Houthis say attacked US aircraft carrier

SANAA — Yemen's Houthi group said on Saturday it launched a new missile and drone attack against the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the northern Red Sea in the past 24 hours, claiming the attack lasted nine hours.

"This is the fifth time we targeted the aircraft carrier since its arrival in the Red Sea," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

"The operation achieved its goals successfully and forced the aircraft carrier to leave the theater of operations and flee to the far north of the Red Sea," he said.

The attack aimed to support the Palestinians in Gaza and respond to the latest US-British-Israeli airstrikes on Houthi sites in northern Yemen on Friday, Sarea said, vowing to launch more attacks against Israel until "aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted".

On Friday afternoon, Israel said it launched a joint air assault with the United States-led naval coalition, targeting a power station and two ports in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, Amran Province, and the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

Al-Masirah reported one death and nine injuries in Friday's attack.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have been carrying out rocket and drone attacks on Israel and disrupting "Israeli-linked" shipping in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians amid their continuing conflict with Israelis.

In response, Israel has launched airstrikes on Houthi targets. In addition, the US-led naval coalition stationed in the area has been conducting regular airstrikes on Houthi sites since January last year in a joint bid to deter the armed group, prompting the Houthis to expand attacks to include US warships.

Fighting in Gaza

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Saturday that four soldiers had died in combat in the north, bringing to 403 the total number of soldiers killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel launched its ground offensive in retaliation for Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack.

An officer and a reservist soldier were "seriously wounded" during the same incident and were taken to hospital, the military said in a statement.

Israel has been waging an intense offensive in northern Gaza since early October, saying it aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

The military said on Saturday that it had killed three militants in a ground operation near Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Regarding the hostage deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a delegation of senior officials to Qatar for negotiations on a hostage release and Gaza cease-fire deal, his office said on Saturday.

Netanyahu held a meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a representative of current US President Joe Biden and senior Israeli officials, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Following the meeting, Netanyahu instructed the heads of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security agency as well as General Nitzan Alon and foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk "to depart for Doha in order to continue advancing a deal to release our hostages", the statement said.

Mike Gu in Hong Kong contributed to this story.

Xinhua - Agencies