US airstrikes on an oil port in western Yemen have killed at least 38 people, Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported Friday, marking one of the deadliest days since the United States escalated its aerial military campaign against the Iranian-backed group in recent weeks.

US Central Command said Thursday the strikes on Ras Isa fuel port in Hodeidah province were aimed at cutting off revenue to the Houthis, adding the port has been used as a source of illicit profits to the group.

“The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen,” the US Central Command said in a statement. “This strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen.”

Al-Masirah reported that all those killed were workers at the port and that the strikes also injured 102 people, citing the Houthi-run health ministry’s regional office.

Since mid-March, US airstrikes have pounded Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting oil refineries, airports and missile sites, with US President Donald Trump vowing to use “overwhelming force” until the US achieves its goal of stopping the Houthis from targeting shipping in the Red Sea.

Houthis have launched numerous missiles against Israel and disrupted shipping in the Red Sea in what they say is in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel’s war in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attacks.

Video aired on Al-Masirah shows the injured receiving treatment at a hospital after dawn, many with visible burns to their bodies.

“Multiple air raids targeted the area,” a man who identified himself as a civil defense worker told Al-Masirah as he lay on an examination table, breathing heavily. “I found myself falling on the ground as a rocket hit.”

Another survivor at the hospital described the moment the port was struck.

“One strike after another, the whole area was lit on fire,” he told Al-Masirah. “When we managed to leave the area, we saw the place where we were hiding earlier getting struck too.”

The US says its campaign is working. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said that multiple Houthi leaders had been killed.

While as many as 80 Houthi military officers may have been killed, according to analysts, the senior echelon of its military and political leadership appears intact. So are at least some of its missile-launching sites.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have continued to launch more than a dozen ballistic missiles at Israel, and barrages of drones and missiles at US navy ships. While none caused major damage, the threat remains.

Early Friday, Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen. No injuries were reported, Israel’s emergency service said.

Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a ban on Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, a group that was designated as a terrorist organization more than two decades ago.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of withdrawing from the country after two decades of war.

The Russian court’s move was a diplomatic victory for the Taliban, who were put on Moscow’s list of terrorist organizations in 2003, making any contact with them punishable under Russian law.

At the same time, Taliban delegations have attended various forums hosted by Russia as Moscow has sought to position itself as a regional power broker.

The court’s ruling on a request by the Prosecutor General’s Office followed last year’s adoption of a law stipulating that the official designation as a terrorist organization could be suspended by a court.

The former Soviet Union fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with Moscow withdrawing its troops in 1989.

Russian officials have recently been emphasizing the need to engage with the Taliban to help stabilize Afghanistan.

In recent years, the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have removed the Taliban from their lists of terrorist groups.

The Taliban initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, but started to enforce restrictions on women and girls soon after the 2021 takeover. Women are barred from most jobs and public places, including parks, baths and gyms, while girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.

Such measures have isolated the Taliban on the world stage, although their government has established diplomatic ties with countries including China and the United Arab Emirates.

The UN this year renewed its call for the Taliban to lift the bans.

The group’s decrees limiting the participation of girls and women have affected foreign aid to the country. The Taliban also have brought back their strict interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, including public executions.

Some Taliban want greater engagement with the international community and want to scrap harsher policies to attract more outside support. In recent months, there has been increased engagement between the Taliban and the US under President Donald Trump, mostly because of prisoner exchanges and releases.

Ibraheem Bahiss, a senior analyst with Crisis Group’s Asia Program, said the Taliban’s listing as a terrorist group was a legal impairment for trade and political ties with Kabul and its lifting reflected Moscow’s desire to improve relations.

“However, beyond making it easier for individuals and businesses to engage with Afghanistan, I am not sure what other major benefit this will have,” he said.

South Asia analyst Michael Kugelman said the Russian move was not ground-breaking because many countries had never formally designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization. At the same time, he called the decision a “win-win” for bilateral relations.

For Russia, he said it would serve as a confidence-building measure helping pave the way for more engagement and enabling Moscow to better protect its interests in Afghanistan, particularly concerns about anti-Russia terror groups like Islamic State-Khorasan.

“Meanwhile, for the Taliban, the court decision is a legitimacy-boosting outcome they can leverage to point to international acceptance of their rule,” Kugelman observed.

A US citizen hijacked a small Tropic Air plane in Belize on Thursday at knifepoint, injuring three others before being shot and killed, police said.

The assailant pulled a knife while the plane was in air, demanding the domestic flight take him out of the country, Police Commissioner Chester Williams told journalists.

The hijacker was identified as US citizen Akinyela Sawa Taylor, Williams said, adding that it appeared Taylor was a military veteran.

The plane circled the airspace between northern Belize and capital Belize City as the hijacking was underway, and began to run dangerously low on fuel, the police commissioner said.

Taylor stabbed three people on board, according to Williams, including the pilot and a passenger who shot Taylor with a licensed firearm as the plane landed outside Belize City.

That passenger was rushed to the hospital, as was Taylor, who died from the gunshot wound.

Williams said that it was unclear how Taylor boarded the plane with a knife, though he acknowledged that the country’s smaller airstrips lacked security to fully search passengers.

The attacker had been denied entry to the country over the weekend, according to police. The plane had been due to fly the short route from Corozal near the Mexican border to San Pedro, off the coast. Police said it was unclear how Taylor reached Corozal.

Belizean authorities have reached out to the US embassy in the country for aid in investigating the incident. Luke Martin, public affairs officer for the embassy, told journalists that it had no details on Taylor’s background or motivation so far.

