Israel has confirmed it launched an attack against Yemen’s port of Hodeidah in its latest round of strikes against the country, which it says is targeting the Houthis.
Dozens of Yemeni civilians have been killed in these ongoing Israeli strikes.
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The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV station said Israel carried out 12 strikes on Tuesday, with the Israeli army claiming they were a response to the Houthis’ military activities there.
“Our air defences are currently confronting the Israeli aircrafts that are launching an aggression against our country,” Houthi spokesperson Yayha Saree posted on X.
Hours before the attack against the Red Sea coast city, the Israeli military, which alleged the Houthis were using the port to receive weapons from Iran, had issued a threat to evacuate the area.
“For your safety, we urge everyone in Hodeida port and the vessels anchored there to evacuate the area immediately,” the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.
Speaking to Reuters, two sources at the port suggested that Israel’s strikes targeted three docks that had been restored after previous Israeli attacks. The attack last roughly 10 minutes, residents told the news agency.
Following the strikes, the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Houthis would “continue to suffer blows” and “pay painful prices” if they attacked Israel.
Since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have carried out drone and missile attacks against it in solidarity with Palestinians under fire. They have also targeted vessels in the Red Sea.
In response, Israel has hit infrastructure such as ports and power stations in Houthi-held parts of Yemen and also bombed civilian areas.
In the last two weeks, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone strike against Israel’s Ramon Airport near the Red Sea city of Eilat that injured two people. The attack on Sunday, which targeted the arrivals hall, had halted operations at the airport for around two hours.
Dozens of people were killed in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and the al-Jawf governorate in Israeli strikes on Wednesday. Hundreds gathered on Tuesday to attend the funeral services of 31 Yemeni journalists who died in the attacks.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.
Late last month, Israel assassinated the Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi in another air strike in Sanaa, with the group promising “vengeance” for his death and the deaths of almost half of his cabinet.
In September 2005, Israeli forces pulled out of the Gaza Strip, with the last troops leaving through the al-Karara (Kisufim) and Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossings.
The withdrawal was seen at the time as a historic turning point, raising hopes that nearly four decades of military occupation had come to an end.
But instead of relinquishing control, Israel repositioned itself on Gaza’s edges. It sealed off the territory by land, sea, and air, restricting movement through fence crossings, imposing limits on fishing waters, and keeping watch from above.
In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera breaks down factors that led to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, maps the 21 illegal settlements Israel dismantled across Gaza, and explores how their removal paved the way for deeper settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank.
What led up to disengagement?
The idea of the Gaza disengagement was primarily conceived and championed by Sharon.
A strong supporter of Israeli settlements, Sharon began considering a withdrawal from Gaza in the early 2000s, particularly after the outbreak of the second Intifada (2000-05).
The idea was motivated by the high cost of defending isolated settlements, the demographic challenges of ruling over a large Palestinian population, and the strategic goal of consolidating Israel’s hold on larger illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Despite facing intense opposition from within his Likud party and across the political spectrum, Sharon pushed forward the plan, framing it as a strategic move rather than a concession.
The proposal, formally known in Hebrew as the “Hitnatkut” (Disengagement), was announced in December 2003 and eventually approved by the Knesset in October 2004, paving the way for the dismantling of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the northern West Bank in 2005.
Timeline of Gaza disengagement
June 6, 2004 – The Israeli cabinet votes 14-7 in favour of PM Sharon’s disengagement plan, setting the stage for withdrawal from Gaza.
February 16, 2005 – The Knesset passes the Disengagement Implementation Law, providing the legal framework for evacuations and compensation.
August 15, 2005 – Israeli forces begin dismantling settlements and removing settlers from Gaza.
August 22, 2005 – All 21 settlements in Gaza are emptied, removing about 8,000 settlers.
August 23-24, 2005 – Attention shifts to the northern West Bank, where four settlements (al-Ghanim, Homesh, Kadim, Sanur) are dismantled.
September 12, 2005 – Military jeeps and armoured bulldozers leave through the al-Karara and Beit Hanoon crossing points, ending 38 years of continuous Israeli military presence in the Strip.
Where were the 21 illegal settlements in Gaza?
Following the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, it intensified settlement building.
Israeli settlements are Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land. Settlements are illegal under international law because they involve transferring an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory, which violates the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The first settlement in Gaza after 1967 was Kfar Darom, set up as a combined military-agricultural outpost in 1970 and later converted into a civilian community. It became part of Gush Katif, the largest Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip, located in southern Gaza, where most settlements were concentrated, particularly in the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates.
A bulldozer demolishes houses on August 30, 2005, in the Kfar Darom settlement in the Gaza Strip [File: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images]
Other settlements included Netzarim, just south of Gaza City, and several sites in northern Gaza. These settlements were heavily protected by the Israeli military and surrounded by buffer zones that restricted Palestinian movement.
Over the next three decades, a total of 21 settlements were built, housing some 8,000 settlers.
Although settlers made up just 0.6 percent of Gaza’s population, they controlled roughly 20 percent of its land, affecting about 1.3 million Palestinians living in the territory at the time.
During Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, it built several corridors named after the settlements they connected, including Netzarim and Morag, two of the territory’s largest and most prominent settlements.
Settlement expansion across the West Bank
Since Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem has accelerated. Today, there are between 600,000 and 750,000 Israeli settlers living in at least 250 settlements and outposts.
