Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Iran rejects US and UK calls to end support for Houthi Red Sea attacks

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Iran security chief praises ‘brave actions’ of Houthi rebels who have targeted Israeli-linked vessels in shipping lane

Iran has rejected US and British calls to end its support for attacks by Houthi rebels on Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea and claimed the accusations were baseless interference as its navy dispatched a destroyer to the vital shipping lane.

The Alborz destroyer, operating as a military vessel of the 94th flotilla of the Iranian navy, crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and entered the Red Sea on Monday. It came as Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council (SNSC), met Mohammed Abdulsalam, the Houthi spokesperson, praising the rebel fighters’ “brave actions” against “Zionist aggression”.

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Why Labour needs to decide whether to break the consensus on Israel

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Airstrikes against Houthi rebels and the prospect of a year-long Gaza conflict will test cross-party thinking at Westminster

Two developments in the past 48 hours could test the cross-party consensus in Westminster on the conflict between Israel and Hamas: the signal sent by the Ministry of Defence that it is prepared to join the US in launching airstrikes against Houthi sites in Yemen, and statements by the Israeli political and military leadership that the war may take months or even a whole year to complete.

Labour has so far largely concurred with UK government policy, which in turn has largely shadowed thinking inside the White House.

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Britain ‘considering airstrikes’ on Houthi rebels after Red Sea attacks

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Defence secretary says UK would not hesitate to take ‘direct action’ after US sank boats targeting a container ship

Britain is reportedly considering airstrikes on Houthi rebels after the US said its navy sank three boats that had been targeting a container ship in the Red Sea.

Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, said the government would not hesitate to take “direct action” to prevent further attacks amid reports the UK and US are preparing a joint statement to issue a final warning to the Yemeni group.

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Israeli airstrikes kill scores in Gaza as war enters a new year

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Heavy bombing continues, while Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has shown unparalleled ‘morality’ in its conduct in Gaza

At least 100 people have been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, as the three-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas rolls into the new year with no end in sight and only tentative Israeli government plans for discussing the day after the war is over.

The Hamas-run territory’s health authority said about 48 people were killed overnight on Sunday in heavy Israeli bombing of Gaza City, where pockets of fierce fighting are ongoing despite claims by the Israel Defense Forces that the north of the blockaded exclave is largely under Israeli operational control.

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At least 100 people killed in Gaza in past 24 hours as conflict rolls into new year – as it happened

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US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi militants to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command wrote on X.

Responding to distress calls from the Maersk Hangzhou, helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely were said to have returned fire on the Houthi boats in self-defence and sank three of the vessels with no survivors.

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US Navy downs missiles in Red Sea after ship attacked by Houthi rebels

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Warships responded after container vessel came under fire from Houthi rebel-held part of Yemen, says US

The US Navy has shot down two anti-ship missiles and sunk three small boats after responding to distress calls from a container ship that was attacked twice by Houthi rebels as it crossed the Red Sea over the weekend.

The US Central Command (Centcom) said it dispatched two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Laboon, after the container ship Maersk Hangzhou reported being struck by a missile at 8.30pm local time on Saturday.

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Middle East is sliding closer to the edge of a wider regional conflict | Julian Borger

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An escalation could spark a conflagration that would bring Israel into open confrontation with Iran, and suck in the US too

The Middle East has been slipping towards the precipice of a regional war ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the ferocious Israeli response in Gaza. The past week has shown how the cliff edge keeping it from that abyss could quickly crumble away.

Within hours of the outbreak of the Gaza war, the Hezbollah Shia militia in Lebanon began to fire on northern Israeli towns and villages in solidarity with Palestinians, triggering Israeli air strikes in response, and Houthi forces in Yemen attacked ships in the Red Sea with real or perceived Israeli connections.

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‘They attacked us. They displaced us’: grieving Sudanese confront Swedish oil giant over their days of slaughter

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A historic trial, which will call on 61 witnesses worldwide, is expected to set a precedent for global corporations in foreign jurisdictions

Before the arrival of Lundin Oil in the town of Leer, now part of South Sudan, life there was peaceful, says George Tai Kuony. His childhood was that of a “typical village boy”, driving cattle, helping his family and going to school. But in June 1998, when he was 15, armed forces entered the town and changed his life for ever.

He fled, became separated from his family and hid for seven days before he was able to return. “When we got there, Leer wasn’t the town I had left seven days ago,” says the 40-year-old lawyer and human rights defender. “Everything was burned down, everything was destroyed. I could see the bodies of dead people lying in the street.” As a result of the conflict, he lost his father, and later his mother and one sibling.

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UK has failed to act to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah from jail in Egypt, family says

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Rishi Sunak told activist’s sister in 2022 that government was ‘totally committed’ to resolving the case

The family of the imprisoned British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah have said the British government has failed to act to free him, a year after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told his sister the government was “totally committed to resolving your brother’s case”.

A figurehead in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, which overthrew Hosni Mubarak as president, Abd el-Fattah spent most of the past decade behind bars for his activism. He was rearrested in 2019 following a brief period out of prison but under police surveillance, and was sentenced in December 2021 to a further five years in detention for spreading “false news undermining national security”, after resharing a social media post about torture.

