WASHINGTON: An American warship opened fire on a drone that was heading toward it from Yemen, a US defense official said Wednesday.The official did not specify who launched the aircraft, but Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a series of recent drone and missile attacks during Israel’s war against Hamas.The USS Thomas Hudner guided missile destroyer “engaged a drone that originated from Yemen and was heading in the direction of the ship,” the defense official said.

VIENNA: Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also said that Iran has pushed back against the agency’s objections to Tehran’s ban on some of its inspectors designated to monitor the country’s nuclear program.

WASHINGTON: American forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked 55 times over the past month, causing minor injuries to dozens of US troops, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Washington has blamed the spike in violence on Tehran-backed forces and carried out strikes on sites in Syria it said were linked to Iran on three separate occasions, but the drone and rocket attacks have continued.

The Israeli military said it was carrying out a raid on Wednesday against Palestinian Hamas militants in Al-Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, and urged them all to surrender.
Less than an hour earlier, around 1 a.m. local time (2300 GMT), a Gaza health ministry spokesman said Israel had told officials in the enclave that it would raid the Shifa hospital complex “in the coming minutes.”

GAZA: Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson warned on Wednesday of a potential Israeli raid on the enclave’s Al Shifa hospital complex, saying Israel informed Gaza health officials that its forces would raid the facility.
The Israeli military, asked for comment, said it was looking into the matter.
The Gaza health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra, told Al Jazeera that Israel “informed us that it will raid Al Shifa hospital complex in the coming minutes.”