It’s almost 2.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and 3.30am in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and we’re about to shut this blog. Our live coverage of the Middle East crisis will resume later today, and all our coverage can be seen here. A summary of the latest developments is below. Thanks for reading.
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Summary of the day so far
At least 23,708 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war began, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Friday. More than 151 Palestinians have been killed and 248 injured in Gaza in the previous 24 hours, it said.
The US and the UK launched air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen that hit nearly 30 targets, the Pentagon has said. Five people were killed and six injured in the overnight offensive that was designed to deter and prevent the Houthis from launching more attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. The Pentagon’s Lt Gen Douglas Sims told reporters that Washington expected the Houthis to attempt to retaliate, adding the group had fired an anti-ship ballistic missile earlier in the day that did not hit any ships.
Joe Biden has described the US-UK strikes against targets in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants as a “success”. In his first public comments on the overnight strikes, the US president warned that the US will continue action if the Iran-backed group continues “this outrageous behaviour”. A bipartisan chorus of US lawmakers have assailed Biden for failing to seek congressional approval for the strikes.
The US is “not interested” in a war with Yemen but will not “hesitate to take further action” in response to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the White House has said on Friday. The US is still assessing the impact of the airstrikes on Houthis in Yemen, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, earlier said.
Yemen’s Houthis threatened retaliation and tens of thousands people took to the streets of the country’s capital after Thursday’s late-night bombing. A spokesperson for the Houthi military, accused “the American-British enemy” of launching brutal aggression “as part of its support for the continuation of Israeli crime in Gaza”. The intervention “will not go unanswered and unpunished” he said. Reports emerged late on Friday night from the UK’s Maritime Trade Operation of a missile being fired at an unnamed vessel 90 nautical miles south-east of Aden in Yemen. It landed 400 to 500m short of the ship and no damage was reported, an incident unlikely to prompt a further military response.
Yemen’s Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said the group would continue targeting ships heading towards Israel and that there was no justification for the US-Britain attack on Yemen. On Thursday, the group’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said it would respond with more attacks on western shipping if Yemen was struck. The internationally recognised government of Yemen has said it holds Houthis “responsible for dragging the country into a military confrontation” in the Red Sea.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has urged countries to avoid an escalation in the Red Sea, and warned that the Houthis must “immediately cease all such attacks” on international shipping in the Red Sea. These attacks are “not acceptable as they endanger the safety and security of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation worldwide,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Countries across the Middle East have expressed fears over the latest escalation of the conflict in the region after the US and UK’s overnight strikes against Yemen’s Houthis. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah said it “strongly condemn[ed] the blatant American-British aggression” against Yemen, which it said had stood with the Palestinian people. Iran itself was also quick to condemn the attacks. Hamas said the US and Britain would bear responsibility for the impact of their attack on the security of the region. Turkey has claimed the US and UK are intent on turning the Red Sea into a bloodbath.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said the UK needs to send a “strong signal” that Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea are wrong and cannot be carried out with “impunity”. Sunak has said he will make a statement to MPs on Monday about “limited and necessary” military strikes in Yemen. In a legal position published on Friday, the UK said it was permitted under international law to use force to target Houthi facilities.
All internet and telecom services in Gaza have been cut on Friday as a result of the Israeli bombardment, the main operator Paltel said. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it has completely lost communication with its teams operating in the Gaza Strip for at least three hours.
Doctors at al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza have warned patients will die soon after power was cut off on Friday after it ran out of fuel for its main generator. The power cut came soon after the hospital in Deir al-Balah warned that its fuel supply was about to run out. The facility, which serves as the main hospital in central Gaza, said the UN had said a fuel delivery was expected but it had not arrived by Friday night.
Israel has accused South Africa of presenting a “profoundly distorted” view “barely distinguishable” from 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”.
Israel has negotiated a deal with Qatar that will allow the delivery of medicines to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister’s office has said. The medications would be given to the hostages “in the next few days”, the office said in a statement on Friday.
Israeli forces killed three Palestinian men who attacked a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. An IDF statement said its soldiers had come under fire while patrolling the Adora settlement, some 20 km (12 miles) west of Hebron city in the southern West Bank. In a separate incident in the West Bank, a man was killed after being severely beaten by Israel forces in Zeita, north of the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has warned Benjamin Netanyahu to act in order to prevent an imminent eruption of violence in the occupied West Bank, according to a report. Similar warnings have been issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, and other senior military commanders, according to Israel media.
Israel has criticized the United Nations human rights office after it released a statement marking Sunday’s 100th day of the conflict with Hamas without calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza. “A call for a ceasefire, without demanding the release of our hostages and the disarming of Hamas, is a call for terrorism to win,” Israel’s envoy to the UN said.
The UN humanitarian office has said Israeli authorities were systematically denying it access to northern Gaza to deliver aid and this had significantly hindered the humanitarian operation there. In separate comments, the UN human rights office said that Israel had repeatedly failed to uphold international humanitarian law.
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.
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Experts have warned that Thursday’s late-night bombing by the US and UK would be unlikely to deter the Houthis from attempting some form of retaliation, in turn risking further airstrikes against one of the world’s poorest countries.
Fabian Hinz, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the scale of the US strikes was “clearly not symbolic” but that:
If you look at the drones and missiles that the Houthis have been using against international shipping, they are mobile and compact and the Houthis are experts at hiding them.
Before the bombing the Houthi leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said: “Any American attack will not remain without a response.” Hinz said:
They are talking like they are in a war with the US and they will not want to walk away from that.
The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has defended the UK and US decision to launch strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The strikes launched overnight were “to disrupt and degrade the Houthis’ ability to continue the reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping,” Thomas-Greenfield told the UN security council in New York today.
She said that the strikes were necessary and appropriate noting that “they were consistent with international law and in exercise of the US’ inherent right to self-defence, as reflected by Article 51 of the UN Charter.” She said:
Yesterday’s strike was the latest in a series of actions taken in self-defence, taken by the US alongside other countries and one that occurred against a broad diplomatic backdrop of global condemnation.
More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert from the Red Sea since November in the face of Houthi, threats, she said, adding:
So long as any one of our ships is vulnerable, all of our ships are vulnerable.
Thomas-Greenfield emphasised that the US does not want more conflict in the region, and that the aim was “simple – to deescalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, while upholding the fundamental principles of freedom of navigation.”
In Israel, despite Houthi threats of retaliation against Israeli targets, there was little immediate response to possible escalation in Yemen.
Fighting in Gaza and against Hezbollah in the north pose more urgent threats to Israel, and the attack came on the eve of the Jewish day of rest, as the country was focused on the legal battle over genocide charges at the International Court of Justice.
The strikes were welcomed as a show of solidarity by the military correspondent of Yedioy Aharonot newspaper. Ron Ben Yshai wrote:
The attack in Yemen makes it clear that the US, Britain and the entire West stand firmly by its side and are even willing to risk expanding the fighting to other regions in the Middle East, which they have not done so far.
But he argued that despite the Houthi focus on Israel’s war in Gaza, the attack was more about US geopolitical rivalry with Tehran, and the threat to global shipping.
Israel is not the main story here, but rather the warning signal: the patience of the US is running out, and therefore Tehran too, and not just the Houthis, may bear the consequences.
The Israeli military did not respond to questions about whether they were making additional preparations to protect the country from possible Houthi attacks.
Netanyahu warned of imminent eruption of violence in West Bank - report
Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, has warned Benjamin Netanyahu to act in order to prevent an imminent eruption of violence in the occupied West Bank, according to a report.
The agency has submitted a document urgently warning the Israeli prime minister that the West Bank is on the brink of major unrest, the Times of Israel said Channel 13 reported.
Similar warnings have been issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, and other senior military commanders, according to Channel 12.
Netanyahu, along with other members of his war cabinet including defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, have been warned that Israel risked a new front in the West Bank amid the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ongoing clashes on the northern border with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, it said.
According to the Times of Israel, the heightened concern comes amid Israel’s withholding of hundreds of millions in tax revenues that belong to the Palestinian Authority (PA), in addition to refusing to allow about 150,000 Palestinian workers to return to their jobs in Israel and the settlements.
As a result of these Israeli policies, the PA has been unable to properly pay its employees, including members of its security services, for months. The Shin Bet document warns that this could lead to PA troops turning their weapons on Israeli forces, the report says.
