Category Archives: Israel-Gaza war

US launches fresh strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, military says

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Bombing comes after Houthis threaten retaliation and anti-ship ballistic missile is fired at vessel in Red Sea

The US has carried out fresh strikes on Yemen, a day after a first raid triggered mass protests in the country’s capital and other Middle Eastern countries voiced concern that the attacks could trigger further unrest in the region.

The strike, carried out by the USS Carney early on Saturday, targeted a Houthi rebel radar site in Yemen and was a “follow-on action” on a target “associated with strikes taken on Jan 12 designed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to attack maritime vessels”, the US military said in a statement on Twitter.

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Hundreds of thousands expected at weekend protests in London after Yemen strikes

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Saturday’s march for Gaza ceasefire as part of global day of action will be followed by static rally for Israel on Sunday

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather in London over the weekend in protest against the war in Gaza as the conflict widens to Yemen.

On Saturday, protesters are expected to gather at Bank Junction at midday as part of a global day of action involving 30 countries, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said.

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Houthis show resolve that western strikes will be hard pushed to shake

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With Palestinian plight supercharging movement, restraint may only come with regional pressure on resources

The near-official slogan of the Houthi movement is: “God is the Greatest / Death to America / Death to Israel / A curse upon the Jews.” Crowds of supporters in the group’s northern Yemen strongholds have been chanting it for more than 20 years, ever since the phrase was brought back from Tehran at the turn of the century, when it was first directed at the then Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

So those who claim the Houthis are not serious in attempting to block Israeli-linked trade in the Red Sea underplay the extent to which the defence of Palestine is a foundational principle of the Houthi movement, and highly popular among Yemeni people. The rebel stance over the past two months has afforded this relatively obscure Shia group a status in recent weeks that even Hezbollah in Lebanon cannot claim. They are deeply authoritarian, but skilled mobilisers of popular opinion.

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‘The situation is dire’: winter heaps misery on displaced people of Gaza

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For those living out in open, lack of clothes, blankets and firewood is exacerbated by harsh winds and rain

Harsh winter weather is making life even more difficult for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Gaza, many of whom fled their homes months ago without warm clothes or blankets.

Some could not carry much and others did not think they would need to prepare for months of war, stretching into the coldest months of the year.

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Israel accuses South Africa of ‘profound distortion’ at ICJ genocide hearing

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Israeli legal team calls South African accusation of genocidal acts in Gaza ‘a partial and deeply flawed picture’

Israel has accused South Africa of presenting a “profoundly distorted” view of hostilities, “barely distinguishable” from that of Hamas, as it presented its defence at the international court of justice in The Hague against accusations of genocide.

A day after South Africa argued that it had committed genocidal acts in Gaza with intent from “the highest levels of state”, Israel said on Friday that was a “partial and deeply flawed picture”.

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Oil prices hit $80 a barrel as fears grow over Red Sea disruption to trade

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Experts warn of economic impact of sustained shipping attacks and Middle East tensions

Oil prices have hit $80 (£62.83) as fears grew about the economic impact of disruption to international trade through the Red Sea and escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Raising concerns about a possible inflation shock for the world economy, Brent crude prices jumped by about 4% to a high of $80.75 a barrel on Friday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude also increased after US and UK airstrikes against Houthi rebel sites in Yemen.

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Middle East crisis live: US and UK airstrikes in Yemen will not go without ‘punishment or retaliation’, say Houthis

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Group’s military spokesperson says they will continue to block passage of ships in Red Sea

Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah has also reacted on Friday to the airstrikes and condemned them.

Reuters says that the group has released a statement saying:

The American aggression confirms once again that the US is a full partner in the tragedies and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza and the region

We strongly condemn the military attacks carried out this morning by the United States and the United Kingdom on several cities in Yemen ….

We consider it a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a breach of international laws, regulations, and rights.

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Hezbollah and Iran condemn US and UK strikes against Houthis

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Tehran-backed Lebanese group says ‘aggression confirms that US is a full partner’ in Israel’s actions in Gaza

The Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has condemned the US and UK’s overnight strikes against Yemen’s Houthis, as countries across the Middle East express fears over the latest escalation of the conflict in the region.

Although anxiety was widespread, most vocal were countries and militant groups backed by Tehran, which accused the US and the UK of destabilising the region.

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Ten countries involved in air strikes on Yemen’s Houthis – as it happened

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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) authority has posted to social media that it has received a report of a vessel being boarded off the coast of Oman.

While the exact circumstances remain unclear, UKMTO reports “hearing unknown voices over the phone along with the masters voice” and says it is “unable to make further contact with vessel at this time”.

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Most want to flee ‘pressure cooker’ of southern Gaza, UN refugee deputy says

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Deputy leader of UN agency for Palestinian refugees says situation in territory is ‘full-time emergency’

Southern Gaza is turning into a “pressure cooker”, where the majority of people – faced with dwindling food, inadequate water sanitation, overcrowding and a crumbling hospital service – want to flee, the deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.

Scott Anderson of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), who is engaged in daily negotiations to gain Israeli permissions for aid convoys to enter and move around Gaza, said it was in “a full-time emergency” and just six of the 21 planned convoys to the north of the territory had been granted access since January despite a UN security council resolution in December calling for relief to be stepped up.

