Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a missile at Israel, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's main airport as the World Health Organisation’s director-general was about to board a flight there.
Three people were killed and dozens were wounded in the Israeli airstrikes, including a member of the UN plane’s crew, the UN said. The crew member underwent surgery and was in stable condition, it said Friday.
The Israeli military said the Houthi missile was intercepted by its air defences on Friday before it entered Israeli territory.
For several days this past week, Houthi launches have set off air raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport on Thursday when it came under attack.
The Israeli military said that in addition to striking the airport, it also hit military infrastructure at the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib on Yemen's west coast. It also attacked the country's Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said that three people were killed in the strikes on the airport and three were killed in Hodeidah, while 40 others were wounded in the attacks.
The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned escalations between Israel and Yemen.
"Israeli airstrikes today on Sanaa International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming," the UN chief's spokesperson said in a press briefing while expressing concerns about the risk of further regional escalation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 14 that Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
The prime minister has been strengthened at home by the Israeli military's campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army's strategic weapons.
Tedros said he had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff and to assess the humanitarian situation.
"As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa ... the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane's crew members was injured," he said in a statement.
More than a year of Houthi attacks has disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over the Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
The wider conflict has developed from Israel's war in Gaza which has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
Hamas ignited the war with its October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage by militants.
Meanwhile Israeli police are describing the fatal stabbing of an elderly woman as a 'terrorist attack'.
The 83 year old woman was taken to hospital unconscious and with multiple stab wounds, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. The hospital pronounced her dead upon arrival.
Israeli police said that a 28-year-old man from the West Bank was arrested in the city of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
Security forces had shot the man before taking him into custody, reports said.
Israeli media reported, citing the Shin Bet intelligence agency, that the alleged attacker was a former informant for Israel. The man was said to have been moved to Israel after his cover was blown.