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The CIA has uncovered information on senior Hamas leaders and the location of hostages in Gaza, and shared that intelligence with Israel as it carries out its war in the territory, according to a report.
The creation of the CIA task force came in the days after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October, with the priority of collecting intelligence on Hamas’ leadership, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.
The US is not providing Israel with intelligence on low or mid-level Hamas operatives, according to the report.
According to the report, US official believe that Yahya Sinwar, the suspected architect of the 7 October Hamas attacks, is hiding “in the deepest part of the tunnel network” under Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Sinwar is also believed to be surrounded by hostages and using them as human shields, “vastly complicating a military operation to capture or kill him”, the report says.
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from Gaza and Jerusalem.
Patients will die within hours, warn doctors after key Gaza hospital loses power
Doctors at al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza have warned patients will die soon after power was cut off on Friday after it ran out of fuel for its main generator.
The power cut came soon after the hospital in Deir al-Balah warned that its fuel supply was about to run out.
The facility, which serves as the main hospital in central Gaza, said the UN had said a fuel delivery was expected but it had not arrived by Friday night.
The hospital went black after nightfall, with staff keeping ventilators and incubators operating using batteries charged by solar power during the day, AP reported.
One doctor, Taiseer Abu Sweirih, told the news agency:
In two hours at most, if the electricity doesn’t come back, and the oxygen, these patients you see here will die.
Rishi Sunak has said the UK acted in “self-defence” with military strikes in Yemen intended to “de-escalate tensions and restore stability to the region”, as he faced calls for greater parliamentary scrutiny.
Speaking from Ukraine, Sunak said that in the face of this aggression “we will always stand up for the rule of law” after a series of attacks by Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea.
However, the Lib Dems, SNP and the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, have urged the prime minister to recall parliament to seek approval for the military assault, while warning about the risk of escalation in the Middle East. Labour has called for the legal advice in relation to the strikes to be published.
The prime minister has said he will make a statement to MPs on Monday about “limited and necessary” military strikes in Yemen. Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, briefed MPs on a call on Friday but did not take any questions.
One leading Conservative, David Davis, said it appeared to be “reasonable” self-defence but that if the UK government intends to widen and intensify the military action in an aggressive way, then the prime minister should seek parliamentary approval with a vote of MPs.
The military action has been backed across the Conservatives and the Labour frontbench, with Keir Starmer saying his party is “fully supportive” of the action.
UN chief urges Houthis to immediately cease attacks on shipping in Red Sea
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has urged countries to avoid an escalation in the Red Sea, a day after the US and UK launched strikes across multiple parts of Yemen in response to Houthi attacks against commercial shipping.
In a statement by his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, the UN chief warned that the Houthis must “immediately cease all such attacks” on international shipping in the Red Sea.
These attacks are “not acceptable as they endanger the safety and security of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation worldwide,” he said.
He said countries defending their ships from Houthi attacks must do so in accordance with international law and not escalate the situation. The statement continued:
The Secretary-General stresses the need to avoid acts that could further worsen the situation in Yemen itself. He calls for every effort to be made to ensure that Yemen pursues a path towards peace and that the work undertaken thus far to end the conflict in Yemen should not be lost.
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Israeli forces killed three Palestinian men who attacked a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
An IDF statement said its soldiers had come under fire while patrolling the Adora settlement, some 20 km (12 miles) west of Hebron city in the southern West Bank.
The soldiers searched the area and “three assailants were identified and neutralised by the security forces”, the statement said.
A 34-year-old Palestinian man involved in the attack was injured after being shot in the leg, Israeli emergency medical services said.
In a separate incident in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a man was killed after being severely beaten by Israel forces in Zeita, north of the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Biden warns Houthis against 'outrageous behaviour'
Here’s more from Joe Biden, who spoke to reporters briefly before an event Friday afternoon in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Asked if the US will continue strikes against the Houthis, Biden replied:
We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous behaviour.
Reporter: “The bombing of the Houthis — if the attacks don't stop, will you continue with the strikes?”
— The Recount (@therecount) January 12, 2024
President Biden: “We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous behavior, along with our allies.” pic.twitter.com/xJoXA6fcdL
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Biden defends airstrikes in letter to Congress
The White House has published a letter from Joe Biden to House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate president pro tempore Patty Murray explaining why he did not seek congressional approval prior to authorizing Thursday night’s airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
The US president is facing bipartisan condemnation for not asking lawmakers first, but in the letter says he didn’t need to because it was act of self-defense. The letter fulfils the requirement that he inform Congress of his actions within 48 hours:
I directed this military action consistent with my responsibility to protect US citizens both at home and abroad and in furtherance of US national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority as commander in chief and chief executive and to conduct US foreign relations.
The US took this necessary and proportionate action consistent with international law and in the exercise of the US’ inherent right of self-defense as reflected in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The US stands ready to take further action, as necessary and appropriate, to address further threats or attacks.
I am providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148). I appreciate the support of the Congress in this action.
You can read the full letter on the White House website here.
Further reading:
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Biden says Yemen airstrikes 'a success'
Joe Biden, in his first public comments on the US-UK airstrikes, said they were “a success”.
The US president spoke very briefly before an event Friday afternoon in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, to promote his economic policies.
“We will make sure that we will respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior, along with our allies,” he said.
Asked by a reporter if he thought the strikes had been a success, Biden said: “Yes. Very. I don’t think there’s any civilian casualties. That’s another reason why it’s a success”.
The president then offered reporters coffee, and said he would speak further about the military action following the campaign event.
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US military says strikes hit 30 targets in Yemen
Air strikes by US and UK forces on Houthi targets in Yemen hit nearly 30 targets, using more than 150 munitions, the Pentagon says.
The figure is higher than previously announced, Reuters said.
Lt Gen Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Staff, told reporters at a Friday afternoon briefing that he did not expect a high number of casualties from the strikes on Thursday, since the targets included those in rural areas.
Five people were killed and six injured in the strikes, reports said.
Sims added that Washington expected the Houthis to attempt to retaliate, adding the group had fired an anti-ship ballistic missile earlier in the day that did not hit any ships.
Israel has criticized the United Nations human rights office after it released a statement marking Sunday’s 100th day of the conflict with Hamas without calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, according to AFP.
The Geneva-based office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) issued a statement Friday that said:
This Sunday will mark 100 days since Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched their horrific attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, were killed and around 250 taken hostage.
On the conduct of hostilities, we have repeatedly highlighted Israel’s recurring failures to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality, and precautions in carrying out attacks. Breaches of these obligations risk exposure to liability for war crimes.
It called for a ceasefire to “end the appalling suffering and loss of life” and allow the prompt and effective delivery of humanitarian aid, angering the Israeli mission in Geneva.
Not one word demanding the release of the hostages held in Gaza.
— Israel in UN/Geneva🇮🇱🇺🇳 | #BringThemHome (@IsraelinGeneva) January 12, 2024
Not one mention of terrorism.
They aren’t armed groups, they are genocidal, murderous terrorist groups.
No mention of the use of human shields & use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas.
A call for a… https://t.co/ip5gpvj8PP
“Not one word demanding the release of the hostages held in Gaza. Not one mention of terrorism,” it said in a post to X. “A call for a ceasefire, without demanding the release of our hostages and the disarming of Hamas, is a call for terrorism to win.”
Iran: US and UK airstrikes 'violation of international law'
Iran has issued sharp new criticism of strikes by the US and UK on Houthi targets in Yemen, calling them “arbitrary” and a “violation” of international law, AFP reports.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, “strongly condemns the military attacks… this morning on several Yemeni cities”:
[They were] an arbitrary action, a clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen, and a violation of international laws and regulations.
The US, UK, and allies said in a joint statement after the air strikes that their goal “remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea”.
But Kanani warned that the attacks “will have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region”, as well as “diverting the world’s attention from the crimes” in Gaza, where Israel is fighting Hamas.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian voiced his own support the Houthis on X, formerly Twitter. “Yemen’s action in supporting the women and children of Gaza and confronting the Israeli regime’s genocide is commendable,” he said.
State television aired footage of pro-Palestinian rallies in Tehran and other Iranian cities, and later broadcast images from a protest outside the British embassy in Tehran with people waving Palestinian and Yemeni flags, AFP said.
Summary of the day so far
At least 23,708 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war began, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Friday. More than 151 Palestinians have been killed and 248 injured in Gaza in the previous 24 hours, it said.
