Yemen's Houthi militia held a funeral on Saturday for at least 17 militants killed during joint U.S.-British airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militants, the Houthi-run Saba news agency said.

The Houthis have launched waves of exploding drones and missiles at commercial ships since Nov. 19 in what they say is a response to Israel's military operations in Gaza, prompting Britain and the United States to start retaliatory strikes last month.

"These crimes will not discourage the Yemeni people from continuing their support and backing of their brothers in the Gaza Strip," Saba said in its coverage of the funerals.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday its forces conducted self-defense strikes against two mobile unmanned surface vessels (USV), four mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, and one mobile land attack cruise missile (LACM) that were prepared to launch strikes against ships in the Red Sea.

"CENTCOM identified these missiles and USVs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region," it said in a statement. "These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels."

Besides the airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the U.S. and Britain have returned the militia to a list of terrorist groups as turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war spreads through the region.

The Houthi campaign has disrupted international shipping, causing some companies to suspend transits through the Red Sea and instead take the much longer, costlier journey around Africa.

Yemen’s Houthis hold funeral for militants killed in US-British strikes

Yemen’s Houthi militia held a funeral on Saturday for at least 17 militants killed during joint US-British air strikes targeting the Iran-backed militants, the Houthi-run Saba news agency said.

The Houthis have launched waves of exploding drones and missiles at commercial ships since Nov. 19 in what they say is a response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, prompting Britain and the United States to start retaliatory strikes last month.

“These crimes will not discourage the Yemeni people from continuing their support and backing of their brothers in the Gaza Strip,” Saba said in its coverage of the funerals.

Besides the air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the US and Britain have returned the militia to a list of terrorist groups as turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war spreads through the region.

05:00 PM GMT

That's all for today. Thanks for following the Telegraph's live blog.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest updates on the war.

04:50 PM GMT

Iran in contact with US since October 7 attack

The Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday his country had exchanged messages with the United States throughout the conflict since Hamas’ attack against Israel on Oct. 7, including about Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

“During this war and in the recent weeks, there was an exchange of messages between Iran and America,” Hossein Amirabdollahian said during a visit to Beirut, adding that the U.S. had asked Tehran to request Hezbollah “not to get widely, fully involved in this war against” Israel.

04:28 PM GMT

Tehran: War with Lebanon would be Netanyahu's 'last day'

The Iranian foreign minister said during a visit to Lebanon on Saturday that a political solution was the only way to end the Gaza conflict, and that Tehran was in talks with Riyadh on the issue.

He also warned Israel against taking any steps towards a full-scale war against Lebanon, saying that would be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “last day.”

03:41 PM GMT

Israeli drone kills two people in Lebanon

An Israeli drone strike hit a car near Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon on Saturday, killing at least two people and wounding two others, security officials said.

The strike came as tensions across the Middle East grow with the Israel-Hamas war, a drone attack last month that killed three U.S. troops in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on vessels passing through the Red Sea.

The drone strike near the coastal town of Jadra took place about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Israeli border, making it one of the farthest inside Lebanon since violence erupted along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas’ attack in southern Israel.

03:10 PM GMT

Yemen's Houthis hold funeral for militants killed in US-British airstrikes

Yemen’s Houthi militia held a funeral on Saturday for at least 17 militants killed during joint US-British airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed militants, the Houthi-run Saba news agency said.

The Houthis have launched waves of exploding drones and missiles at commercial ships since Nov. 19 in what they say is a response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, prompting Britain and the United States to start retaliatory strikes last month.

“These crimes will not discourage the Yemeni people from continuing their support and backing of their brothers in the Gaza Strip,” Saba said in its coverage of the funerals.

Besides the airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, the US and Britain have returned the militia to a list of terrorist groups as turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war spreads through the region.

02:55 PM GMT

Iran is not attempting to 'expand' conflict, says Tehran

The Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday neither Iran nor Lebanon had sought to expand hostilities in the region, four months after Hamas’ attack on Israel set off a series of flare-ups across the Middle East.

“Iran and Lebanon confirm that war is not the solution, and that we absolutely never sought to expand it,” Hossein Amirabdollahian told a press conference alongside his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut.

02:35 PM GMT

Hamas affiliate survives Israeli strike in Lebanon

An Israeli strike about 60 km inside Lebanon’s southern border on Saturday targeted a Palestinian figure close to Hamas but he survived, four security sources said.

Three other people were killed, including one member of the powerful, Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, the security sources also told Reuters.

One source said the person targeted was close to Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas deputy chief killed last month in a suspected Israeli strike on a suburb of Beirut.

Saturday’s strike was much deeper into Lebanese territory than the usual exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel’s military, which have been mostly limited to the border region.

02:10 PM GMT

Egypt will not allow displaced Palestinians into its territory

Egypt has said it will not allow any mass displacement of Palestinians into its territory following Israel’s assault on Rafah, near the Egypt-Gaza border. Palestinians fear that Israel means to drive them from their homeland then forbid their return.

“There is limited space and great risk in putting Rafah under further military escalation due to the growing number of Palestinians there,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday, warning that an escalation would have “dire consequences”.

