The Kremlin on Friday condemned the U.S.-led strikes on Houthi rebel positions in Yemen, calling them “illegitimate from the point of view of international law.”

“The countries that struck, they tried to put their actions on the basis of international law,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to a U.N. resolution adopted earlier this week that demanded an immediate halt to attacks by the Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea. “This attempt was unsuccessful, because the adopted resolution does not provide any right to strike,” Peskov said.

Hamas has condemned U.S.-led strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, saying Washington and London are responsible for any repercussions in the wider region.

“We consider it (the attack) a crime and a blatant aggression against Yemeni sovereignty, and a threat to the security of the region,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement on Telegram.

Hezbollah condemned Friday American and British air strikes on rebel-held Yemen.

The attacks, in response to Houthi's attacks on Red Sea shipping, killed at least five people and wounded six.

The U.S. and British militaries have bombed more than a dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, early on Friday, in a massive retaliatory strike using warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. Air Force's Mideast command said it struck over 60 targets at 16 sites in Yemen, including "command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems."

U.S. presidential envoy Amos Hochstein on Thursday held talks in Beirut over the explosive situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border and the possibility of reaching a diplomatic solution.

An avalanche roared through a section of expert trails at a California ski resort near Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, sweeping up four people and killing one, as a major storm with snow and gusty winds moved into the region, authorities said.

The avalanche occurred about 9:30 a.m. and prompted Palisades Tahoe to close as search crews combed the area under the K-22 lift, which 30 minutes earlier had opened for the first time this season. It serves "black diamond" runs for skilled skiers and snowboarders.

Two paramedics were injured Thursday in an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah-affiliated Health Organization in Hanine.

Israeli warplanes had struck the Islamic Health Society in the Lebanese southern border town of Hanine, killing the two Hezbollah paramedics and injuring several others.

A continent away from the war in Gaza, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians and pleaded with the United Nations' top court on Thursday to urgently order a halt to the country's military operation. Israel has vehemently denied the allegations.

South African lawyers said during the opening arguments that the latest Gaza war is part of a decadeslong oppression of the Palestinians by Israel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday ruled out a cease-fire in his country's war with Russia, saying the Kremlin's forces would use the pause to rearm and regroup before overwhelming Kyiv's troops.

"A pause on the Ukrainian battlefield will not mean a pause in the war," Zelensky said during a visit to Estonia.

Higher energy and housing prices boosted overall U.S. inflation in December, a sign that the Federal Reserve's drive to slow inflation to its 2% target will likely remain a bumpy one.

Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed that overall prices rose 0.3% from November and 3.4% from 12 months earlier. Those gains exceeded the previous 0.1% monthly rise and the 3.1% annual inflation in November. The December figures came in slightly above economists' forecasts.