All internet and telecom services in Gaza have been cut on Friday as a result of the Israeli bombardment, the main operator Paltel said. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it has completely lost communication with its teams operating in the Gaza Strip for at least three hours.
Yemen’s Houthis threatened retaliation and tens of thousands people took to the streets of the country’s capital after Thursday’s late-night bombing by the US and UK of dozens of sites in rebel-held territory. A spokesperson for the Houthi military, accused “the American-British enemy” of launching brutal aggression “as part of its support for the continuation of Israeli crime in Gaza”. The intervention “will not go unanswered and unpunished” he said.
The US and the UK launched air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, aimed at halting attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Washington and London announced overnight on Friday. Five people were killed and six injured in the overnight offensive that the Houthis said on Friday had targeted 73 sites in the capital Sana’a, around the port city of Hodeidah and three other regions. The strikes were designed to deter and prevent the Houthis from launching more attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report on Friday of a missile being fired towards a vessel in the Red Sea about 90 nautical miles south-east of Aden in Yemen. British maritime security firm Ambrey said the vessel was mistakenly targeted by the Houthis based on outdated publicly available information linking the ship to the UK. The UKMTO later said it received several reports of small boats approaching merchant shipping in the vicinity of 80 nautical miles south-east of Aden.
The US is “not interested” in a war with Yemen but will not “hesitate to take further action” in response to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the White House has said on Friday. The US is still assessing the impact of the airstrikes on Houthis in Yemen, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, earlier said.
Yemen’s Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said the group would continue targeting ships heading towards Israel and that there was no justification for the US-Britain attack on Yemen. On Thursday, the group’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said it would respond with more attacks on western shipping if Yemen was struck. The internationally recognised government of Yemen has said it holds Houthis “responsible for dragging the country into a military confrontation” in the Red Sea.
Countries across the Middle East have expressed fears over the latest escalation of the conflict in the region after the US and UK’s overnight strikes against Yemen’s Houthis. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah said it “strongly condemn[ed] the blatant American-British aggression” against Yemen, which it said had stood with the Palestinian people. Iran itself was also quick to condemn the attacks. Hamas said the US and Britain would bear responsibility for the impact of their attack on the security of the region. Turkey has claimed the US and UK are intent on turning the Red Sea into a bloodbath.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said the UK needs to send a “strong signal” that Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea are wrong and cannot be carried out with “impunity”. Sunak has said he will make a statement to MPs on Monday about “limited and necessary” military strikes in Yemen. In a legal position published on Friday, the UK said it was permitted under international law to use force to target Houthi facilities.
A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers assailed Joe Biden for failing to seek congressional approval before authorizing military strikes against targets in Houthi targets in Yemen. Biden, who served 36 years in the Senate, including as chair of the foreign relations committee, notified Congress but did not request its approval.
Israel has accused South Africa of presenting a “profoundly distorted” view “barely distinguishable” from 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”.
Israel has negotiated a deal with Qatar that will allow the delivery of medicines to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister’s office has said. The medications would be given to the hostages “in the next few days”, the office said in a statement on Friday.
The UN humanitarian office has said Israeli authorities were systematically denying it access to northern Gaza to deliver aid and this had significantly hindered the humanitarian operation there. In separate comments, the UN human rights office said that Israel had repeatedly failed to uphold international humanitarian law.
Jordan has said Israeli “war crimes” against Palestinians were to blame for heightened regional tension and violence in the Red Sea, which it said threatened to ignite a wider war in the Middle East. The Jordanian foreign minster, Ayman Safadi, said on Friday that the international community had failed to act to stop Israeli “aggression” against Palestinians, which was endangering the region’s security.
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.
Yemen’s Houthis threatened retaliation and tens of thousands people took to the streets of the country’s capital after Thursday’s late-night bombing by the US and UK of dozens of sites in rebel-held territory.
Five people were killed and six injured in the overnight offensive that the Houthis said on Friday had targeted 73 sites in the capital Sana’a, around the port city of Hodeidah and three other regions.
The UK and US defended the attacks, which marked a major escalation of the crisis in the Middle East triggered by the Israel-Gaza war, but leaders in the region condemned them for inflaming tensions in an already volatile climate.
A vast crowd of people waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags and chanting “death to America, death to Israel,” gathered in Sana’a’s central square to protest against the western bombing, and other protests took place in at least two other major cities in Houthi-controlled areas of the country.
Yahya Sare’e, a spokesperson for the Houthi military, accused “the American-British enemy” of launching brutal aggression “as part of its support for the continuation of Israeli crime in Gaza”. The intervention “will not go unanswered and unpunished” he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it has completely lost communication with its teams operating in the Gaza Strip following the telecom services blackout in the territory.
Posting to social media, the PRCS said communication has been “completely cut off” with its Gaza teams for the past three hours.
It said this disruption increases the challenges that its emergency services face in reaching the wounded and injured across Gaza.
🚨 For the past three hours, communication has been completely cut off with our teams operating in the #Gaza Strip due to the Israeli occupation cutting communication and internet services. 📍This disruption increases the challenges facing the PRCS's emergency services 🚑 in…
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 12, 2024
'Gaza is blacked out again': operator says all telecom services cut
All internet and telecom services in Gaza have been cut on Friday as a result of the Israeli bombardment, the main operator Paltel said.
We regret to announce that all telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is blacked out again.
— Paltel (@Paltelco) January 12, 2024
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US 'will not hesitate to take further action' against Houthis if necessary, says White House
The US is “not interested” in a war with Yemen but will not hesitate to take further action in response to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the White House has said.
“We’re not interested in ... a war with Yemen. We’re not interested in a conflict of any kind here,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One, according to Reuters.
Everything the president has been doing has been trying to prevent any escalation of conflict, including the strikes last night.
Asked about the impact of the strikes on Houthi capabilities, he said a “battle damage assessment” was still being done and that could take some hours yet, the BBC reported.
He added that he would not get into hypotheticals about future military actions in the region, but that the US would not “hesitate to take further action” if necessary, it said. Kirby added:
The Houthis are the ones that escalated here. They have a choice to make.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received several reports of small boats approaching merchant shipping in the vicinity of 80 nautical miles south-east of Yemen’s port city of Aden.
In an update posted to social media, UKMTO said two small boats were reported to have followed a merchant vessel for more than an hour.
The merchant vessel reported no weapons were sighted, it said.
UKMTO WARNING 008/JAN/2024https://t.co/zHGNgQp1UB#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/KVYPsUT81Q
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) January 12, 2024
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The US has announced new sanctions aimed at cracking down the financial network funding Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Washington announced sanctions on two companies – Hong Kong-based Cielo Maritime and UAE-based Global Tech Marine Services – which it said have been involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities on behalf of the network of the Houthi financial facilitator, Sa’id al-Jamal.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement:
The revenue from the commodity sales supports the Houthis and their continued attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
In a separate statement, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US would “continue to counter illicit Iranian financial support to the Houthis”.
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Houthis target ship carrying Russian oil after being 'mistakenly linked to UK' - report
We reported earlier that the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of a missile being fired towards a vessel in the Red Sea about 90 nautical miles south-east of Yemen’s port city of Aden.
Reuters reported that the British maritime security firm Ambrey said:
This was the second tanker mistakenly targeted by the Houthis whilst carrying Russian oil.
“A Panama-flagged tanker sighted three skiffs while transiting eastbound through the International Recommended Transit Corridor,” Reuters reported that the Ambrey report said. It said the vessel reported a missile hitting the water.
The firm assessed that the vessel was mistakenly targeted based on outdated publicly available information linking the vessel to the UK:
This appeared to be five months old but was still listed as UK-affiliated on a public maritime database.
Israeli hostages in Gaza to receive medicines in coming days, says Israeli PM's office
Israel has negotiated a deal with Qatar that will allow the delivery of medicines to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister’s office has said.
The deal “will allow the entry of medicines for the hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organisation in Gaza”, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Friday.
The medications would be given to the hostages “in the next few days”, the office said.
The announcement comes after a New York Times report said Qatar was engaged in high-level discussions with Hamas to deliver vital prescription medicines to Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
The talks on medical aid are separate from wider negotiations on another hostage release, the report said.
Families of the hostages in Gaza, many of whom are elderly or suffer from health conditions that require regular medical care, have petitioned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit their relatives in order to deliver medicine and inspect their conditions.