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As Gaza death toll mounts, Israelis look in vain for any sign of victory

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IDF bombs urban refugee camps, UN agency warns of famine risk and skirmishes on Lebanon border intensify

Israeli planes bombed refugee camps in Gaza on Saturday as its troops expanded ground operations and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes, setting the stage for a new year as bloody and destructive as the last three months of 2023.

The threat of wider escalation also looms large over the region, as skirmishes on the northern boundary with Lebanon intensify, and Israeli officials have hinted that the “diplomatic hourglass” is running out to reach a negotiated solution.

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Why are ties between Russia and Israel ‘at lowest point since fall of the Soviet Union’?

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Russia’s pro-Palestinian stance has inflamed tensions and underscored shift in relations since invasion of Ukraine

When Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone this month to Benjamin Netanyahu, their first conversation in weeks, the two leaders found themselves in an unusual dynamic, engaging not as partners but against the backdrop of historic tensions.

Once touting their friendly relationship – Netanyahu has used billboards showing himself next to Putin during election campaigning in Israel, even last year – the events of 7 October and Russia’s pro-Palestinian stance in the aftermath have brought a decisive schism in their ties.

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UN reports surge in people fleeing to Rafah as fighting intensifies – as it happened

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A total of 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and 56,165 have been wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday.

The figures include 165 Palestinians killed and 250 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

We continue to have restrictions to access areas in the Gaza Strip where we should access on a regular basis, like the north of the Gaza Strip.

There’s very, very little commercial supplies coming into Gaza and there’s no market, so more and more people are depending by the day, by the hour, on organisations like UNRWA.

At least 1.4 million people are now living in UNRWA facilities – that is what used to be mainly schools that the agency ran until the war began.

Many are now living anywhere they can find – on the street, with friends crammed in apartments – 70 people in one apartment, and those who can afford it are renting rooms.

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‘T-shirt row’ causes Saudi Arabia-based Turkish Super Cup final to be postponed

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  • Galatasaray and Fenerbahce were set to play in Riyadh on Friday
  • Tribute to founder of modern Turkey was reportedly rejected

The Turkish Super Cup final between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, on Friday was postponed over what the clubs have described as “some problems” in the event’s organisation.

At the heart of those issues, according to media reports, was the wish of the two teams to wear T-shirts featuring the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, during the warm-up before the evening kick-off.

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Biden administration again bypasses Congress for weapons sale to Israel

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Antony Blinken tells Congress he made second emergency determination covering $147.5m sale for equipment

For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism.

The state department said on Friday that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had told Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment, including fuses, chargers and primers, that is needed to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.

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Hamas leaders attend Egypt talks as Israeli attacks push deeper into Gaza

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UN says about 100,000 people have arrived in Rafah after intense attacks on Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis

• Israel-Gaza war – live updates

A delegation of high-level Hamas leaders is visiting Egypt for talks aimed at bringing the devastating war in Gaza to an end, even as the Israeli military pushes deeper into the centre and south of the strip, displacing tens of thousands of people.

The UN’s humanitarian office said on Friday that over the past few days an estimated 100,000 people had arrived in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town on the border with Egypt, after an intense new ground and aerial offensive around the central town of Deir al-Balah and airstrikes on the southern town of Khan Younis.

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Iran says it executed four people it claims engaged in ‘sabotage’ for Israel

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Three men and one woman hanged on charges of ‘moharebeh’ – or waging war against God

Iran has announced it has hanged four people it claims were engaged in “sabotage” on behalf of Israel.

They were executed in Iran’s north-west province of West Azerbaijan, the judiciary’s Mizan website reported.

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Man survives flight from Algeria to Paris hidden in plane’s landing gear

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Unidentified man in life-threatening condition after enduring temperatures of around -50C on Air Algerie flight from Oran

A man has been discovered hidden in the landing gear compartment of a commercial aircraft that flew into Paris from Algeria with severe hypothermia but alive, French authorities have said.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was found during technical checks after the Air Algerie flight from Oran, Algeria, landed at Paris’s Orly airport in mid-morning, prosecutors told AFP.

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Israel says time running out to reach diplomatic solution in Lebanon

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Officials’ warning echoes those of two ministers, as fighting with Hezbollah intensifies on boundary

Israeli officials have hinted that the “diplomatic hourglass” is running out to reach a negotiated solution to the escalating fighting on the boundary with Lebanon, even as the war in Gaza continues at a ferocious pace.

Security sources said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired the most rockets and weaponised drones on Wednesday that it had in any single day since the clashes across the border began.

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Netanyahu cancels war cabinet meeting due to discuss plans for Gaza after war – as it happened

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In a statement, Israel’s military says it has been operating “in the heart of Daraj Tuffah” in Gaza City in the north of the territory.

It claims “after RPG missiles were fired from inside a building toward an IDF vehicle, IDF ground troops destroyed terrorist infrastructure located inside the building. Additionally, an anti-tank missile launch site where terrorist operatives were located was struck by the IAF with the direction of IDF ground forces, Over the last two days, IDF troops conducted operational activity in the Daraj Tuffah area and eliminated terrorists in both ground and aerial strikes.”

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