Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Houthi-US fight may be imbalanced but that doesn’t mean it will be brief

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US has military might but rebels can still shut down shipping, spelling prolonged suffering for Yemeni civilians

The latest round of US bombing against Houthi targets in Yemen comes as little surprise, and raises with it the prospect of an extended military campaign affecting a nation already impoverished by years of war.

The assault implies an effective recognition by Washington that any effort to try to completely halt the attacks on western shipping in the southern Red Sea will require repeated intervention because of the Yemeni group’s capacity and determination to resist.

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Fears grow for largest remaining hospital in Gaza as Israeli forces bombard Khan Younis

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Staff say situation at Nasser hospital ‘catastrophic’ as Israeli strikes hit metres away

Israeli forces have advanced further into southern Gaza’s main city, pounding areas near the territory’s biggest functioning hospital and sparking fears it could be forced to close due to Israeli bombardments and evacuation orders.

Khan Younis residents and medical staff said the fighting had come within metres of Nasser hospital, the biggest hospital still partially working in Gaza, over the past week. It has been receiving hundreds of wounded patients a day since the fighting shifted to the south last month.

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US carries out fifth strike against Houthis as Biden admits bombing isn’t stopping attacks

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Defiant Houthi leader mocks US president and calls for boycott of Israeli goods as Biden tells reporters attacks are ‘going to continue’

The US has carried out a fifth strike against Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, even as Joe Biden acknowledged that bombing the rebels has yet to stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

Late on Thursday US warplanes targeted anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch,” according to US Central Command.

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Netanyahu tells US he opposes creation of Palestinian state after Gaza war

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PM rebuts White House by saying all territory west of Jordan River would be under Israeli security control

Israel’s prime minister has told the Biden White House that he rejects any moves to establish a Palestinian state when Israel ends its offensive against Gaza, and that all territory west of the Jordan River would be under Israeli security control.

Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to obstruct the establishment of a Palestinian state throughout his political career, despite occasional lukewarm endorsements of the idea.

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Israel added to list of ‘worst jailers of journalists’ for first time

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Israel is in sixth place after the Committee to Protect Journalists recorded 18 Palestinian journalists in its jails

Israel has joined a notorious band of authoritarian states with a history of imprisoning journalists by detaining Palestinian reporters without trial since the beginning of the latest war in Gaza.

A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released on Thursday said that for the first time Israel figures in its list of “worst jailers of journalists”, putting it on a par with Iran.

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Gaza conditions go from catastrophe ‘to near collapse’, says Unicef – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. See all our coverage of the Middle East crisis here

While Iran has taken low-level action against Balochistan in the past, Tuesday’s strikes were unusually heavy-handed and Thursday’s retaliatory bombings were the first time that Pakistan has responded with comprehensive military action against its neighbour.

Sources in Islamabad said the decision was taken after heavy political and military pressure on the top army leadership to show strength against Tehran.

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Pakistan hits separatist ‘hideouts’ in retaliatory strikes against Iran

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Drone and missile attacks in Sistan and Balochistan province come after Iran struck sites inside Pakistan

Pakistan has launched retaliatory strikes against militants in Iran in response to attacks by Tehran that targeted sites within Pakistan’s borders, heightening fears of further instability across the Middle East and surrounding region.

A statement by Pakistan’s foreign office early on Thursday said it had undertaken “a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in the Sistan and Balochistan province of Iran, adding that “a number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation”.

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Middle East conflicts and the Rwanda bill – Politics Weekly UK podcast

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As tensions in the Middle East continue to rise, this week John Harris speaks to Niku Jafarnia of Human Rights Watch about the regional conflicts. The Rwanda bill passed its third reading and Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, reveals what happened behind the scenes. And the former No 10 adviser Gavin Barwell talks about the increasingly vicious struggles within the Conservative party

Archive: GB News

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Red Sea crisis: US launches fourth round of strikes on Houthis in Yemen

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US missile strikes came after a bulk carrier was hit by Houthi drones in the Gulf of Aden

The US military has fired another wave of missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites, marking the fourth time in a week that it has directly targeted the group in Yemen.

The strikes were launched from the Red Sea, hitting more than a dozen sites – the officials told the AP news agency – and came after a drone launched from areas controlled by the Houthis hit a US-owned vessel in the Gulf of Aden.

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Ten people killed in Israeli strikes on West Bank, Palestinian officials say

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Deaths inside Tulkarem refugee camp and near Balata camp are latest in an explosion of violence in the Palestinian territory since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza

A new wave of violence has swept the occupied West Bank, with a series of major raids launched by the Israeli military across much of the territory.

Ten people were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials have said, one of the highest single daily death tolls for many months.

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Middle East crisis live: US designates Houthis as terrorist group after attacks on ships in waters off Yemen

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Decision means Yemeni group’s funds will be frozen in US and members are banned from the country

US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.

