(Reuters) -Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Tehran does not need proxies in the region and that Yemen's Houthis, who are among the groups in the Middle East that Iran is aligned with, act on their own motivations.

As the strikes hit, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians.”

Israel’s military intercepted a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels early Thursday, the second to target Israel since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire, as the United States’ intensifies airstrikes against the Iran-backed militant group.

Israel's military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen on Thursday, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthi group that it backs in Yemen.