The Red Cross has said access has been denied by Hamas.
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A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers assailed Joe Biden for failing to seek congressional approval before authorizing military strikes against targets in Yemen controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi militants.
“This is an unacceptable violation of the constitution,” said congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a Washington Democrat and the chair of the Progressive Caucus.
Article 1 requires that military action be authorized by Congress.
Biden, who served 36 years in the Senate, including as chair of the foreign relations committee, notified Congress but did not request its approval.
Several lawmakers applauded the strikes, arguing they were necessary to deter Iran. In a statement, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, called Biden’s decision “overdue”.
The United States and our allies must leave no room to doubt that the days of unanswered terrorist aggression are over
Congressman Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House foreign affairs committee, said he supported the decision to launch “targeted, proportional military strikes”, but called on the Biden administration to “continue its diplomatic efforts to avoid escalation to a broader regional war and continue to engage Congress on the details of its strategy and legal basis as required by law”.
Yet many progressive – and a number of conservative – members were furious with the president for failing to seek approval from Congress. “Unacceptable,” wrote Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, called on Biden to engage with Congress “before continuing these airstrikes in Yemen”, writing:
The United States cannot risk getting entangled into another decades-long conflict without congressional authorization.
Ro Khanna, a California progressive who has led bipartisan efforts to reassert congressional authority over America’s foreign wars, said on X:
The president needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another Middle East conflict.
Houthis responsible for 'dragging Yemen into military confrontation', says Yemen's government
The internationally recognised government of Yemen has said it holds the Iran-backed Houthi militant group “responsible for dragging the country into a military confrontation” in the Red Sea.
In a statement, the Saudi-backed government said it is “following with great concern the military escalation in the country, particularly in the Red Sea, by the Houthi rebels.”
It said the US-UK operation was a response to the “Houthi militias’ continued targeting and threatening the security and safety of international navigation in the Red Sea.”
It said the Houthis are using “misleading claims that have no real connection to supporting our brothers and sisters in the occupied Palestinian territories”.
The government said that the military escalation in the area “threatens the security and safety of international navigation.”
UK reports missile fired towards vessel near Yemen
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of a missile being fired towards a vessel in the Red Sea about 90 nautical miles south-east of Aden in Yemen.
The missile landed between 400 and 500 metres away from the ship being followed by three craft, it said.
The ship reported no injuries or damage and was proceeding to the next port of call, as vessels were advised to “transit with caution”.
UKMTO WARNING 007/JAN/2024 UPDATE 001https://t.co/6a9TLpaLrg#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/eZIBRlsLSo
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) January 12, 2024
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Nearly 24,000 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since war began, says Gaza ministry
More than 151 Palestinians have been killed and 248 injured in Gaza in the previous 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry has said.
It brings the total number of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October to at least 23,708, according to the latest figures by the ministry. More than 60,005 people have been wounded, it said.
The health ministry in Gaza is run by Hamas, and it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
The US is assessing the impact of airstrikes on Houthis in Yemen, the White House has said.
The airstrikes were targeted at the Houthi’s ability to store, launch and guide missiles and drones, the White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told MSNBC. He said:
We’re still doing the assessment of the actual impacts on all these targets. That work is ongoing. So I think we’ll have a better sense of the specifics of the damage done here in the coming hours.
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Summary of the day so far
The US and the UK launched air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, aimed at halting attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Washington and London announced overnight on Friday. Joe Biden said American and British forces, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, were involved in the attack, striking at least 60 targets in 16 locations around Yemen. The strikes were designed to deter and prevent the Houthis from launching more attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said the group would continue targeting ships heading towards Israel and that there was no justification for the US-Britain attack on Yemen. On Thursday, the group’s leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said it would respond with more attacks on western shipping if Yemen was struck.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and other cities to protest after the US and the UK launched strikes on targets in several of the country’s cities overnight. “The United States is the Devil,” said Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi supreme political council, referring to the US. “We did not attack the shores of America, nor did we move in the American islands, nor did we attack them. Your strikes on our country are terrorism.”
Countries across the Middle East have expressed fears over the latest escalation of the conflict in the region after the US and UK’s overnight strikes against Yemen’s Houthis. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah said it “strongly condemn[ed] the blatant American-British aggression” against Yemen, which it said had stood with the Palestinian people. Iran itself was also quick to condemn the attacks. Hamas said the US and Britain would bear responsibility for the impact of their attack on the security of the region.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said the UK needs to send a “strong signal” that Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea are wrong and cannot be carried out with “impunity”. Sunak has said he will make a statement to MPs on Monday about “limited and necessary” military strikes in Yemen.
In a legal position published on Friday, the UK said it was permitted under international law to use force to target Houthi facilities.
Israel has accused South Africa of presenting a “profoundly distorted” view “barely distinguishable” from 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”.
The UN humanitarian office has said Israeli authorities were systematically denying it access to northern Gaza to deliver aid and this had significantly hindered the humanitarian operation there. In separate comments, the UN human rights office said that Israel had repeatedly failed to uphold international humanitarian law.
Jordan has said Israeli “war crimes” against Palestinians were to blame for heightened regional tension and violence in the Red Sea, which it said threatened to ignite a wider war in the Middle East. The Jordanian foreign minster, Ayman Safadi, said on Friday that the international community had failed to act to stop Israeli “aggression” against Palestinians, which was endangering the region’s security.
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.
An investigation that led to the arrests of three suspects in Denmark last month on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror” was linked to Hamas, a Danish prosecutor has said. The case coincided with an arrest in the Netherlands and several in Germany of alleged Hamas members.
Several Jewish students have filed a lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of becoming “a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment”. The lawsuit filed earlier this week mirrors others submitted since the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel.
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Canada’s foreign and defence ministers, Mélanie Joly and Bill Blair, have issued a statement on the country’s involvement in strikes against Houthi targets:
Canadian armed forces personnel deployed with US Central Command supported the precisely targeted strikes undertaken yesterday by the armed forces of the United States and United Kingdom, as did Australia, Bahrain and the Netherlands, against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
These precision strikes are consistent with the UN charter and demonstrate the international community’s commitment to defending freedom of navigation and international commerce in the Red Sea.
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Germany says accusations against Israel 'unfounded', will speak as 'third party' in court case
Germany rejects the accusations of genocide made against Israel before the international court of justice and will express its opinion as a third party, the German government has said.
The Federal Government rejects the accusation of genocide made against Israel before the @CIJ_ICJ. It is unfounded. In the main hearing Germany will therefore express its position as a third party. We continue to support the work of the ICJ as we have for decades. https://t.co/09HGbJC0Lw
— Steffen Seibert (@GerAmbTLV) January 12, 2024
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'We remember the Armenians, the Kurds': Israeli minister criticises Erdoğan
Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, has hit back at comments from Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan said that Turkey was providing documents for South Africa’s case against Israel in the international court of justice.
“I believe Israel will be convicted there. We believe in the justice of the international court of justice,” the Turkish leader said, according to Reuters.
Katz then responded that Erdoğan was “from a country with the Armenian Genocide in its past, [and] now boasts of targeting Israel with unfounded claims”.
He added:
We remember the Armenians, the Kurds. Your history speaks for itself. Israel stands in defence, not destruction, against your barbarian allies.
The President of Turkey @RTErdogan, from a country with the Armenian Genocide in its past, now boasts of targeting Israel with unfounded claims. We remember the Armenians, the Kurds. Your history speaks for itself. Israel stands in defense, not destruction, against your barbarian… pic.twitter.com/c9g9YLNKRe
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) January 12, 2024
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Tens of thousands protest in Yemen
Tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered to hear Houthi leaders condemn US and British strikes, Reuters reported.
Here are pictures from Sana’a:
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A Denmark terror case has links to Hamas, Danish prosecutor says
An investigation that led to the arrests of three suspects in Denmark last month on suspicion of plotting to carry out “an act of terror” was linked to Hamas, says a Danish prosecutor.
The prosecutor spoke during a custody hearing before an appeals court on Thursday about the case that has been shrouded in secrecy until now, says AP, citing local broadcaster TV2. Prosecutor Anders Larsson said: “The investigation has provided information that, according to the police, the case has links to Hamas.” Larsson said “that information is no longer necessary to keep secret” but did not provide any further details.