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Israel shows ‘chilling’ intent to commit genocide in Gaza, South Africa tells UN court

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Case opens in The Hague with judges shown pictures and video as evidence of alleged genocide

Israel has shown “chilling” and “incontrovertible” intent to commit genocide in Gaza, with full knowledge of how many civilians it is killing, the UN international court of justice in The Hague has heard, at the opening of a case Israel has described as baseless.

South Africa, which has brought the case, alleged “grave violence and genocidal acts” by Israel on the first morning of the two-day hearing, amid a febrile atmosphere outside the court in The Hague. It called on the judges to order an immediate ceasefire.

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Hearings to begin at The Hague in case claiming Israel’s Gaza war is genocide

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International Court of Justice will hear complaint brought by South Africa, which is asking for urgent ‘provisional measures’

A legal hearing into the war in Gaza opens in The Hague on Thursday as the international court of justice (ICJ) hears arguments alleging that Israel is committing genocide in the territory.

South Africa, which has brought the case, is asking the UN court to act urgently “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the genocide convention, which continues to be violated with impunity”.

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Red Sea crisis: UN security council demands immediate end to Houthi attacks

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Resolution calling for cessation of attacks on shipping vessels by Yemen’s Houthis adopted despite abstentions from Russia and China

The UN security council has called for an immediate end to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, adopting a resolution despite abstentions from Russia and China.

The resolution also called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated vehicle carrier linked to an Israeli businessman that the group commandeered on 19 November, along with its 25 crew.

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Britain warns of severe consequences after Houthi attack in Red Sea repelled

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US and UK warships shoot down barrage of rockets, drones and cruise missiles fired at ships by Yemeni group

The US and the UK have warned “there will be consequences” after warships from both countries repelled a barrage of 21 Houthi rockets, drones and cruise missiles apparently fired at western warships in the Red Sea.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said further attacks by the Yemeni rebels on international shipping could prompt a western military response amid speculation that Washington could bomb military targets in an attempt to prevent future raids.

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Houthis call west’s bluff with renewed Red Sea drone assault

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Barrage apparently targeting western warships suggest Hamas’s Yemeni allies are keen to test warnings from US, UK and other nations

A week ago, the US, the UK and 10 other mostly western nations told Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they would “bear the consequences” if they launched further attacks on merchant shipping in the southern Red Sea. For a brief period – six days – the Houthis paused, before at 9.15pm on Tuesday launching their most sophisticated attack yet.

Eighteen drones, described by the British as of Iranian design, and three missiles appear to have targeted a fleet of warships in and around the 18-mile-wide Bab el-Mandab strait, where the Red Sea comes closest to Houthi-controlled Yemen. Though they were all shot down, the brazen nature of the attack was not lost on western politicians.

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West Bank videos show Israeli troops killing teenager and driving over man’s body

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CCTV footage of incidents adds to concerns over military’s rules of engagement in Occupied Territories

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Two videos from the West Bank showing Israeli troops shooting a 17-year-old boy and security forces repeatedly running over the body of a man they had shot have added to concerns about the Israeli military’s rules of engagement.

The shooting of 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi in the early hours of last Friday is shown in footage from a security camera in a local shop that was obtained by the Associated Press news agency. The video also shows two earlier rounds of gunfire that injured two unarmed men. Rimawi was killed when he tried to rush to their aid.

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Blinken restates commitment to Palestinian state on West Bank visit

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US secretary of state met Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, on visit dismissed as ‘theatre’ by residents

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, restated Washington’s commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state during a brief trip to the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a visit dismissed by many residents as “theatre”.

Blinken told Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), that the US position was that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, “with both living in peace and security”, a spokesperson said.

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Israeli prime minister says “no intention of permanently occupying Gaza” – as it happened

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The Times of Israel reports that Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet will meet at 7pm tonight (5pm GMT) to discuss Israeli plans for the Gaza Strip when the war has finished.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that at least five Palestinians were injured and one detained in an Israeli security raid on Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It cites the Palestine Red Crescent Society saying a child and an elderly woman were among the injured.

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Antony Blinken tells Israel: Palestinian rights are key to peace

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US secretary of state rejects calls for immediate ceasefire but urges ally to make ‘hard decisions’ as fighting continues

Anthony Blinken has reaffirmed the United States’ “unique bond” with Israel, and rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but told his hosts in Tel Aviv that other regional powers have made clear that a pathway to the realisation of Palestinian political rights is essential for peace in the region.

Hinting at having held difficult talks with Israeli officials on Tuesday, the US secretary of state said the exceptional friendship between the two countries demanded that the US be “as forthright as possible when the choices matter most” and called for Israel to make “hard decisions”.

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UK government accepts Israel has legal duty to provide basic supplies to Gaza

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David Cameron urges Israeli authorities to clear barriers to aid deliveries amid risk of ‘widespread hunger’

The British government has accepted that Israel as an occupying power had a duty under international humanitarian law to provide basic supplies to the people of Gaza.

The admission came when David Cameron, the foreign secretary, urged Israel to remove barriers on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory that were risking “real, widespread hunger”.

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