Sebastien Loeb's decision to 'go slow' in stage five earlier in the week paid off on Friday as the Frenchman won the marathon two-day stage 6 at the Dakar Rally.

Veteran Spaniard Carlos Sainz finished second 2min 01sec behind and took the overall lead while five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah saw his hopes of winning a sixth title disappear with a mechanical problem in the last 50 kilometres.

Adrien van Beveren made it a double French success with victory in the bike race.

Telecommunication services were cut across besieged Gaza Friday, as Israeli strikes killed dozens in southern cities where hundreds of thousands are struggling to survive hunger and cold on day 98 of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces raged after a night of heavy Israeli shelling, and came amid growing fears of the conflict widening after US and British forces struck pro-Hamas Huthi rebels in Yemen after attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Iran condemned strikes on Yemen by US and British forces on Friday, saying that the attacks against Tehran-backed Huthi rebels were "arbitrary" and a "violation" of international law.

The overnight strikes followed weeks of missile and drone attacks by the Huthis against Red Sea shipping which they say have been in solidarity with Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Iran "strongly condemns the military attacks of the United States and the United Kingdom this morning on several Yemeni cities".

Israel said Friday it was not seeking to destroy the Palestinian people, as it hit back at what it called a "profoundly distorted" and "malevolent" genocide case against it at the UN's top court.

South Africa has launched an emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) arguing that Israel stands in breach of the UN Genocide Convention, signed in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust.

Oil prices climbed Friday after US and UK forces launched strikes against Iran-backed Huthi rebels, while global stocks were mixed following the kickoff of corporate earnings season.

Crude prices spiked more than four percent before ebbing somewhat after the allies launched deadly strikes following weeks of disruptive rebel attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Dramatic drone footage showing Indian commandos hunting pirates after an attack in the Arabian Sea illustrates New Delhi's "significant" expansion of a muscular maritime force reflecting global ambitions, analysts say.

The commandos, deployed this month from an Indian-built warship after an attempted hijacking of a merchant bulk carrier, are part of a major increase of naval forces in seas where rival neighbour China has already long expanded its reach.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthis said Friday that US and British interests were "legitimate targets" after the Western allies launched deadly strikes following weeks of disruptive rebel attacks on Red Sea shipping.

The barrage of strikes early on Friday against the Huthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Gaza, stoked fears of the Israel-Hamas war spreading across the region.

Violence involving Iran-aligned groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria has surged since the war in Gaza began in early October.

The leader of Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels threatened on Thursday the United States and Britain with even larger attacks in the Red Sea after their navies intercepted a major one.

US and British forces shot down 18 drones and three missiles launched by the Huthis late Tuesday in what London described as their biggest attack so far in solidarity with Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

"Any American aggression will never go without a response," rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi said in speech broadcast live by the Huthis' Al-Masirah television.

Under the brooding sky on a southern Israel farm, the sporadic cracks of Gaza-bound artillery shells are drowned out by the cries of Israelis addressing hostages held across the border.

Relatives of those captured during Hamas's October 7 attack rigged up giant loudspeakers to a microphone in Nirim, a kibbutz community near the Gaza Strip, to broadcast messages of hope, love and loss.

Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said an Israeli strike killed two affiliated medics in south Lebanon on Thursday in what it called a "blatant attack" on the first aid clinic where they worked.

"The Israeli enemy recently targeted a civil defence centre affiliated with the Islamic Health Committee in the town of Hanin, killing two martyrs," the group said in a statement.

"What happened is a blatant attack on a centre serving Lebanese citizens, providing relief and treating those wounded and injured in the ongoing Israeli aggression."