According to information released by the airport, Taylor was a teacher in the United States. He was listed online as previously being a football coach at the McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri.

An employee at the school told Reuters that Taylor did not currently work there.

Four people were killed and one severely injured when their cable car plunged into a ravine in Italy on Thursday, local authorities said.

The accident happened after a cable on the Monte Faito cableway near Sorrento snapped in severe weather, according to Vincenzo De Luca, the president of the Campania region in southern Italy.

Witnesses on the ground said the cable car plummeted into the valley below, hitting a pylon on the way down. It also reportedly hit a crane on a construction site.

De Luca said the car that fell had two couples and one worker from the cableway aboard.

One person survived the fall, according to Italy’s fire brigade, but was severely injured and air-lifted to a hospital in Naples.

The cableway, which reopened on April 10 after renovations, runs from Castellammare di Stabia between Naples and Sorrento some 1,092 meters to Monte Faito overlooking the bay of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius volcano.

There were no cable cars above the break, the fire brigade said.Strong winds hampered the rescue effort and it took first responders with helicopters working in extremely foggy conditions more than 90 minutes to locate the wreckage.

Foreign tourists and workers were among those rescued, De Luca said. An investigation into the incident has been opened by the local prosecutor’s office.

Italy’s President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa posted his condolences on social media. “I learn with deep sorrow of the tragedy that occurred on the Monte Faito cable car. I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and I address a thought of gratitude to all the rescuers involved.”

Local rail stations that connect Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast to Naples were closed.

Hamas has rejected the Israeli ceasefire offer presented earlier this week, according to a senior Hamas official, instead calling for a “comprehensive” proposal to end the war.

The rejection prompted far-right Israeli lawmakers to issue calls for an immediate escalation in Gaza, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to unleash “hell” and pursue “complete victory.”

The Israeli ceasefire proposal did not guarantee an end to the war and called for a disarmament of Gaza, both of which have been red lines for Hamas. The militant organization refuses to give up its weapons and demands that any proposal includes a permanent end to the war.

“We want a comprehensive package,” the official said.

The Israeli plan called for a 45-day truce, during which the two sides would aim to negotiate a permanent ceasefire.

Under the proposal, the remaining 59 hostages would be released in stages, starting with American-Israeli Edan Alexander on the first day of the truce as a “special gesture” to the United States. A further nine Israeli hostages would be released in two stages in exchange for 120 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and more than 1,100 detainees held without charge since October 7, 2023.

Israel’s proposal also demands that Hamas provide information about the remaining living Israeli hostages held by the group, “in exchange for information about the Palestinian detainees,” and the release of the bodies of 16 deceased Israeli hostages for the remains of 160 deceased Palestinians held by Israel.

Hamas studied the proposal for several days before responding. But from the beginning, the proposal stood little chance of success. Hamas had repeatedly made clear that it demanded an end to the war as part of any hostage release, and it refused calls for a complete disarmament. Hamas also called for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, whereas the Israeli proposal only included a temporary redeployment of the military.

In a televised statement from Qatar on Thursday night, Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of the negotiating delegation, said, “The resistance and its weaponry are linked to the existence of the (Israeli) occupation, and it is a natural right for our people and all peoples under occupation.”

Al-Hayya insisted that Hamas is “immediately” ready to begin negotiations for a comprehensive agreement that would see the release of the remaining hostages for an “agreed-upon number” of Palestinian prisoners. Such an agreement would include the beginning of Gaza’s reconstruction and an end to the blockade of Gaza.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel would continue its bombardment of Gaza. “The state of Israel shall not surrender to Hamas and won’t end the war without the complete victory and fulfillment of all its objectives, including eliminating Hamas and returning all the hostages,” he said in a statement.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir echoed Smotrich, writing on Telegram: “No deal, no ceasefire, and no aid – only the continuation of fighting until the surrender of the Nazis from Gaza. Activate all force and might until Hamas begs on its knees.”

The Hope Forum, a right-wing group representing hostages’ families, tweeted: “Only massive military pressure, a total blockade, and capturing territory will force Hamas to beg for a deal. What are you waiting for?!”

Israel shut off humanitarian aid and supplies going into the coastal enclave in early-March, igniting a humanitarian crisis that UN officials says is the worst since the war began. Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza has displaced more than 500,000 Palestinians in less than a month, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says that the attacks on Gaza have killed nearly 1,700 Palestinians since March 18.

Israel has argued that the humanitarian blockade has pressured Hamas into agreeing to a ceasefire. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “The pressure on Hamas to carry out the deal is heavy and the tension between it and the local population is increasing.”

But that pressure has failed to force Hamas into accepting the latest proposal.

UN warns of humanitarian catastrophe

The United Nations issued a dire warning over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying lifesaving supplies were nearing “total depletion” due to Israel’s block on aid.

More than 2 million people remain trapped in the besieged enclave, with mental health needs skyrocketing, critical infrastructure in ruins, and essential services on the brink of collapse, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, told a press briefing.

Dujarric said that nearly 90% of water infrastructure – including wells, pumping stations, and sewage plants – had been destroyed or damaged by hostilities, exacerbating disease risks and forcing families to rely on unsafe sources.

“Stress levels, particularly among children, are surging as violence and deprivation persist,” Dujarric said, emphasizing that Israel, as the occupying power, bears legal obligations under international law to ensure access to food, medical care, and public health services. The UN reiterated demands for urgent humanitarian access, warning that delays risk mass preventable deaths.

Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, following the militant group’s surprise attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry in the enclave.