Live updates | US-owned ship attacked near Yemen, medicine for Israeli hostages enters Gaza

Yemen's Houthi rebels launched a bomb-carrying drone into a U.S.-owned ship on Wednesday, officials said, the second such attack in recent days targeting vessels directly linked to America after U.S.-led strikes against the Houthis in recent days. The U.S. military launched another wave of ship- and submarine-launched missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites, U.S. officials said.

In Gaza, a shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages held by Palestinian militant group Hamas entered the territory late Wednesday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said. The Gulf nation and France worked out a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medicine to both the hostages and for Palestinians.

More than 100 days into the Israel-Hamas war, Palestinian militants are still putting up stiff resistance across the besieged enclave. The conflict shows no sign of ending and has inflamed tensions across the Middle East, with a dizzying array of strikes and counterstrikes in recent days.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has risen to 24,285 people, Health Ministry said Tuesday. In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war and saw some 250 people taken hostage by militants.

Currently:

— How watermelon imagery, a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians, spread around the planet

— U.S. pledges new sanctions over Houthi attacks will minimize harm to Yemen’s hungry millions.

— A freed Israeli hostage relives the horrors of captivity. She fears for her husband, still held in Gaza.

— U.S. senators reject Bernie Sanders’ effort to curb Israel-Hamas war. The vote signals rising unease.

— A chaotic wave of attacks and reprisals in the Middle East fuel worries of a broader regional war.

— Find more of AP's coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here's the latest:

US military launches more missile strikes against Houthi sites in Yemen

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military launched another wave of ship- and submarine-launched missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites Wednesday, U.S. officials said, marking the fourth time in days it has targeted the group in Yemen as violence ignited by the Israel-Hamas war continues to spill over in the Middle East.

The strikes were launched from the Red Sea and hit 14 missiles that the U.S. Central Command deemed an “imminent threat.”

The strikes followed the official announcement that the U.S. has put the Houthis back on its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing.

The Houthis are continuing their campaign of harassment of commercial and military ships. On Wednesday, an attack drone launched from a Houthi-controlled area in Yemen struck the U.S.-owned bulk carrier Genco Picardy in the Gulf of Aden.

— By Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor.