Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis join Iran in strike on Israel

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they have launched an attack targeting Israel, coordinated alongside Houthi backer Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The three allies “launched a barrage of cruise missiles and drones targeting several vital and military sites belonging to the Israeli enemy” on Monday, military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement.

The Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, joined the war in support of Iran on March 28.

They had previously launched attacks on Israel and targeted shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Israeli war on Gaza, in what they said was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials said the bodies of four people killed in an Iranian strike the previous day on a residential building in the northern city of Haifa had been recovered.

Hezbollah’s reported role in the strikes comes as Israel continues to pound Lebanon, saying it is targeting the Iranian-backed armed group.

The latest strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday. The Israeli army declared it was “striking Hezbollah terror targets in Beirut”. Attacks were also reported in Lebanon’s south.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said that it had struck two Amana petrol stations “which were controlled by Hezbollah and served as significant financial infrastructure” supporting the group’s activities.

In south Lebanon, the Health Ministry said four people were killed in a raid on a car in Kfar Rumman, near the city of Nabatieh.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) also reported deadly strikes elsewhere in the country’s south and east, including in the Tyre district village of Burj Rahal.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli attack killed a paramedic from the Hezbollah-allied Risala Scout Association on Monday.

It also said two paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee were killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that the WHO “has verified 92 attacks on health facilities, medical vehicles, personnel, and warehouses”.

“These acts cannot become the new norm,” he added.

On Sunday, a strike in Beirut’s Jnah neighbourhood hit near the country’s largest public medical facility, killing five people, including a 15-year-old girl and two Sudanese nationals, the ministry said.

Also on Sunday, a strike on the town of Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut, killed three people, including two women, authorities said.

Among the dead were Pierre Mouawad, a local official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, and his wife, an incident that further threatens internal divides over Hezbollah as Israel’s strikes expand to new parts of the country.

Lebanon says 1,497 people have been killed since the war erupted, including 57 health workers.