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Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel early Saturday, the first time it had faced fire from that country.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, which calls into question whether the rebel group backed by Tehran will again target commercial shipping travelling through the Red Sea corridor.
Sirens went off around Beer Sheba and the area near Israel’s main nuclear research centre for the third time overnight Friday into Saturday, as Iran and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel overnight.
The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, and so far had stayed out of the war. The rebels have had an uneasy ceasefire for years with Saudi Arabia, which launched a war against the group on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government in 2015.
Attacks on vessels during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion US worth of goods passed each year before the ongoing conflict. The rebels also fired drones at Israel.
- Cross Country Checkup is asking: What questions do you have about the war in the Middle East? Leave your comment here and we may read it or call you back for Sunday’s show.
Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities hours after threatening to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran on Friday. Iran vowed to retaliate and struck Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base, wounding at least 15 U.S. troops and damaging planes. The base is run by the Royal Saudi Air Force but is also used by U.S. troops.
Brig.-Gen. Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the Houthis, issued the claim in a statement Saturday on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says the military’s attacks on Iran ‘will escalate and expand to additional targets and areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons against Israeli citizens.’ Tehran has rejected a U.S. ceasefire proposal and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed to all of Iran’s enemies.
Saree said they fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel. The attack came hours after Saree signalled in a vague statement on Friday that the rebels would join the war that has shocked the region and rattled the global economy.
In 2024, the United States launched strikes against the Houthis that ended weeks later. The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, turned into the most intense running sea battle the navy had faced since the Second World War.
The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January 2025. That caused further chaos in global shipping, which is currently reeling from Iran’s stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed.
The potential involvement of the Houthis in the current U.S.-Israeli war against Iran would also complicate the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the aircraft carrier that went to port in Crete on Monday for repairs.
Sending the carrier back into the Red Sea could draw it into the same high tempo of attacks seen by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2024 and the USS Harry S. Truman in the 2025 American campaign against the Houthis.
Prior to the attack from Yemen, there appeared to be a breakthrough as Tehran agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, accepting a request from the United Nations. Ali Bahreini, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Iran agreed to “facilitate and expedite” such movement. The vital waterway usually handles nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer trade.
More big losses on Wall Street suggest markets are starting to realize the Iran war’s negative economic impacts could worsen as millions of barrels of oil fail to reach customers. CBC’s Peter Armstrong explains what that means for Canada, and what could happen next.
While markets and governments have largely focused on blocked supplies of oil and natural gas, the restriction of fertilizer ingredients and trade threatens 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 delay,” Bahreini said on the social media platform X. The UN earlier announced a task force to address the ripple effects that the war has had on aid delivery.
Israel strikes Iranian nuclear facilities
Bahreini’s announcement came just hours after Iranian state media said two nuclear facilities had come under attack. Israel, which had threatened to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran, claimed responsibility, and Iran quickly threatened to retaliate.
“Iran will exact HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said the Shahid Khondab Heavy Water Complex in Arak and the Ardakan yellowcake production plant in Yazd Province were targeted, IRNA reported. The strikes did not cause any casualties and there was no risk of contamination, it said. The Arak plant has not been operational since Israel attacked it last June.
Russia has spoken out against the attacks targeting nuclear facilities, demanding an end to them. The ongoing situation at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant continues to deteriorate, and attacks pose a direct threat to nuclear safety, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Saturday after another strike near the facility.
Seyed Majid Moosavi, the aerospace force commander for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on X that employees of companies tied to the U.S. and Israel should abandon their workplaces: “This time, the equation will no longer be ‘an eye for an eye,’ just wait.”
Late Friday, Israeli authorities said Iran had launched 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 centre, which were targeted by Iranian strikes that injured dozens last weekend.
Attacks appear to intensify early Saturday
Witnesses in eastern Tehran reported a partial power outage following airstrikes. In Israel, loud explosions filled the air in Tel Aviv, and emergency crews responded to nearly 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 across the metro area.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had earlier vowed that Iran “will pay heavy, increasing prices for this war crime.”
Israel focused its attacks Friday on sites “in the heart of Tehran,” where ballistic missiles and other weapons are produced, the military said. It said it also hit missile launchers and storage sites in western Iran.
Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, 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 the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port to the north, which is under construction as part of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, sustained “material damage” in attacks. It appeared to be one of the first times a Chinese-affiliated project in the Gulf Arab states has come under assault in the war. China has continued to purchase Iranian crude.
U.S. pushes diplomatic solution
Word of the attacks on Iran came after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that talks on ending the war were going “very well” and that he had given Tehran more time to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran maintains that it has not engaged in any negotiations.
With stock markets reeling and economic fallout from the war extending far beyond the Middle East, Trump is under growing pressure to end Iran’s chokehold on the strait.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington delivered a 15-point “action list” to Iran for a possible ceasefire, using Pakistan as an intermediary. It proposes restricting Iran’s nuclear program and reopening the strait.
Iran rejected the offer and presented its own five-point proposal that included reparations and recognition of its sovereignty over the waterway.
Trump has said if that Iran doesn’t reopen the strait to all traffic by April 6, he will order the destruction of Iran’s energy plants.
With U.S. gas prices approaching $4 a gallon, members of Congress have been pushing to suspend the federal gasoline tax, set at 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.
Global oil prices continue to soar amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz is a major cause. But there are reports that Iran is allowing some ships to pass through — at a price. Andrew Chang breaks down how this ‘Tehran toll booth’ could be generating millions per ship while also breaking international law.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Adobe Stock, Reuters and Getty Images
Diplomats from several countries, including Pakistan and Turkey, have tried to organize a direct meeting between U.S. and Iranian envoys. Separately, G7 foreign ministers meeting Friday in France formally asked for an immediate halt to attacks against populations and infrastructure.
Meanwhile, U.S. ships drew closer to the region carrying some 2,500 marines, 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 U.S. “can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops.” Rubio, speaking to reporters following the G7 meeting, said the deployments are designed to ensure “maximum opportunity to adjust to contingencies should they emerge.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. is ‘ahead of schedule’ on most of its military objectives in Iran, which can be met ‘without ground troops.’ Meanwhile, the UN says civilian deaths are rising in both Iran and Lebanon since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran last month.
Death toll climbs, primarily in Iran and Lebanon
Israel sent the 162nd Division into southern Lebanon to support efforts to protect its northern border towns from Hezbollah attacks and uproot the militant group, the military said.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said Friday that 82,000 civilian buildings in Iran, including hospitals and the homes of 180,000 people, are damaged from strikes.
“If this war continues, we risk a far wider humanitarian disaster,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement. “Millions could be forced to flee across borders, placing immense pressure on an already overstretched region.”
Nineteen people have died in Israel, while four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon. Authorities said more than 1,100 people have been killed in Lebanon, and over 1,900 people in Iran.
At least 13 American troops have been killed, and four people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and 20 in Gulf Arab states have also died.
In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.
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