Middle East updates: Missile from Yemen lands in Israel

The three Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered in December probably died as a result of an Israeli airstrike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, following an investigation.

The airstrike on November 10, 2023 killed Hamas commander Ahmed Ghandour.

The hostages who were apparently also killed in the bombing were two soldiers and a young woman with French citizenship who was captured at the Nova music festival.  

Their bodies were recovered from the tunnel on December 14 after the IDF received "precise intelligence" on their location. 

"The findings of the investigation suggest a high probability that the three were killed as a result of a byproduct of an IDF airstrike," the military said in a statement. 

"The IDF shares in the grief of the families over the devastating loss," the statement added. 

Some 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, but their state is uncertain and it is unclear how many remain alive after almost one year in captivity. 

Israeli military said it was investigating evacuation leaflets that it says were dropped without authorization on a border area in southern Lebanon. Israel's military told AFP a brigade had taken the initiative without approval.

Lebanon's state-run national news agency reported that the leaflets targeted residents in the Wazzani area.

"To all residents and refugees living in the area of the camps, Hezbollah is firing from your region. You must immediately leave your homes and head north of the Khiam region before 04:00 pm (1300 GMT). Do not return to this area until the end of the war," the leaflet read in Arabic, according to the AFP news agency.

"Anyone present in this area after this time will be considered a terrorist," the leaflet added. 

The Israeli military said the dropping the leaflets was not authorized. The action would mark the first time that Israelis have urged people living in southern Lebanon to leave their homes in 11 months of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the leaflets were dropped by drone in an area from which rockets had been fired into northern Israel. 

Israeli aircraft regularly drop leaflets in the Gaza Strip, urging residents to evacuate before an attack, but they have not done so in the border area with Lebanon.

Tens of thousands of civilians have already fled villages and towns on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon frontier.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month, his office said on Sunday.

He will travel to New York on September 24, the first day of the high-level General Debate by world leaders at the annual meeting, it said.

His visit, which comes some two months after his last US trip, will last four days.

Netanyahu has often expressed hostility toward the UN, of which Israel is a member, accusing it of unfairly acting against Israeli interests.

In a statement last year, he said the world body "was unaffected" by what he called Israel's growing acceptance in the Middle East and that it "remained steadfast in its hostility to Israel."      

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Houthi rebels in Yemen of harsh retaliation after the group claimed to have launched a missile that landed in central Israel.

 "This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us," Netanyahu said at the start of a Cabinet meeting, according to a statement from his office. 

Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel, where the Lebanese Hezbollah militia has been carrying out air attacks, "will not continue." 

He said he was determined to do everything in his power to allow people who have evacuated the area amid almost daily hostilities to return home.

The Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has said it is responsible for firing dozens of rockets at a military base in northern Israel early on Sunday.

The attacks come amid almost daily military confrontations between Israel and Hezbollah in the border area.

The Israeli army reported that some 40 rockets had been launched at Israel from Lebanon, with most either intercepted by the missile defense system or landing in open areas.

No injuries have been reported, but several fires were triggered by the attacks.  

An explosives-laden drone also flew across the border from Lebanon, crashing near the town of Metula, with no reports of casualties.

A long-range missile fired from Yemen landed in an open area in central Israel early on Sunday, the Israeli military said, with no casualties or damage reported so far.

The missile triggered air raid sirens, including at Ben Gurion International Airport, where passengers rushed to take shelter in safe rooms and a train.

The military said that explosions heard in the area were the result of interception attampts.

Yemen's Houthis have claimed responsibility for the missile launch.

"It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy's history," the military spokesperson for the Houthis said in a statement.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza, saying that their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians. Nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea.

However, in July, an Iranian-made drone launched by the Houthis struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 10 others.

The attack drew an Israeli response in the form of airstrikes on areas of Yemen held by the Houthis. 
 

Thousands of people have once more taken part in rallies in Israel's main cities, with protesters calling on the government to secure the release of hostages in Gaza.

There are still 97 hostages held in the Gaza Strip of the 251 who were captured by the Palestinian militant group Hamas during deadly raids in southern Israel on October 7, according to the Israeli military. It says 33 of them are dead.

Critics of the government say it is stalling on a deal to liberate the remaining hostages, relying instead on its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

According to organizers, the weekly protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have been growing in size since Israeli authorities announced that six hostages had been shot dead by militants in a southern Gaza tunnel before their bodies were retrieved by Israeli troops.