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Israel’s military says it carried out new airstrikes in Yemen against what it said were Houthi rebel targets. Its statement Friday said fighter jets struck “on the western coast and inland Yemen,” a day after the Houthis launched three drones at Israel. The U.S. military bombed Yemen earlier this week.Related video above: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel-Gaza ‘very close to a ceasefire and hostage agreement’Houthi-controlled media reported one worker dead and six people wounded at the Ras Isa port. The Houthis said the strikes occurred while Yemenis were rallying in the capital, Sanaa, in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer to an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages.Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded in the Israel-Hamas war, with no end in sight. The ministry says women and children were more than half the fatalities but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it says militants operate in residential areas. Israel’s air and ground operations have driven hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. A third of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be dead.Here’s the latest:Israel’s Netanyahu meets with security officials to discuss Gaza ceasefire talks, official saysTEL AVIV, Israel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday with security officials to discuss Gaza ceasefire talks, an Israeli official told The Associated Press.The prime minister and security officials received an update from negotiators and instructed them to continue the talks in Qatar, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a confidential diplomatic matter.Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been mediating the indirect talks that have stalled repeatedly during 15 months of war. Just one brief ceasefire has been achieved, occurring in the earliest weeks of the fighting.The recovery of the bodies of two hostages in Gaza this week again put pressure on Netanyahu from families and others to reach a deal to bring the remaining hostages home. Israeli strike in southern Lebanon kills 2 and wounds 2 others, health officials sayBEIRUT An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Friday killed at least two people and wounded two others, the country’s Health Ministry said.The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack in Tyre province, and it’s unclear what was targeted. Lebanon’s state media reported the strike hit a car in the town of Tayr Debba.Amid a tenuous ceasefire, Israel insists it has the right to attack Hezbollah anywhere in response to alleged truce violations. Both sides have until Jan. 26 to pull their forces out of southern Lebanon.Lebanese state media reported Israel carried out new home demolitions and explosions in several southern villages on Friday. This adds to the near-daily Israeli operations in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect in late November gunfire, demolishing buildings, tank shelling and airstrikes that, according to the Health Ministry, have killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 32.Israel launches new strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebelsJERUSALEM Israel’s military says it has carried out new airstrikes against what it calls Houthi rebel targets inside Yemen.The Israeli military statement Friday said fighter jets struck “on the western coast and inland Yemen,” and targets included what it called military infrastructure sites in the Hizaz power station as well as military infrastructure in the Hodeida and Ras Isa ports on the west coast. An Israeli military official said 20 aircraft took part in the operation, firing around 50 munitions.Houthi-controlled media reported one worker dead and six other people wounded at the Ras Isa port.Clouds of black smoke could be seen above the rebel-held capital, Sanaa. The Houthis said the strikes occurred while people were rallying in Sanaa in support of Palestinians in Gaza.The Houthis had launched three drones at Israel on Thursday, a day after the U.S. military said it carried out a wave of strikes in Yemen against what it said were underground arms facilities.The Iran-backed Houthis have been stepping up their missile attacks on Israel in recent weeks. In some cases, the projectiles have penetrated Israel’s sophisticated aerial defense system.Israel has repeatedly bombarded ports, oil infrastructure and the airport in Sanaa, which is some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away. The Israeli military official said the warplanes conducted in-flight refueling during Friday’s operation.Israeli military says soldiers on Oct. 7 likely killed 1, possibly 2 kibbutz residentsJERUSALEM The Israeli military says an inquiry into the deaths of two kibbutz residents during the Oct. 7, 2023, militant attack that sparked the war in Gaza found it “highly likely” that one Tomer Eliaz-Arava was killed by Israeli soldiers after they saw a person they misidentified as a suspicious figure.The findings released Friday also note a “reasonable possibility” that another resident, Dikla Arava, was killed by military fire while in a vehicle after being seized by militants.The military says the shootings occurred during “fierce combat” with militants who had infiltrated Kibbutz Nahal Oz. It emphasizes it is impossible to determine “with absolute certainty” what caused the deaths.The military says the broader inquiry into the battle at the kibbutz continues.Cyprus leader becomes first foreign dignitary to visit Lebanon’s new presidentBEIRUT Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has become the first foreign head of state and the first foreign dignitary to pay an official visit to Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun.Aoun, the former commander of the Lebanese army, was elected Thursday by the Lebanese parliament to fill a more than two-year vacuum in the presidency.”I wanted to be the first to visit President Aoun and show, not in words but in actions, that Cyprus stands by Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Christodoulides told reporters afterward.They discussed energy, security, trade and shipping, his office said in a written statement.Cyprus and Lebanon have had close relations for decades. In recent years, the two countries have been involved in intense discussions over border control, as many Syrian refugees living in Lebanon and an increasing number of Lebanese since the country’s major economic crisis began in 2019 sought to reach Cyprus by sea in smuggler boats.Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (130 miles) from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and they share maritime borders in waters where undersea natural gas deposits are believed to lie.3 killed in a stampede outside a mosque in DamascusDAMASCUS Three women were killed and five children injured in a stampede outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Friday, the Syrian civil defense known as the White Helmets said in a statement.The stampede came about as a result of “severe congestion due to an event organized by civilians,” the statement said.An Associated Press photographer at the scene said the swell in the numbers of people was caused by a food distribution event after the Friday afternoon prayers.Massive crowds were also trying to go into the packed mosque for prayers, leading security guards to lock the gates and fire in the air to disperse the crowd, he said.Italy says suspending EU sanctions on Syria could help encourage transitionROME Italy’s foreign minister says a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria could help encourage the country’s transition after the ouster of President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents.Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Syria on Friday and expressed Italy’s keen interest in helping Syria recover from civil war, rebuild its broken economy and help stabilize the region.Tajani, who met with Syria’s new de facto leaders, said a stable Syria and Lebanon was of strategic and commercial importance to Europe. He said the fall of Assad’s government, as well as the Lebanon parliament’s vote on Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as president, were signs of optimism for Middle East stability.He said Italy wanted to play a leading role in Syria’s recovery and serve as a bridge between Damascus and the EU, particularly given Italy’s commercial and strategic interests in the Mediterranean.”The Mediterranean can no longer just be a sea of death, a cemetery of migrants, but a sea of commerce, a sea of development,” he said.Tajani later traveled to Lebanon and met with Aoun. Italy has long played a sizeable role in the U.N. peacekeeping force for Lebanon, UNIFIL.On the eve of his visit, Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Britain, France and Germany, as well as the EU foreign policy chief. He said that meeting of the so-called Quintet on Syria was key to begin the discussion about a change to the EU sanctions.”The sanctions were against the Assad regime. If the situation has changed, we have to change our choices,” Tajani said.Turkey has no ‘secret agenda’ in Syria, minister saysISTANBUL Turkey “does not have any secret agenda” in Syria and wants to construct a “new culture of cooperation,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Friday.One of Turkey’s priorities in the upcoming year is to clear the region of terrorism, Fidan said, referring to Kurdish militants based in northeast Syria. “The extensions of the separatist group in Syria are now facing destruction, and the old order is no longer going to continue,” he told a news conference in Istanbul.Fidan also criticized the United States’ support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, as the U.S. seeks to prevent a revival of the Islamic State group.”This kills the spirit of alliance and solidarity,” Fidan said. He said Turkey is “not going to shy away from taking the necessary steps” in terms of military action.Turkey views the SDF as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by Turkey and other states.Referring to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s comments that U.S. troops should stay in Syria, Fidan dismissed the views of the outgoing U.S. administration. “This is the problem of the new government, and the old government does not have a say in this,” he said.The SDF is currently involved in fighting the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.Fidan also backed suggestions for Syrian Kurds to join a new national military but said all non-Syrians fighting for the SDF a reference to those with ties to the PKK should leave the country. Body of hostage Hamzah AlZayadni identified after recovery in GazaJERUSALEM Israel’s army confirmed Friday that one of the bodies recovered from Gaza earlier this week was that of 23-year-old hostage Hamzah AlZayadni.The army said Friday that the identification was made by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Israel’s police and the family has been notified. The army said its forces recovered the bodies of Hamzah and his father from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area and returned them to Israel.His father, Yosef AlZayadni, had been identified earlier this week. The father and son were thought to still be alive before this week’s announcement. They were kidnapped together from Kibbutz Holit, when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.The news comes as Israel and Hamas are considering a ceasefire deal that would free remaining hostages and halt the fighting in Gaza. Israel says about a third of the remaining 100 hostages have died, but believes as many as half could be dead. Their fates could ramp up pressure on Israel to move forward with a deal.The Hostages Families Forum, which represents families of the hostages, said Hamzah was a nature lover who had deep affection for animals and was beloved by his friends. He leaves behind a wife and two children.Oil tanker that threatened Red Sea spill has been salvagedDUBAI, United Arab Emirates An oil tanker that burned for weeks and threatened a massive oil spill in the Red Sea has been salvaged, a security firm said Friday.The Sounion had been a disaster-in-waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard that had been struck and later sabotaged with explosives by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. It took months for salvagers to tow the vessel away, extinguish the fires and offload the remaining crude oil.The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged Sounion tanker on Aug. 21 with small-arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer rescued its crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, and took them to nearby Djibouti.The Houthis later released footage showing they planted explosives on board the Sounion and ignited them in a propaganda video, which the rebels have done before.The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. The rebels maintain they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict.