Israel bombs Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon after Tel Aviv attack

The war on Gaza escalated ever-further in the Middle East on Sunday after Israel bombed Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen in quick succession following attacks from regional Iran-aligned militant groups.

Despite Washington's top diplomat asserting a deal is near the "goal line" to end more than nine months of devastating war in the enclave, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, as it pressed on with its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Over in Lebanon, the Israeli military on Sunday said it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities overnight, after Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike on an ammunitions depot deep in the south.

Dozens have been killed since Saturday across the Gaza Strip, the civil defense agency said, including in strikes on homes in the central Nuseirat and Bureij areas and displaced people near southern Khan Yunis.

Residents said a major operation was underway in the Saudi district of Rafah in the south, reporting heavy artillery and clashes. 

Meanwhile, the war on Gaza has also unleashed hunger and health crises in the enclanve, with Israel and the United Nations trading blame for vital aid supplies failing to reach those in need.

After the detection of poliovirus in Gaza sewage, though no individual cases, the World Health Organization said there were "monumental" constraints to mounting a timely response. 

WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said the agency believes many more diseases are "spreading out of control" inside Gaza.

The months-long war has also brought Israelis to the streets, sometimes in their tens of thousands, focused on securing the release of the remaining hostages.

"Bring them home," demonstrator Ofira Azrieli said in Tel Aviv, appealing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Netanyahu is due to address U.S. lawmakers Wednesday in Washington, where he will be under pressure to reach a ceasefire with Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday a truce was within reach.

"I believe we're... driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a ceasefire, get the hostages home, and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability," he said.

Spill over

The deadly strikes in Gaza came hours after Hamas ally Hezbollah said they fired at Israeli positions from south Lebanon, while Yemen's Houthis vowed to respond to Israeli warplanes hitting a key port.

Israeli warplanes killed three people in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni port of Hodeida, the Iran-aligned rebels said Sunday after the group's deadly drone attack in Tel Aviv.

The strikes on the vital port, which triggered a raging fire and plumes of black smoke, are the first claimed by Israel in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country, about 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles) away, analysts said.

"The blood of Israeli citizens has a price," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, adding more operations against the Houthis would follow "if they dare to attack us".

Gallant said the Hodeida strikes were also a warning to other Iran-aligned armed groups around the Middle East that have claimed attacks on Israel during the Gaza war.

"The fire that is currently burning in Hodeida, is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear," he said.

The Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 80, Yemen medical sources told reuters. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu warned "anyone who harms us will pay a very heavy price", after Friday's drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian.

But Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti swiftly threatened to "meet escalation with escalation", in a social media post. 

Israel's military said Sunday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, the latest in a series of Houthi weapons downed off the Red Sea resort town of Eilat in recent months

'Brutal aggression'

In a statement on social media, top Houthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam reported a "brutal Israel aggression against Yemen."

The attack targeted "fuel storage facilities and a power plant" in Hodeida "to pressure Yemen to stop supporting" Palestinians in Gaza, he said.

Footage aired by the rebels' Al-Masirah television showed casualties being treated in hospital, many of them bandaged and lying on stretchers in packed rooms. A man interviewed by the broadcaster said many of the wounded were port employees. 

"The city is dark, people are on the streets, petrol stations are closed and seeing long queues," said one Hodeida resident.

The oil ministry sought to reassure Yemenis that there are "large and sufficient amounts of oil reserves" in a statement published by the Huthi-run Saba news agency.

Yemen aid lifeline fears

The United States, which along with Britain has carried out several rounds of air strikes against the Houthis in an attempt to put an end to their attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea, said it played no part in Saturday's strikes.

"The United States was not involved in today's strikes in Yemen, and we did not coordinate or assist Israel with the strikes," a U.S. National Security Council spokesman said.

Saudi Arabia distanced itself from the Yemen strikes, with a defense ministry spokesman saying Riyadh had "no links to or involvement in targeting Hodeida".

"The kingdom will not allow its airspace to be infiltrated by any party," said Brigadier General Turki al-Maliki.

The Houthis control vast swathes of Yemen, including much of its Red Sea coast, amid their decade-long war against an opposing administration within the country's borders that is propped up by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Hodeida port, a vital entry point for imports and international aid for Houthi-held areas of Yemen, had remained largely untouched through the fighting, with millions of Yemenis dependent on aid supplied through the port.

"Traders now fear that this will exacerbate the already critical food security and humanitarian situation in northern Yemen, as the majority of trade flows through this port," said Mohammed Albasha, senior Middle East analyst for the US-based Navanti Group.

UN chief Antonio Guterres had appealed for "maximum restraint" after the Tel Aviv drone strike to avoid "further escalation in the region."

The Houthis' Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, warned that the Israeli strikes on Hodeida marked a dangerous turn nine months into the Gaza war.

"The foolish step taken by the Zionist enemy heralds a new, dangerous phase," said the group, which has exchanged nearly daily fire with the Israeli army throughout the war.

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