting with White House Envoy @SteveWitkoff on Friday ahead of the nuclear talks with Iran in Rome tomorrow, three Israeli sources told me

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) April 18, 2025

Iran Friday condemned "barbaric" US air strikes on a Yemeni fuel port that killed 38 people, according to Tehran-backed Houthi rebels, in one of the deadliest attacks against the group.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei "strongly condemned the barbaric US air strike on Yemen's Ras Isa Port", describing it as "an example of aggressive crime and a blatant violation of the fundamental principles of the UN Charter".

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Friday denounced overnight US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port that killed dozens of people as Washington renewed its campaign against Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

"This blatant aggression represents a gross violation of Yemeni sovereignty, a full-fledged war crime, and reaffirms the continuation of hostile American policies targeting the free peoples who reject Zionist and American hegemony in the region," Hamas said in a statement.

The death toll in Yemen following US strikes on a fuel port has risen at least 58 people, Houthis said on Friday, in one of the deadliest attacks of Washington's renewed campaign against the Iran-backed group.

The strikes also injured more than 100 people, according to a Houthi-run television station that broadcast footage of large blazes lighting up the night sky.

The US military said its overnight attack on the Ras Issa fuel port aimed to cut off a source of supplies and funds for the Houthis, who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

"Fifty-eight workers and employees killed and 102 others injured in a preliminary toll of the US aggression on the Ras Issa oil facility," Al-Masirah TV said, quoting health authorities in rebel-held Hodeidah.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on Friday hit a vehicle near the southern coastal city of Sidon, killing one person.

Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon.

"The attack carried out by the Israeli enemy against a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead," said a health ministry statement on the fourth consecutive day of Israeli attacks on the south.

One video shared online showed the aftermath of the attack with rescue crews working to extinguish a blaze that has engulfed the car.

The Lebanese army sealed off the area as firemen fought the blaze.

🚨السيارة المستهدفة على اوتوستراد الغازية في جنوب لبنان pic.twitter.com/0PzJC6lqHl

— bintjbeil.org (@bintjbeilnews) April 18, 2025

The Israeli military said on Friday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, from where the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have regularly fired missiles and drones targeting Israel.

"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," Israel's army said on Telegram, adding that aerial defence systems had been deployed "to intercept the threat".

Police have arrested scores of people in Pakistan in recent weeks after more than 10 mob attacks on outlets of US fast-food chain KFC, sparked by anti-United States sentiment and opposition to its ally Israel's war in Gaza, officials said.

Police in major cities, including Karachi, Lahore and the capital Islamabad, confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC outlets were attacked by protesters armed with sticks and vandalised. At least 178 people were arrested, the officials said this week.

A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one KFC employee was shot and killed this week in a store on the outskirts of Lahore by unknown gunmen. The official added there was no protest at the time and they were investigating whether the killing was motivated by political sentiment or some other reason.

In Lahore, police said they were ramping up security at 27 KFC outlets around the city after two attacks took place and five others were prevented.

"We are investigating the role of different individuals and groups in these attacks," said Faisal Kamran, a senior Lahore police officer, adding that 11 people, including a member of the Islamist religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), were arrested in the city. He added the protests were not officially organised by TLP.