US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what appeared to be the components of a complete small missile, rocket motors and guidance systems, as well as a photograph of the small cargo vessel that was allegedly carrying the arms.

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Israel and Hamas agree deal to send medicine to hostages and Gaza civilians

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Shipment of medicine has arrived in Egypt on way to conflict zone under deal brokered by Qatar and France

A shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians has arrived in Egypt on its way to Gaza under a deal mediated by Qatar and France, as fighting continues across much of the territory after a deadly night of bombardments.

The agreement marks the first significant progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since December, when a short-lived ceasefire collapsed.

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Iran hails strikes in Pakistan as it is warned of ‘serious consequences’

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Iran claims attack in south-west Balochistan province destroyed two strongholds of Sunni militant group

Iranian military officials were hailing one of the biggest projections of force in its recent history as Pakistan warned Tehran of “serious consequences” to a “completely unacceptable” attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan that left six dead or injured including two children.

Iran said its attack mounted on Tuesday using “precision missile and drone strikes”, destroyed two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in the Koh-e-Sabz area of Pakistan’s south-west Balochistan province.

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The Houthis and the Red Sea crisis – podcast

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Attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebel group in Yemen have been met with airstrikes from the UK and US. Patrick Wintour reports

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October and Israel’s military response in Gaza, there has been an effort by western leaders led by the US to avoid the conflict spreading to the wider region. That attempt looks increasingly tenuous now. US and UK airstrikes have targeted the Houthi rebel group in Yemen after a series of attacks by the group on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

As Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, tells Michael Safi, the Houthis say they are targeting Israeli-linked ships in an attempt to force a ceasefire. In doing so they are are positioning themselves as the foremost champions of Palestinians in the region. In reality, they have struck shipping interests beyond Israel and ignored warnings from the US to desist. Now, with Washington promising further strikes if necessary, the threat of a wider regional escalation is growing and with it the danger of a far more deadly conflict.

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Iran strikes ‘militant bases’ in Pakistan in latest Middle East flashpoint

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Pakistan says attacks killed two children in ‘unprovoked violation’ of its airspace, adding to regional instability sparked by Israel-Gaza war

Iran has launched airstrikes on Pakistan territory, apparently aimed at a Sunni militant group, in the latest sign of a wave of violence rolling across the Middle East and beyond.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said two children were killed and three others were injured in what it called an “illegal” airstrike, and summoned Tehran’s senior diplomat in Islamabad to protest against the “unprovoked violation of its airspace”. The ministry did not give more details of the strikes, but Pakistani social media accounts said missile and drone strikes had been aimed at the Balochistan province which lies along the 1,000km border between the two countries.

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Middle East crisis live: Kurdish PM says Iran is attacking civilians; EU sanctions Hamas leader and adds him to terrorist list

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Iraqi Kurdish prime minister Masrour Barzani accuses Iran after its strikes in Kurdistan region; EU adds Yahya Sinwar to terrorist list

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that its special forces had carried out a strike in the area of Ayta ash Shab in Lebanon.

“IDF special forces struck in order to remove a threat in the area of Ayta ash Shab in Lebanon,” the military said.

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US military says it seized Iranian weapons bound for Houthis

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Search still under way for the two Seals involved in mission targeting supply of arms to Yemeni rebels

US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.

US Central Command (Centcom) posted pictures of the missile parts on X, including what appeared to be the components of a complete small missile, rocket motors and guidance systems, as well as a photograph of the small cargo vessel that was allegedly carrying the arms.

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US-UK airstrikes force aid agencies to suspend operations in Yemen

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Charities warns of ‘dire’ outcome for the impoverished country, where two-thirds of the population already relies on aid to survive

Aid agencies have begun suspending vital operations in Yemen after the recent US and UK strikes on Houthi targets, amid warnings that further military intervention risks deepening one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

A coalition of 23 aid organisations operating within the Gulf state issued a joint statement on Tuesday, warning that military escalation will further compromise their ability to deliver critical services while worsening living conditions for millions of people in Yemen.

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‘No food, no water’: aid officials think pockets of famine exist in Gaza

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UN agencies issue joint plea for entry routes to Gaza, where Israel’s war with Hamas has damaged swaths of territory

Aid officials in Gaza believe that pockets of famine already exist in the territory, with parents sacrificing remaining food for their children, an apple costing $8 (£6.30) and fuel for cooking almost impossible to find.

UN agencies have said that Gaza urgently needs more humanitarian assistance as Palestinian authorities reported that the death toll in the territory during the Israeli offensive there had risen to more than 24,000.

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Iraq vows to take Iran to UN after attack on Israeli ‘spy base’

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Civilians killed in strikes on Erbil include millionaire Kurdish businessman and his family, medical sources say

Iraq has vowed to take Iran to the UN security council after the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed they had attacked an Israeli “espionage headquarters” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Iran said it was acting in defence of its sovereignty and as a counter-terrorism measure in response to an Islamic State suicide attack in Kerman this month that killed more than 80 people.

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