Danish police said that three people were arrested across Denmark and a fourth person was detained in the Netherlands on 14 December. The case coincided with an arrest in the Netherlands and several in Germany of alleged Hamas members.
The Danish and German announcements were issued separately. It was unclear how or if the arrests were connected and if they were the result of coordinated actions, or even possibly one operation spanning the continent.
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'The Houthis are happy - they are using this as a propaganda victory' - reaction in Yemen to UK and US strikes
My colleague Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has spoken to Radhiya al Mutawakil, chair of Mwatana for Human Rights, in Sana’a and also to Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme to get their reaction on the US-UK strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. You can read the full comments from each below:
Radhiya al Mutawakil, chair of Mwatana for Human Rights, in Sana’a:
When we heard the airstrikes’ explosions yesterday, it brought back memories of the Saudi airstrikes of the past eight years and the memories of that ugly war.
We were shocked, not knowing the extent of this new round of violence. Is it just a show of force? Or is it a new round of fighting? As the day passed and we saw that the strikes were almost identical to those of Saudis, the Yemenis in the streets dismissed them, joking: “Ah, they are the same strikes, but this time in English.”
Before the war on Gaza, we have been in a state of no-war-and-no-peace. While all the signs of the war, the violations, and the economic and humanitarian impacts are still here, we were seeing that peace was finally coming to Yemen and that the Saudis and the Houthis were close to signing a peace deal with specific steps to be implemented on the ground: opening humanitarian corridors to besieged cities, paying the salaries of government employees … etc.
This morning, the first thing that came to our minds was how these attacks would affect that peace. It’s unfair to enter a second war.
The Houthis, as we can hear and see in the streets today, are happy with these strikes; they are using them as a propaganda victory. They say: “We are finally facing the real enemies: the US and Britain, who were all along behind the war in Yemen, hidden behind the facade of Saudi Arabia and UAE.”
The irony is that eight years of war, with the pretext of weakening the Houthis, had, in fact, made them stronger. When the war started, the Houthis didn’t own rockets to hit their targets in Yemen. Now they have missiles that can strike targets in the sea and far into the region, so what do they expect from a new war, just another round of violence with a more catastrophic impact on the Yemeni civilians?
The Houthis are the de facto authority that rules Sana’a. They have committed their share of violations, and the people [living in areas under their control] do not have much love for them. Still, as much as the Yemenis are exhausted from their own war, it is hard for them not to sympathise with the Palestinians. So for the Yemenis, even those who are opposed to the Houthis, it is hard for them not to sympathise with the Houthis attempt to support the Palestinians by attacking Israeli shipping in the Red Sea. At the same time, the Houthis are using these strikes to expand their popularity.
I keep asking myself this question: how does the western mind work? Rather than stop the atrocities in Gaza, they want to expand the war in the region by attacking the Houthis, which is not going to work because it didn’t work before.
Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme:
The attacks will definitely have an impact on the local Yemeni scene.
First, the negotiations between the Saudis and the Houthis, which were about to lead to a deflation of peace in Yemen, will be delayed. The Houthis might feel that they do not need to rush things.
Another danger is that the Saudis have been the first line of defence for the Israelis by shooting down Houthi missiles. If the Houthis fire more missiles, things will escalate militarily between the Saudis and the Houthis. I know that there have been military clashes on the border in the past three days.
And for sure, the Houthis will now militarily mobilise more Yemenis to fight; they have already mobilised thousands of people in the past few weeks, and now they will recruit more and they will use these new forces to fight their opponents internally. These airstrikes are like a nugget of gold for the Houthis.
Finally, they are in a direct confrontation with the US. Whatever the price for that, it is worth it for them. I do believe they will attack more ships in Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea and oil infrastructure in the Gulf and US bases there.
In Yemen, whenever a problem is out of control, we say khalas – it’s done – the donkey has entered the market and is running havoc, and we can say the same thing after these strikes: the donkey has entered the market.
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The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, can be viewed in the below video, commenting on the US and British armed forces’ strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Sunak, who is visiting Ukraine to meet the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that the UK needed to send a “strong signal” that Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea were wrong and could not be carried out with impunity.
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Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said British strikes against Houthis in Yemen were disproportionate and the UK was trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood”.
You can see him speaking in Istanbul today and listen to his comments in the Reuters video below.
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The UN deplores Israel's 'systematic' refusal to grant access to north Gaza
The UN humanitarian office said on Friday that Israeli authorities were systematically denying it access to northern Gaza to deliver aid and this had significantly hindered the humanitarian operation there.
“The operations in the north have become increasingly more complicated,” said the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office in the occupied Palestinian territory, Andrea De Domenico, reports Reuters. “We have systematic refusal from the Israeli side of our effort to get there, to access the north.”
Reuters said that Israeli authorities and the Israeli defence ministry unit known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat) – tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories – did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Israel has previously denied blocking the entry of aid.
Since the start of hostilities, aid deliveries to northern Gaza have been limited, and the area was cut off altogether from external aid for weeks earlier in the conflict.
De Domenico said Israel was concerned about fuel deliveries and other supplies that could be diverted to Hamas, and had been reluctant to authorise aid deliveries to hospitals in north Gaza.
“In particular, they have been very systematic in not allowing us to support hospitals, which is something that is reaching a level of inhumanity that, for me, is beyond comprehension,” he added.
De Domenico told Reuters that the OCHA had not been authorised to return to Jabalia, and was allowed to bring only a very precise quantity of fuel to al-Shifa hospital that would last for a determined period.
In separate comments, the UN human rights office said that Israel, facing genocide accusations at the ICJ in The Hague this week, had repeatedly failed to uphold international humanitarian law.
“We’ve repeatedly highlighted Israel’s recurring failures to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks,” said Elizabeth Throssell, spokesperson for the Office of the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR).
“The high commissioner has stressed that breaches of these obligations risk exposure to liability for war crimes, and has also warned of the risks of other atrocity crimes,” she added. Israel has denied allegations that it has committed war crimes.
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The Reuters video, below, shows the Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, giving a statement on the overnight strikes by the US and UK in response to the movement’s attacks on ships in the Red Sea. In it, he warns that the strikes will not go without “punishment or retaliation”.
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In a statement after the end of today’s hearing at the international court of justice, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said that the country’s delegation “revealed the true face of South Africa as the loyal representative of a terrorist organisation that inhumanely slaughtered babies, children, women and the elderly”.
He added: “When it comes to Israel, it seems that the double standards of some of the world’s countries are shockingly blatant. South Africa’s claims against Israel are baseless. On the contrary, no evidence was presented, except that of an unparalleled defensive and moral war. South Africa itself violates the genocide convention by supporting the Hamas terrorist organisation, which calls for the elimination of the state of Israel.”
Press release: Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
— Lior Haiat 🇮🇱 (@LiorHaiat) January 12, 2024
Foreign Minister Israel Katz at the end of the hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague:
The Israeli delegation revealed the true face of South Africa as the loyal representative of a terrorist… pic.twitter.com/uZzCgMN1Me
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The UK needs to send a 'strong signal' that Houthi attacks cannot be carried out with 'impunity', says Sunak
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said on Friday that the UK needs to send a “strong signal” that Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea are wrong and cannot be carried out with “impunity”.
Speaking during a visit to Ukraine, Sunak said that the UK and allies would not hesitate to ensure the safety of commercial shipping, reports PA Media.
He told broadcasters:
Over the last month, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. That’s putting innocent lives at risk, it’s disrupting the global economy and it’s also destabilising the region. And in that time, we’ve also seen the single biggest attack on a British Navy warship that we’ve seen in decades.
Now it’s clear that that type of behaviour can’t carry on. That’s why we joined with allies in issuing very public condemnation of this behaviour. And it’s why I made the decision with allies to take what I believe to be necessary, proportionate and targeted action against military targets to degrade and disrupt Houthi capability. We won’t hesitate to protect lives and ensure the safety of commercial shipping.
Pressed on what happens if the strikes on the Houthis do not succeed in deterring the attacks, Sunak said the attacks could not continue with “impunity”. “We’ve carried out a series of strikes together with allies, which will we believe degrade and disrupt the capability,” he added.
He also said:
The types of things that we’ve targeted are launch sites for missiles and for drones. Initial indications are that those strikes have been successful. We’ll continue to monitor the situation.
But it’s clear that this type of behaviour can’t be met without a response. We need to send a strong signal that this breach of international law is wrong. People can’t act like this with impunity and that’s why together with allies we’ve decided to take this action.
