Israel war: Deadliest US attack on Houthi stronghold kills 74

US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 74 people in the deadliest attack of Washington’s campaign against the Iran-backed group. Follow updates.

US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 74 people, Houthi rebels said Friday, in the deadliest attack of Washington’s campaign against the Iran-backed group.

The strikes also wounded more than 170 people, a Huthi official said. The US military said its attack on the Ras Issa fuel terminal on the Red Sea aimed to cut off a source of supplies and funds for the Houthis, who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.

The strikes on Thursday, the latest in an intense wave of attacks under President Donald Trump, came just before the US resumes on Saturday negotiations in Rome with Iran over its nuclear program.

Footage released by al-Masirah TV station of Yemen's Huthis shows fire and destruction at the site of US strikes on the Ras Issa fuel port in western Yemen. Picture: AFP

“The death toll … has risen to 74 martyrs and 171 wounded in a non-final count,” Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said, adding that rescue teams were still searching for victims.

Images broadcast by a Houthi-run television station showed large blazes lighting up the night sky.

The attack sparked protests in rebel-held areas on Friday.

“The military actions in Yemen are clearly sending a signal to Tehran,” Mohammed Albasha, a US-based consultant, told AFP.

The US military has hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes in a bid to end their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

This photo taken from video released by Al Masirah TV channel shows medics carrying a dead person after U.S. airstrikes targeted the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels. Picture: Al Masirah TV via AP

Claiming solidarity with Palestinians, the rebels began attacking the key maritime routes and Israeli territory after the Gaza war began in October 2023.

They paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire. In a statement, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said: “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Huthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorise the entire region for over 10 years.”

Ships “have continued to supply fuel via the port of Ras Issa” despite Washington this year designating the rebels a foreign terrorist organisation, CENTCOM added, without specifying the source of the fuel.

Footage broadcast early Friday by Al-Masirah showed a fireball igniting off the coast as thick columns of smoke rose above what appeared to be an ongoing blaze.

The Houthi TV station later screened interviews with survivors lying on stretchers, including one man with burns on his arms.

Medics carrying a severely wounded person onto a stretcher after U.S. airstrikes targeted the Ras Isa oil port held by Yemen's Houthi rebels in Hodeida, Yemen, Friday. Picture: Al Masirah TV via AP

“We ran away. The strikes came one after the other, then everything was on fire,” one man who said he worked at the port told Al-Masirah.

Iran called the latest US strikes “barbaric”, while Hamas Palestinian militants denounced them as “blatant aggression”.

The latest US campaign was triggered by Houthi threats to resume attacks on international shipping in protest at Israel’s blocking aid to the Gaza Strip.

In Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold in rugged northern Yemen, hundreds of people chanted “Death to America! Death to Israel!” in rebel-organised protests, Al-Masirah footage showed.

The rebel TV station broadcast similar protests in Dhamar, Amran and Sanaa, the historic Yemeni capital that has been under Houthi control since 2014.

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MORE DEATHS AFTER HAMAS REJECTS TRUCE, 10 FROM SAME FAMILY

Gaza’s civil defence rescue agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people, including 10 from the same family, after Hamas signalled its rejection of Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal.

Gaza’s civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that crews had “recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of the Baraka family and the neighbouring houses” following Israeli strikes east of Khan Yunis in Gaza’s south.

At least 1,691 people have been killed in Gaza since the military resumed its offensive, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,065, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Mourners bid farewell to the body of one of the victims from the Abu al-Rus family, who were killed in a reported Israeli strike on a tent shelter in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

HAMAS REJECTS TRUCE PROPOSAL

Hamas has signalled its rejection of Israel’s latest truce proposal and called for a “comprehensive” deal to end the 18-month-long war.

The Palestinian militants’ chief negotiator spoke out after civil defence rescuers in Gaza said new Israeli air strikes killed at least 40 people, most of them in camps for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports of the strikes.

A Hamas source told AFP that the group sent a written response to mediators on Israel’s latest proposal for a 45-day ceasefire.

Israel had wanted the release of 10 living hostages held by the group, according to Hamas.

A boy salvages flour in the aftermath of a reported Israeli strike on a tent shelter in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

It also called for the freeing of 1231 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been under complete blockade since March 2.

The proposal called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, a demand the group rejects.

“Partial agreements are used by (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu as a cover for his political agenda … we will not be complicit in this policy,” Hamas’s chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said in a televised statement.

Mourners react by the bodies of victims from the Abu al-Rus family, who were killed in a reported Israeli strike on a tent shelter in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Stri. Picture: AFP

He said Hamas “seeks a comprehensive deal involving a single-package prisoner exchange in return for halting the war, a withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, and the commencement of reconstruction” in the territory.

A previous ceasefire and hostage release deal began on January 19 but collapsed two months later.

Israel offered to extend the first phase, while Hamas insisted that negotiations be held for a second phase, as outlined by Joe Biden when he was US president.

Israel resumed intensive bombing of Gaza on March 18.

QATAR BLAMES ISRAEL

The emir of Qatar, which with Egypt and the United States helped mediate the January ceasefire, blamed Israel on Thursday for its collapse.

“As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately Israel did not abide by this agreement,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said during a visit to Moscow.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said two Israeli missiles hit tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, killing at least 16 people, “most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded”.

‘THE TENT EXPLODED’

Tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to Al-Mawasi after Israel declared it a safe zone in December 2023. But the area has since been hit by repeated Israeli strikes.

Survivors described a large explosion at the densely packed camp that set tents ablaze.

“We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under God’s protection, when we suddenly saw something red glowing – and then the tent exploded, and the surrounding tents caught fire,” Israa Abu al-Rus told AFP.

Children inspect the remains of a tent shelter that was hit by an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Bassal said Israeli strikes on two other camps for displaced Gazans killed a nine people – seven in the northern town of Beit Lahia, and a father and son near Al-Mawasi.

Separately, the civil defence reported two attacks in Jabalia – one that killed at least seven members of the Asaliya family, and another that killed six people at a school being used as a shelter – as well as Israeli shelling in Gaza City that killed two.

Mourners react by the bodies of victims from the Abu al-Rus family, who were killed in a reported Israeli strike on a tent shelter in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

Members and activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, a student organisation, take part in an anti-Israel protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Karachi. Picture: AFP

The military announced it had carried out a strike in Jabalia on a Hamas “command and control” centre.

Israel said Wednesday that it had converted 30 per cent of Gaza into a buffer zone in its widening offensive.

The United Nations said half a million Palestinians have been displaced since the offensive resumed, triggering what it has described as the most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

– with AFP

Originally published as Israel war: Deadliest US attack on Houthi stronghold kills 74