Israel’s military said Yemen launched a missile toward Israel on Saturday morning, the first time it had faced fire from that country.
Sirens sounded for the third time Friday to Saturday in the area near Beer Sheba and Israel’s main nuclear research center, as Iran and Hezbollah continued firing on Israel overnight.
The Houthis, a Tehran-backed rebel group, have captured Yemen’s capital Sanaa since 2014. He did not immediately admit to launching an attack against Israel.
The Houthis had until now stayed out of the war because the rebels have had an uneasy truce for years with Saudi Arabia, which began the war against the group in 2015 on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government.
Attacks on ships during the Israel–Hamas war disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, through which approximately US$1 trillion of goods passed each year before the war. The rebels also fired drones at Israel.
Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities on Friday, hours after it threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran. Iran vowed to retaliate and attacked a base in Saudi Arabia, injuring US service members and damaging planes.
On Friday, the Houthis’ military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Sari, issued a pre-recorded statement outlining several ways Iran could join the rebels in the war.
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“We confirm that our fingers are on the trigger for direct military intervention in any of the following cases,” Sari said. They included “continuing the offensive against the Islamic Republic and the axis of jihad and resistance, as dictated by the theater of military operations”.
In 2024, the Trump administration launched attacks against the Houthis that ended weeks later. The US-led campaign against Houthi rebels in the shadow of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip has turned into the most intense sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.
The Houthis’ potential entry into the war also raised questions about whether the rebels would again target commercial shipping traveling through the Red Sea corridor. Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant ships with missiles and drones from November 2023 to January 2025, sinking two ships and killing four sailors.
That would add further chaos to global shipping, already struggling with Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas passes.
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Before the Yemen attack, a breakthrough appeared to be in progress as Tehran agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, acceding to a UN request, with Ali Bahrain, the country’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, saying Iran agreed to “facilitate and accelerate” such movement.
The vital waterway typically handles one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments and about one-third of the world’s fertilizer trade. While markets and governments have largely focused on the blocked supply of oil and natural gas, restrictions on fertilizer content and trade threaten farming and food security around the world.
“This measure reflects Iran’s continued commitment to supporting humanitarian efforts and ensuring that essential aid reaches those in need without any delay,” Bahrain said on social platform X. The United Nations had previously announced a task force to address the impact of the war on aid delivery.
At least 10 US soldiers were injured in the Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, according to two US officials familiar with the situation. According to an official, two of them suffered serious injuries. The two officials discussed sensitive military matters on condition of anonymity. Several refueling aircraft were damaged.
Israel attacks Iranian nuclear facilities
Bahrain’s announcement came just hours after Iranian state media said two nuclear facilities had been attacked. Israel, which threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran, claimed responsibility and Iran threatened to immediately retaliate.
“Iran will pay a heavy price for Israeli crimes,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said via X.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the Shahid Khondab Heavy Water Complex in Arak and the Ardakan yellowcake production plant in Yazd province were targeted, IRNA reported. It said there were no casualties in the attacks and there was no risk of contamination. The Arak plant has not been operational since the Israeli attack last June.
Yellowcake is a concentrated form of uranium after impurities have been removed from the raw ore. Heavy water is used as a moderator in nuclear reactors.
The Israeli military later said that the Yazd plant processes raw materials for enrichment and that the attack was a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program.
IRGC Aerospace Forces commander Seyed Majid Mousavi said on Twitter that employees of companies linked to the US and Israel should leave their workplaces: “This time, the equation will no longer be an eye for an eye, just wait.”
Late Friday, Israeli officials said Iran fired missiles at the country, killing a 52-year-old man in Tel Aviv. Sirens alerted people to seek shelter in and around Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beer Sheba and areas near the country’s main nuclear research center, which were targeted by Iranian attacks last weekend that injured dozens.
Trump calls for renewed Israeli-Saudi relations
Speaking in Miami at an event sponsored by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Trump reiterated his desire to normalize relations between those two countries.
