A missile fired from Yemen damaged a school in a suburb of Tel Aviv early Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said, while Israeli airstrikes on key Houthi energy and port infrastructure in Yemen killed at least nine people, according to Houthi-controlled media reports.

Israeli emergency services said there were no casualties at the school in Ramat Gan, where the IDF said the damage was probably caused by the partial interception of the missile from Yemen. It is rare for missiles and drones fired from Yemen to reach that far into Israel.

The Foreign Ministry of Iran, which backs the Houthis, condemned the airstrikes, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Thursday that the Houthis “are learning and will learn the hard way, that anyone who harms Israel will pay a very heavy price for it.”

In Qatar, U.S. and Arab mediators continued to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. CIA Director William J. Burns arrived in the capital, Doha, on Wednesday for the latest round of talks, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. Burns left Doha Thursday and is no longer in the region, the official said.

Here’s what else to know:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that “the pressure is on Hamas” to get a hostage release ceasefire deal that would halt the war in Gaza. The “cavalry [Hamas] thought might come to the rescue isn’t coming to the rescue,” Blinken said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Israeli forces are continuing to carry out airstrikes in Gaza City and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip. At least 32 people were killed and 94 injured over the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday.
A majority of United Nations member states voted to ask the International Court of Justice to weigh in on Israel’s obligation to facilitate the delivery of aid to Palestinians. Both Israel and the United States voted against the measure.
Human Rights Watch in a report Thursday accused Israel of killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by denying them adequate access to water since October 2023, which the organization said amounts to a “crime against humanity.” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein denied the accusations, calling them “lies.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that “the pressure is on Hamas” to get a hostage release cease-fire deal that would halt the war in Gaza, which has claimed more than 45,000 lives and unleashed a devastating humanitarian crisis.

CIA Director William J. Burns arrived in Qatar on Wednesday for talks with Qatari officials on the status of negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release in the Israel-Gaza war, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. But after earlier reports of an imminent deal, both U.S. and Israeli officials have tamped down on the possibility of an agreement this week. Burns left Doha Thursday and is no longer in the region, the official said.

“We are encouraged because this should happen, and it should happen because Hamas is at a point where the cavalry it thought might come to the rescue isn’t coming to the rescue,” Blinken said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday.

“But, look, I think we also have to be very realistic,” he added. “We’ve had these Lucy in the football moments several times over the last months where we thought we were there, and the football gets pulled away. So the real question is, is Hamas capable of making a decision and getting to yes?”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told MSNBC on Wednesday that remaining obstacles include the names of hostages to be released by Hamas in the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire proposal brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, as well as “some specific details about the disposition of Israeli forces during the ceasefire.” He said he believed that Israel, where he visited last week, is prepared to move forward.

A former Egyptian official close to the negotiations said Israel is opposed to the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti — first demanded by Hamas earlier this year — in the exchange of Israeli-held prisoners for hostages. The Egyptian delegation was still in Qatar Thursday but “it seems there are some obstacles” in the negotiations, said the former official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

The former official said Israel also opposes Hamas’s demand that Gazans be allowed to return to northern Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces have continued major military operations and refused the entry of Gazans.

Taher al-Nunu, media adviser to the head of the political bureau of Hamas, told The Washington Post that cease-fire talks have been “stagnant” for two days. The group said earlier this week that a ceasefire was “possible, provided the occupation refrains from imposing new conditions.”