01:49 PM GMT

Hezbollah claims it has seized Israeli drone

Lebanon’s Iran-backed armed faction Hezbollah said on Saturday it had seized an Israeli Skylark drone over Lebanese air space “in good condition”.

The Skylark is a small, unmanned aerial vehicle typically used for surveillance and produced by Israel-based weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

01:28 PM GMT

War in pictures

12:52 PM GMT

Israeli strike hits Lebanon's southern border

An Israeli strike about 60 kilometers inside Lebanon’s southern border on Saturday targeted a Palestinian figure close to Hamas but he survived, four security sources told Reuters.

Three other people were killed, including one Hezbollah fighter, the security sources said.

The strike was much deeper into Lebanese territory than the usual exchanges of fire between Hamas ally Hezbollah and the Israeli military, which have been mostly limited to the border region. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

12:28 PM GMT

Israeli air strikes hit Damascus

Israeli air strikes on Saturday hit several sites on the outskirts of Syria’s capital, Damascus, the Syrian military said.

The strikes came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed military official. It added that air defenses shot down some missiles and those that landed resulted in “some material losses.”

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

12:09 PM GMT

Saudi Arabia: Rafah invasion will cause 'humanitarian catastrophe'

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that Israel’s planned army operation in overcrowded Rafah would cause a “humanitarian catastrophe” and called for the United Nations Security Council to intervene.

The kingdom “warned of the extremely dangerous repercussions of storming and targeting” Rafah and affirmed its “categorical rejection and strong condemnation of their forced deportation”, in a foreign ministry statement carried by state media.

“This continued violation of international law and international humanitarian law confirms the necessity of convening the Security Council urgently to prevent Israel from causing an imminent humanitarian catastrophe,” the statement added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered the army to prepare to evacuate civilians from Rafah ahead of a planned ground operation against Hamas in the city.

11:50 AM GMT

Body of six-year-old Palestinian girl found

Relatives found the body on Saturday of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who had begged Gaza rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire, along with the bodies of five of her family members and two ambulance workers who had gone to save her.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance it sent to rescue Hind Rajab after she had spent hours on the phone to dispatchers begging for help with the sound of shooting echoing around.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind,” the Red Crescent said in a statement.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Red Crescent statement.

11:28 AM GMT

Three senior Hamas officials killed in Rafah

Three senior Hamas officials have been killed after an attack on their vehicle in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, Israeli media reports.

Those killed were members of Hamas’ police force, including the director of investigations Ahmed al-Yakoubi, his deputy Ayman al-Rantisi, and Ibrahim Shatt.

It comes as Israeli air strikes pounded densely crowded Rafah on Saturday, despite warnings from the US that the operation would be a humanitarian “disaster”.

10:58 AM GMT

It’s time to stand up to China over the Red Sea

This week marks the one-month anniversary of the UK’s involvement in an international coalition involved in airstrikes against Yemen, repelling attacks from Houthi militants against cargo ships, and keeping the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea open, writes Sam Goodman.

As we reflect on this anniversary the question that should loom large is why the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the world’s largest exporter of goods, remains unwilling to offer financial, diplomatic, or military support in defending this vital global trade route.

10:28 AM GMT

Hamas says thousands could die if Israel attacks Rafah

Hamas on Saturday claimed that there could be “tens of thousands” of dead and injured if the Israeli military attacked Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week said he had ordered troops to prepare to go in to the city, crowded with displaced Palestinians, as it hunts down those responsible for the deadly October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

It is understood that four Hamas battalions are currently stationed there. Hamas said in a statement that any military action would have catastrophic repercussion that “may lead to tens of thousands of martyrs and injured if Rafah... is invaded”.

The announcement has prompted concern from foreign governments including the United States and aid agencies grappling with a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of the war.

10:05 AM GMT

Israel deploys AI technology in Gaza for first time

Israel’s army has deployed some AI-enabled military technology in combat for the first time in Gaza, raising fears about the use of autonomous weapons in modern warfare.

The army has hinted at what the new tech is being used for, with spokesman Daniel Hagari saying last month that Israel’s forces were operating “above and underground simultaneously”.

A senior defence official told AFP the tech was destroying enemy drones and mapping Hamas’s vast tunnel network in Gaza.

New defence technologies including artificial intelligence-powered gunsights and robotic drones form a bright spot in an otherwise dire period for Israel’s tech industry.

09:38 AM GMT

Israeli air strikes pummel Rafah

Israeli air strikes pummelled densely crowded Rafah on Saturday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his troops to “prepare to operate” in the southern border city that has become a last holdout for displaced Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s planned offensive on Rafah, where an estimated 1.3 million people have sought refuge, has drawn condemnation from rights groups and Washington, while Palestinians have said they have nowhere left to retreat.

Witnesses reported new strikes on Rafah early Saturday, after the Israeli military intensified air raids, with fears rising among Palestinians of a coming ground invasion.

“We don’t know where to go,” said Mohammad al-Jarrah, a Palestinian who was displaced from further north to Rafah.