Our aim is very clear, it’s to de-escalate tensions and restore stability to the region. That’s why allies over the past few weeks have issued several statements of condemnation of what’s happening, calling on the Houthis to desist.
Sunak said Britain’s aim was to “restore stability” to the region when asked about concerns over the possibility of wider escalation following strikes against Houthi rebel bases in Yemen.
He added: “We have acted in self-defence. It’s incumbent now on the Houthis to stop carrying out these attacks, disrupting the global economy which has also had a damaging impact on people’s shopping … That’s not right.”
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Here is more from Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker’s arguments at the international court of justice:
If there have been acts that may be characterised as genocidal, then they have been perpetrated against Israel.
If there is a concern about the obligations of states under the genocide convention, then it is in relation to their responsibilities to act against Hamas’s proudly declared agenda of annihilation, which is not a secret and is not in doubt.
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Here are some of the latest pictures from the news wires:
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Speaking at the ICJ, a lawyer for Israel said the events of 7 October were “all but ignored in the applicant’s submissions”.
Tal Becker said:
We are compelled to share with the court some fraction of its horror, the largest calculated mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust.
We do so not because these acts, however sadistic and systematic, release Israel of its obligations to uphold the law as it defends its citizens and territory. That is unquestionable.
We do so because it is impossible to understand the armed conflict in Gaza without appreciating the nature of the threat that Israel is facing, and the brutality and lawlessness of the armed force confronting it.
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Israel hits back at 'distorted' genocide case
Tal Becker, the Israeli foreign ministry’s legal adviser, told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today that South Africa’s genocide case is “profoundly distorted.”
He said:
The applicant has now sought to invoke this term in the context of Israel’s conduct in a war it did not start and did not want – a war in which Israel is defending itself against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist organisations whose brutality knows no bounds.
The civilian suffering in this war, like in all wars, is tragic. It is heartbreaking. The harsh realities of the current hostilities are made especially agonising for civilians given Hamas’ reprehensible strategy of seeking to maximise civilian harm to both Israelis and Palestinians, even as Israel seeks to minimise it.
But as this court has already made clear, the genocide convention was not designed to address the brutal impact of intensive hostilities on the civilian population, even when the use of force raises, quote, very serious issues of international law and involves enormous suffering and continuing loss of life, end quote.
The convention was set apart to address a malevolent crime of the most exceptional severity.
We live at a time when words are cheap. In an age of social media and identity politics, the temptation to reach for the most outrageous term to vilify and demonise, has become for many irresistible.
But if there is a place where words should still matter, where truth should still matter, it is surely a court of law.
The applicant has regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture.
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UK publishes position on legality of military action to target Houthi facilities
In a legal position published today, the UK said it was permitted under international law to use force to target Houthi facilities.
It underscored that “the Houthis have been carrying out dozens of serious attacks on shipping in the Red Sea for a sustained period” and “British flagged vessels, as well as the vessels of many other states, have been the subject of those attacks”.
It added:
The government assesses that attacks will continue unless action is taken to deter them.
Military intervention to strike carefully identified targets in order to effectively downgrade the Houthi’s capabilities and deter further attacks was lawfully taken. It was necessary and proportionate to respond to attacks by the Houthis and this was the only feasible means available to deal with such attacks.
The UK is permitted under international law to use force in such circumstances where acting in self-defence is the only feasible means to deal with an actual or imminent armed attack and where the force used is necessary and proportionate.
The government will notify the UN security council of the actions it has taken under Article 51 of the UN charter.
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Russia has condemned the airstrikes by the US and UK against Houthi military targets in Yemen in a predictable move given its growing partnership with regional power Iran (the Houthis main backer) and the Kremlin’s conflict with the West over Ukraine.
But in its denunciation of the strikes, the Russian foreign ministry nodded specifically to Vladimir Putin’s partnership with Riyadh, saying: “We share the concerns of our regional partners, in particular Saudi Arabia, and call for intensifying international efforts to prevent a further escalation.”
The rhetoric from the Kremlin on Friday shows that Putin will likely try to use the growing conflict in the Middle East as a way to break out of his own international isolation over the Ukraine invasion.
The Kremlin has sought to further build ties with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed following the outbreak of the Israeli war in Gaza, with Putin last month taking a rare trip out of Russia to the region to discuss the conflict, as well as oil prices and economic ties.
Putin has avoided traveling abroad since he was indicted by the ICC over Russia’s abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children during the war. But he flew into the Gulf for a whistlestop tour, escorted by four Russian fighter jets, and held cordial talks with both leaders.
The lightning trip played several roles. It was designed to refute claims that Moscow has been isolated since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And it also showed Putin imagining himself as a potential dealmaker in the Middle East, using his influence with both Iran and growing relationship with leaders in the Gulf States in a stated goal to avert a regional war.
Those efforts will only expand after the US and UK strikes in Yemen, and with Russian calls to convene a UN security council meeting, the Kremlin will also be looking for ways to insert itself into the diplomatic process in order to break out of its isolation over the Ukraine war.
Sunak and Zelenskiy to hold a joint press conference
UK prime minister, Rishi sunak and Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy will hold a joint press conference at 12.25pm, GMT.
Sunak arrived in Kyiv on Friday morning to meet Zelenskiy as the UK announced it would provide further military aid to Ukraine over the coming year.
We will post updates from the press conference as they come in.
Erdoğan says Britain is trying to turn the Red Sea into a 'sea of blood'
Britain is trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood”, the Turkish president has said. Speaking on Friday, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said British strikes against Houthis in Yemen were not proportionate.
Reuters reports Turkey’s president as saying that Houthis in Yemen are mounting a “successful defence, response against the US”. Turkey was providing documents for genocide hearings against Israel at the world court and would continue to do so, he added.
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Jordan says Israeli 'war crimes' against Palestinians are to blame for heightened Red Sea violence
Jordan said Israeli “war crimes” against Palestinians were to blame for heightened regional tension and violence in the Red Sea, which it said threatened to ignite a wider war in the Middle East, reports Reuters.
Jordanian foreign minster, Ayman Safadi, said on Friday that the international community had failed to act to stop Israeli “aggression” against Palestinians, which was endangering the region’s security. His comments came after the US and UK launched strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the movement’s attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“The Israeli aggression on Gaza and its continued committing of war crimes against the Palestinian people and violating international law with impunity are responsible for the rising tensions witnessed in the region,” Safadi said in remarks carried by state media. The stability of the region and its security were closely tied, he added.
“The international community is at a humanitarian, moral, legal and security crossroads. Either it shoulders its responsibilities and ends Israel’s arrogant aggression and protect civilians, or allows Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist ministers to drag us to a regional war that threatens world peace,” Safadi said.
He stated that Israel was pushing the region towards more conflict “by continuing its aggression and its attempt to open new fronts,” and that Israeli military actions against civilians in Gaza met the legal definition of genocide.
Israel has denied allegations that it has committed war crimes and on Friday rejected as “grossly distorted” accusations brought by South Africa at the UN’s top court that its military operation in Gaza was a state-led genocide campaign against the Palestinian population.
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Czech president endorses the US-UK strikes
Czech president Petr Pavel, a former top Nato general, endorsed the strikes by the US and the UK overnight against Houthi military targets in Yemen.
Posting on X, Pavel said: “The provocative and dangerous Houthi attacks on maritime traffic in the Red Sea can no longer be tolerated. The military action of our allies is a necessary step to prevent mounting tension in the region and to restore safe international trade passage.”
The provocative and dangerous Houthi attacks on maritime traffic in the Red Sea can no longer be tolerated. The military action of our allies is a necessary step to prevent mounting tension in the region and to restore safe international trade passage.
— Petr Pavel (@prezidentpavel) January 12, 2024
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Humza Yousaf calls for parliament to be recalled to discuss UK action in Yemen
Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf is calling for parliament to be recalled to discuss the UK action in Yemen.
Yousaf said it was “pretty frustrating” that he was not briefed in advance of the UK and US strikes carried out last night.
He said there was “no equivocation” that the SNP aligns itself with the UN security council resolution calling for an end to Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea but that the UK’s record of military intervention in Middle East “is not a good one”.
“The correct and appropriate thing to have done would have been to have recalled parliament to have given serious detail about any proposed military action because there are significant questions.”
