Strikes by the United States targeted three rebel-run cities in Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida, according to the Houthi-run Al Masirah television network.

Al Masirah reported several U.S. strikes on Sanaa and Hodeida, where AFP correspondents heard loud explosions, as well as additional strikes on Dhamar, south of the capital, but did not specify if the attacks caused any damage or casualties.

An Israeli airstrike on a West Bank cafe that the military said targeted Palestinian militants also killed a family of four, including two young children, relatives told The Associated Press on Friday.

The strike slammed into a three-story building in the Tulkarem refugee camp late Thursday, setting it on fire, destroying a popular cafe and killing at least 18 Palestinians, according to the territory's Health Ministry. It was the deadliest strike in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly a year ago.

With his major opponents imprisoned or left off the ballot, Tunisian President Kais Saied faces few obstacles to winning reelection on Sunday, five years after riding anti-establishment backlash to a first term.

The North African country's Oct. 6 presidential election is its third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — the first autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings that also overthrew leaders in Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered remarks in Arabic in a rare Friday sermon after the Farsi-speaking Islamic republic had launched a missile attack on foe Israel.

During the sermon at a mosque in Tehran, Khamenei hailed Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah and Hamas, which are both fighting Israel and operate in Arabic-speaking Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, respectively.

The Israeli military on Thursday said a strike three months ago killed three senior Hamas leaders in Gaza, where the army has been battling the Palestinian militants for nearly a year.

The military said the strike killed Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, and Sameh al-Siraj, who held the security portfolio for Hamas's political bureau, and Sami Oudeh, a commander.

An Israeli air strike killed two people in Damascus Wednesday, a monitor said, in the second strike in two days on a neighborhood that is home to security headquarters and embassies.

"An Israeli air strike targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighborhood frequented by Hezbollah leaders and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards," killing at least two people whose identity was not immediately clear, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on an Iranian man and three Chinese firms that Washington believes helped the Houthi militant group acquire materials needed to manufacture and deploy advanced missiles and drones against the U.S. and its allies.

Iranian citizen Hasan Ahmad Hasan Muhammad al-Kuhlani is named in the sanctions announced Wednesday. He is accused of facilitating weapons smuggling for the Houthis.

World leaders called on Iran and Israel to step back from the brink after Tehran fired a barrage of rockets at its arch-rival.

Tehran said Tuesday's attack -- launched as Israel said it was mounting a ground offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon -- was in response to the killings of Iran-backed militant leaders.

Israel on Wednesday declared U.N. chief Antonio Guterres "persona non grata", banning him from entering the country for failing to condemn Iran's missile attack on Israel.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil. This is an anti-Israel Secretary-General who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers," said Foreign Minister Israel Katz in a statement.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people were killed and 82 wounded in the operation in Khan Younis that began early Wednesday. Records at the European Hospital show that seven women and 12 children, as young as 22 months old, were among those killed.

Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.