Many of these settlements have expanded while new outposts were set up, often strategically located to control roads, high ground, and key resources, effectively blocking Palestinians from accessing their land and limiting their freedom of movement.
One of Israel’s latest settlement announcements came in August 2025, when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of about 3,400 housing units in E1, between East Jerusalem and the illegal settlement of Maale Adumim.
E1 is strategically significant, as it forms one of the last geographic links between Bethlehem and Ramallah, and expansion there could undermine plans for a territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
For the first time, Israel has struck a GCC nation. We examine the shockwaves it sent across the region and beyond.
Israel has widened its military campaign beyond the Gaza genocide, launching deadly attacks on targets in Yemen, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, and now Qatar – leaving the international community wondering, who is next?
Presenter: Stefanie Dekker
Guests:
Sheikha Alanoud Bint Hamad Al Thani – Political analyst
Ten children from a professional football academy in Gaza City have been killed in Israeli attacks since it began its war on the enclave. The director of the academy described the children as some of Gaza’s brightest football stars.
Russia has practised launching cruise missiles over the Barents Sea during joint military exercises with Belarus codenamed Zapad (West), according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
The neighbouring allies were wrapping up five days of war games on Tuesday in a show of force they said is designed to test their combat readiness. Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers also performed combat training missions amid heightened tensions with NATO countries after Moscow’s alleged violations of Polish and Romanian airspace.
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About 7,000 soldiers, including 6,000 Belarusians, participated in the exercises held in Belarus and Russia.
The drills took place just days after Polish and NATO forces shot down drones violating Polish airspace during Russia’s biggest-ever aerial barrage against neighbouring Ukraine.
Polish airspace has been violated many times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but never on this scale anywhere in NATO territory. Wednesday’s incident was the first time a NATO member is known to have fired shots during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Romania on Sunday also scrambled fighter jets after a drone breached the country’s airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine.
After these incidents, the drills have unnerved some neighbouring countries, including Poland, which temporarily closed its border with Belarus as a precautionary measure.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that nuclear-capable bombers rehearsed launching cruise missiles as they flew over neutral waters of the Barents Sea, north of Scandinavia, for about four hours while being escorted by MiG-31 fighter jets.
Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin was due to observe another part of the Zapad exercises at a training ground in Russia later on Tuesday, his ministry said.
It did not specify the nature of that element but said it would take place in “conditions as close as possible to combat”.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has supported its war in Ukraine although without committing its own troops to the fighting. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to station tactical nuclear missiles in Belarus.
United States military officers observed part of the Zapad exercises in Belarus on Monday, a sign of the warming relations between the US and Belarus under President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes in Ukraine killed two people and wounded at least nine, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.
Ivan Fedorov, head of the military administration in southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, said a Russian attack had killed one person and wounded nine, including a child.
The governor of the southern region of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, said Russian forces had attacked a farm there, killing a tractor driver as he worked in the field.
Hopes of reaching a truce in the conflict have dimmed since Trump held talks separately with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Putin last month.
Tensions have risen further since Poland’s and Romania’s accusations that Russia violated their airspace. Moscow has brushed off the accusations, saying neither Poland nor Romania have presented convincing evidence that the drones were Russian and calling the latter incident a “provocation” by Ukraine.
Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning actor, director and godfather for independent cinema as Sundance founder, has died at the age of 89.
Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah – the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement Tuesday.
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No cause of death was provided.
The iconic actor and director is best known for his acclaimed performances in All the President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The tousled-haired and freckled heartthrob made his breakthrough alongside Paul Newman as the affable outlaw in the hippy Western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969.
Redford made hearts beat faster in romantic roles such as “Out of Africa,” got political in “The Candidate” and “All the President’s Men” and skewered his golden-boy image in roles like the alcoholic ex-rodeo champ in “The Electric Horseman” and middle-aged millionaire who offers to buy sex in “Indecent Proposal.”
He never won the best actor Oscar, but his first outing as a director – the 1980 family drama “Ordinary People” – won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
Despite their chemistry and long personal friendship, Redford was never to team up again with Newman, who died in 2008.
“Butch Cassidy” made blue-eyed Redford an overnight star but he never felt comfortable with celebrity or the male starlet image that persisted late into his 60s.
“People have been so busy relating to how I look, it’s a miracle I didn’t become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm. It’s not easy being Robert Redford,” he once told New York magazine.
His wavy blond hair and boyish grin made him the most desired of leading men, but he worked hard to transcend his looks – whether through his political advocacy, his willingness to take on unglamorous roles or his dedication to providing a platform for low-budget movies.
Intensely private, he bought land in remote Utah in the early 1970s for his family retreat and enjoyed a level of privacy unknown to most superstars. He was married for more than 25 years to his first wife, before their divorce in 1985. In 2009, he married for a second time, to German artist and longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars.
He used the millions he made to launch the Sundance Institute and Festival in the 1970s, promoting independent filmmaking long before small and quirky were fashionable. The festival has become one of the most influential independent film showcases in the world.
Redford used his star status to also quietly champion environmental causes such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation.
“Some people have analysis. I have Utah,” he once remarked.
Although he never showed an interest in entering politics, he often espoused a liberal viewpoint. In a 2017 interview, during the presidency of Donald Trump, he told Esquire magazine that “politics is in a very dark place right now” and that Trump should “quit for our benefit”.