He said that, despite the UK insisting that this has nothing to do with the conflict between Israel and Gaza “that is a complete fallacy and the concern is that there will be a wider regional escalation because of the action taken.”
“My concern also is that we see thousands of children are dying in Gaza, and I just wish the UK government would care as much about those children that are dying.”
Attacks by Houthis represent 'an escalation that benefits no one', says Belgian foreign minister
Hadja Lahbib, Belgium’s foreign minister, said this morning that “the ongoing attacks by the Houthis are a real danger for the stability of the region and represent an escalation that benefits no one”.
She added: “Belgium is working with its EU partners and US ally to restore maritime security in the region and avoid any spillover.”
The ongoing attacks by the Houthis are a real danger for the stability of the region and represent an escalation that benefits no one.
— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) January 12, 2024
Belgium is working with its EU partners and US ally to restore maritime security in the region and avoid any spillover.
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Russia’s foreign ministry criticises military strikes in Yemen
Russia’s foreign ministry has criticised the military strikes in Yemen, calling them a “gamble” and as posing a “direct threat to global peace and security.
“We believe that the gamble by the so-called coalition forces in Yemen poses a direct threat to global peace and security,” a spokesperson for the ministry said, noting that Russia had called for a meeting of the UN security council “where our principled assessment of these illegal actions will be voiced”.
💬 #Zakharova: The so-called "International coalition" led by the US & UK hit a number of targets in Yemen.
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) January 12, 2024
❗️ We strongly condemn these irresponsible actions
A military escalation in the Red Sea region could provoke a destabilisation of the situation throughout the Middle East pic.twitter.com/TQ313scfXE
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Italy declined to take part in US-UK strikes, according to a government source
Italy declined to take part in the US-UK strikes overnight against on Houthi targets in Yemen, a government source said on Friday, reports Reuters. The source, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, explained that Rome preferred to pursue a “calming” policy in the Red Sea.
The source also said the government would have needed parliamentary backing to take part in any military action, making swift approval impossible. The Netherlands, Australia, Canada and Bahrain provided logistical and intelligence support to the strikes, US officials have said.
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South Africa accuses Israel of 'genocidal acts' at International Court of Justice
You can follow today’s ICJ proceedings, on a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of “genocidal acts” in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, on the live video link below:
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Israel says South Africa 'seeks to thwart Israel’s inherent right to defend itself', at ICJ hearing
My colleague, the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent Haroon Siddique is at The Hague and has sent the below update on the second day of ICJ hearings on a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of “genocidal acts” in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza:
Opening Israel’s defence to the charge of genocide at the international court of justice in The Hague, Tal Becker, legal adviser of the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs, on Friday accused South Africa of providing a “profoundly distorted and factual legal picture” in its case against Israel and said that the applicant’s arguments were “barely distinguishable” from Hamas rhetoric. Becker said calling for Israel to halt its military operations against Hamas was an “unconscionable” request’ and that South Africa “seeks to thwart Israel’s inherent right to defend itself”.
He described in graphic terms the 7 October attacks by Hamas and other militants, including details of rape and mutilation. Becker said that the purpose of relaying such details was not to absolve Israel of its responsibility to comply with international law in its response but because it was “impossible to understand the armed conflict in Gaza without appreciating the nature of the threat” faced by Israel.
Making its case on Thursday, evidence of genocidal acts by Israel cited by South Africa included, the high civilian death toll, the number of Palestinians physically and mentally harmed, suffering starvation and dehydration and statements made by Israel’s political and military leaders, including the prime minister.
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A Houthi military spokesperson alleges that the joint US-UK operation conducted 73 raids in Sana’a, Hodeidah, Taiz, Hijjah, and Saada, resulting in five deaths and six injuries. No civilian casualties were reported.
The spokesperson, Yahya Saree, asserted that the “responsibility for this aggression lies with the enemies”, vowing to respond with impunity. Additionally, they expressed a commitment to targeting threats and hostile entities on land and sea while pledging continued support for Gaza.
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Danish government proposes sending frigate
Denmark’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said this morning that the country’s government “supports the American-led action that took place in Yemen last night.”
“Free navigation is of crucial importance and therefore the government is putting forward a motion to send a frigate to the area,” he added.
”Regeringen bakker op om den amerikanskledede aktion, der fandt sted i Yemen i nat. Den frie sejlads er af afgørende betydning og derfor fremsætter regeringen et beslutningsforslag om at sende en fregat til området”, siger forsvarsminister @troelslundp https://t.co/b5eHduHhCA
— Forsvarsministeriet/Danish MoD (@Forsvarsmin) January 12, 2024
US-UK strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen had full political support of the Netherlands
The US and British armed forces’ strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen had the full political support of the Netherlands, with prime minister Mark Rutte saying on X that Houthi attacks were “a clear violation of international law and pose a threat to maritime personnel and trade flows”.
The US-British action was “based on the right of self-defence, aims to protect free passage and is focused on de-escalation”, Rutte said, adding that the Netherlands, “with its long history as a sea-faring country, places significant importance on the right of free passage and supports this targeted operation”.
A joint statement on the action by the governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, the UK and the US gave no details of the practical supporting role played by the Dutch, but ministers clarified that it was non-operational.
In a letter to the lower house of parliament, foreign minister Hanke Bruins Slot and defence minister Kajsa Ollongren said that at Washington’s request, the Netherlands had provided “non operational military support” consisting of the provision of “one staff officer”, public broadcaster NOS reported.
The ministers added that “the impact of the operation on the Dutch presence and Dutch interests in the region was taken into account” during the decision-making.
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Germany’s foreign office said on Friday that overnight US-UK strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen were meant to prevent further attacks, reports Reuters.
“Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea,” the ministry wrote in a post on X.
For weeks, the Huthi have been aggressively attacking merchant ships & military vessels in the #RedSea & taking mariners hostage. These illegal attacks have been widely condemned around the world, including by the UN Security Council (1/2)
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 12, 2024
US-UK strikes will not go without 'punishment or retaliation', say Houthis
Strikes by the US and the UK overnight against Houthi military targets in Yemen would not go without “punishment or retaliation”, said the group’s military spokesperson.
They also claimed that 73 strikes had killed five fighters and wounded six others, and said the Houthis would continue to block the passage of ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, reports Reuters.
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France say Houthis are responsible for escalation in the Red Sea
France have condemned Houthi strikes on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, calling for those to stop immediately in the wake of US-UK attacks against Houthi military targets in Yemen.
“With those armed actions, the Houthis bear the extremely serious responsibility of the escalation in the region,” the French foreign affairs ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Israel to defend its war in Gaza at the UN's top court
Israel plans to defend its war in Gaza on Friday in front of the UNs’ highest court, reports AP.
South Africa has filed a lawsuit with the UN’s top court asking judges to impose emergency measures ordering Israel to immediately halt the Gaza offensive, alleging that Israel’s actions in the war there amount to genocide. Israel rejects the accusations of genocide as baseless and said South Africa was acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas. Israel says its military is targeting Hamas militants, not Palestinian civilians.
Although the court’s findings are considered binding, it was unclear whether Israel would heed any order to halt the fighting. If it does not, it could face UN sanctions, although those may be blocked by a US veto.
More from AP on the proceedings:
“The scale of destruction in Gaza, the targeting of family homes and civilians, the war being a war on children – all make clear that genocidal intent is both understood and has been put into practice. The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life,” the lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said in opening statements on Thursday.
The case’s “distinctive feature” was “the reiteration and repetition of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of the state in Israel,” he said.
Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting Hamas, the militant group whose fighters stormed through Israeli communities on 7 October and killed approximately 1,200 people, mainly civilians. The assailants also abducted about 250 people, nearly half of whom have been released.
“This is an upside down world – the state of Israel is accused of genocide while it is fighting genocide,” Netanyahu said Thursday in a video statement. “The hypocrisy of South Africa screams to the heavens.”
The case strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity and goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
More than 23,000 people in Gaza have died during the military campaign, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court,” South African lawyer Adila Hassim told the judges in a packed room of the Peace Palace in The Hague.
A decision on South Africa’s request for “provisional measures” will probably take weeks and the full case is likely to last years.
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Hamas condemns US-UK strikes in Yemen
Hamas said on Friday it strongly condemns the US-UK overnight attacks against Houthi military targets in Yemen, reports Reuters, citing a statement released by the group.