The president has been pressuring the Middle East’s two biggest powers for years as part of his Abraham Accords efforts, and he said the time would be right when hostilities with Iran end.
“The time has come,” he said. “We’ve got them out now, and they’re out in a big way. We’ve got to get into the Abraham Accords.”
Significant headwinds remain, including Saudi Arabia’s insistence that a credible path to Palestinian statehood is needed before normalizing commercial and diplomatic relations with Israel.
America is insisting on diplomatic solution
News of the attack on Iran came as Trump claimed talks on ending the war were going “very well” and that he had given Tehran more time to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says it has not participated in any talks.
With stock markets plunging and the war’s economic fallout extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under increasing pressure to end Iran’s stranglehold over the strait.
The Gulf Arab bloc said on Thursday that Iran was charging ships tolls to ensure safe passage.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington has submitted a 15-point “action list” to Iran, using Pakistan as a mediator for a possible ceasefire. It proposes to restrict Iran’s nuclear program and reopen the strait.
Iran rejected this proposal and presented its own five-point proposal that included compensation and recognition of its sovereignty over the waterway.
Trump has said that if Iran does not reopen the strait to all traffic by April 6, he will order the destruction of Iran’s energy plants.
US stocks fell further on Friday due to uncertainty over the conflict. The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent to close with its worst week since the start of the Iran war and 5th consecutive losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite sank 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, crude oil prices continued to rise.
With US gas prices reaching US$4 per gallon, members of Congress are pushing to suspend the federal gasoline tax, which is set at 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. Trump said he has “thought” about suspending it, but suggested states should consider suspending their taxes on the fuel.
The attacks seem to be intensifying in the early hours of Saturday
Witnesses in eastern Tehran reported partial power outages following the airstrike. In Israel, powerful explosions filled the air in Tel Aviv and emergency crews responded to about a dozen impact sites.
An Associated Press journalist heard loud explosions in Tel Aviv, and Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said it was responding to 11 different impact sites in the metro area.
Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier vowed that Iran would “pay a heavy, escalating price for this war crime.”
Israel focused its strikes on Friday “in the center of Tehran” on sites where ballistic missiles and other weapons are manufactured, the military said. It said it also targeted missile launchers and storage sites in western Iran.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down missiles and drones targeting the capital Riyadh. In Lebanon, the health ministry said two people were killed.
Kuwait said its Shuwaikh port in Kuwait City and Mubarak Al Kabir port in the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, suffered “material damage” in the attacks. This appears to be the first time a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab countries has been attacked by war. China has continued purchasing Iranian crude oil.
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Diplomatic tussle continues despite US sending more troops
Diplomats from several countries, including Pakistan and Türkiye, have attempted to organize a direct meeting between the US and Iranian envoys. Separately, G7 foreign ministers meeting in France on Friday formally called for an immediate halt to attacks against populations and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, American ships carrying about 2,500 Marines have moved closer to the region, and at least 1,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne – trained to land in hostile territory to secure key positions and airfields – have been ordered to the Middle East.
Nevertheless, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops.” Rubio, speaking to reporters after the G7 meeting, said the deployment was designed to ensure “we have maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies as they arise.”
Israel sent the 162nd Division to southern Lebanon to protect its northern border towns from Hezbollah attacks and support efforts to root out the terrorist group, the military said.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said on Friday that 82,000 civilian buildings in Iran, including hospitals and homes for 180,000 people, had been damaged.
“If this war continues, we risk a widespread humanitarian disaster,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement. “Millions of people could be forced to flee across the borders, placing enormous pressure on an already overstretched region.”
The death toll has increased mainly in Iran and Lebanon
Nineteen people have died in Israel, while four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon.
More than 1,100 people have died in Lebanon and more than 1,900 in Iran, officials said.
At least 13 US soldiers have been killed, and four in the occupied West Bank and 20 in Gulf Arab states have also been killed.
In Iraq, where Iran-backed militia groups have joined the conflict, 80 members of security forces have been killed.