The US and the UK will bear the responsibility for their attack’s impacts on the security of the region, the group warned.
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US-UK strikes in Yemen were an act of self defence, says UK junior defence minister
Overnight strikes against Houthi military targets in Yemen by the UK and the US were an act of self-defence, Britain’s armed forces minister James Heappey told Times Radio on Friday.
The UK junior defence minister said the Royal Navy continues to want to protect shipping and that more action would be considered on an indiviual basis, reports Reuters. He would not confirm whether more strikes were planned but said that the warning to the Houthis remained in place, stating: “We’ll see over the course of the next few days whether the attacks stop.”
“Our action and the action of the Americans last night was in self-defence in order to defend against further attacks on our warships as they go about their legal and reasonable business,” Heappey said. “Of course we have an eye on the need to make sure it doesn’t cause a regional escalation,” he added.
Heappey described the strikes as a proportionate response to the crisis in the Red Sea. There was a need to see whether commercial shipping feels reassured, he said, adding that there would be an opportunity when parliament returns for the issue to be debated.
He also said that it was the case that Iranian aligned grouping across the Middle East have been very active in the last two months.
Asked about criticism from some political opponents that parliament was not given the chance to discuss the military intervention in advance, Heappey said:
The prime minister needs to make decisions such as these based on the military, strategic and operational requirements – that led to the timing. Obviously parliament is not scheduled to speak today, but there will be an opportunity when parliament returns for these things to be fully discussed and debated.
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Summary of the day so far
It’s 10am in Sana’a and 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are the latest key developments:
The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against targets linked to Houthis in Yemen. It’s the first time strikes have been launched against the Iran-backed group since it started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year.
Yemen’s Houthis spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam has posted on X that the group will continue targeting ships heading towards Israel and that there was no justification for the US-Britain attack on Yemen, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Houthi deputy foreign minister, Hussein Al-Ezzi, has warned of a “heavy price” to be paid by the US and the UK, according to official Houthi media: “Our country was subjected to a massive aggressive attack by American and British ships, submarines and warplanes … America and Britain will have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression”, he said.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, has issued a statement saying that the country strongly condemns the US-Britain attack on Yemen’s Houthis, Nournews reports. He says “We consider it a clear violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a breach of international laws, regulations, and rights.”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has also reacted on Friday to the strikes and condemned them.
Russia says it has requested an urgent meeting of the UN security council to discuss the military strikes in Yemen by the United States and Britain.
The US air force says it struck “over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations, including command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defence radar systems”. It also says more than 100 precision-guided munitions of various types were used in the strikes.
The US president has released a statement on the strikes – where he highlights the countries involved in the military action – including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands. Joe Biden said: These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes. I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.
Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has also released a statement on the military action, describing it as “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence” and saying that the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain offered “non-operational support”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement that “particular care was taken to minimise any risks to civilians” and that “early indications are that the Houthis’ ability to threaten merchant shipping has taken a blow”
Ten countries were involved in the strikes, according to a joint statement released by the White House from the government’s of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, and the United States saying they will “not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways”.
Saudi Arabia says it is monitoring situation with “great concern”. The kingdom’s foreign ministry has told Reuters news agency it is calling for restraint and “avoiding escalation” in light of the strikes launched by the United States and Britain.
Israel is set to respond and present its defence at the international court of justice. South Africa has filed a lawsuit with the UN’s top court asking judges to impose emergency measures ordering Israel to immediately halt the Gaza offensive, alleging that Israel’s actions in the war there amount to genocide. Israel rejects the accusations of genocide as baseless and said South Africa was acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas. Israel says its military is targeting Hamas militants, not Palestinian civilians.
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Regional reaction to the strikes in Yemen has continued to come in as well.
An adviser to Iraq’s prime minister, Fadi Al-Shammari, is warning that the west is expanding the conflict between Israel and Hamas and increasing tensions in the region, Reuters reports, citing the state news agency (INA).
It follows comments from Yemen’s neighbour Saudi Arabia that it was following events with “great concern”.
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There’s been more reaction coming through from members of Yemen’s Houthi group.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthi supreme political council, has posted on X and described the strikes by the US and the UK as “barbaric”.
He also added that a statement will be issued soon in response to the attacks.
الضربات الأمريكية البريطانية همجية ارهابية وهي عدوان متعمد وغير مبرر ويعكس نفسية متوحشة
— محمد علي الحوثي (@Moh_Alhouthi) January 12, 2024
وتؤكد بهذه الضربات من جديد انهما همامن يدير العدوان على #غزة كما هي تديرها على #اليمن
وأنها تحمي الإرهاب الإسرائيلي كونها هي الإرهاب وإسرائيل جزء منه
ان ما قامت به اعتداء صارخ وغير مبرر…
As the scenes in the Red Sea play out between the UK, the US and the Houthis in Yemen – the Israel-Gaza war is continuing.
In under three hours at 10am local time in The Hague, Israel will respond to accusations brought by South Africa at the UN’s top court.
South Africa is alleging that military operations in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign aimed at wiping out the Palestinian population, Reuters reports.
South Africa, which filed the lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December, asked judges on Thursday to impose emergency measures ordering Israel to immediately halt the offensive.
Israel rejects the accusations of genocide as baseless and said South Africa was acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas, which it views as a terrorist organisation seeking to eliminate Israel. Its military was targeting Hamas militants, not Palestinian civilians, it said.
The court is expected to rule on possible emergency measures later this month, but will not rule at that time on the genocide allegations – those proceedings could instead take years.
When Joe Biden gave the order for airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, he was taking a step that now imperils one of the primary aims of his own Middle East policy – to prevent a regional war.
US and allied officials argue he had little choice. Diplomacy, back-door channels, signalling and threats had failed to halt relentless Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which the Iranian-backed group has claimed are being carried out in solidarity with Gaza.
Container ships have been forced to reroute all the way around Africa, raising global transport costs and threatening to reverse the gains the Biden administration has made against inflation, just as his re-election campaign gets going.
Since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and the ferocious Israeli response against Gaza, the Biden administration has worked hard to contain the conflict, persuading the Israelis for example, not to carry out an all-out pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon. That has worked for now, but preventing escalation in the Red Sea is proving even harder.
Read the rest of our world affairs editor Julian Borger’s analysis on this developing story here:
Russia requests UN security council meeting
Russia says it has requested an urgent meeting of the UN security council to discuss the military strikes in Yemen by the United States and Britain.
Russia’s permanent mission to the United Nations told Reuters:
Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on January 12 in connection with the U.S. and UK strikes on Yemen
The United States and Britain launched strikes from the air and sea against Houthi military targets in Yemen in what’s been described as a dramatic regional widening of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
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Hezbollah condemns US-UK strikes in Yemen
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
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Iran condemns the strikes in Yemen
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani has issued a statement saying that the country strongly condemns the US-Britain attack on Yemen’s Houthis, Nournews reports.
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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Houthi spokesperson says group will continue to target ships
Yemen’s Houthis spokesperson said on Friday there was no justification for the US-Britain attack on Yemen, according to the Reuters news agency.
Mohammed Abdulsalam has posted on X that the group will continue targeting ships heading towards Israel.
The United States and Britain launched strikes from the air and sea against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the group’s attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
The US air force says it struck “over 60 targets at 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations, including command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems.”
In a statement on their website, the air force goes into more detail:
Over 100 precision-guided munitions of various types were used in the strikes. These strikes were comprised of coalition air and maritime strike and support assets from across the region, including U.S. Naval Forces Central Command aircraft and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles launched from surface and sub-surface platforms.
Houthi Deputy Foreign Minister issues warning to US and UK
There has been some more reaction coming out of Yemen. Friday’s strikes targeted an airbase, airports and a military camp, according to the Houthi rebels’ Al-Masirah TV station, Agence France-Presse reports.
AFP correspondents and witnesses also reported they could hear bombardments.
According to official Houthi media, the Houthi Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Ezzi said:
Our country was subjected to a massive aggressive attack by American and British ships, submarines and warplanes …
America and Britain will have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression
Unverified images on social media, some of them purportedly of Al-Dailami airbase north of Sana’a, showed explosions lighting up the sky as loud bangs and the roar of planes sounded, AFP reports.
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The US central command have also posted on X about the Yemen strikes. They say:
This multinational action targeted radar systems, air defense systems, and storage and launch sites for one way attack unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.
Centcom also highlights that the action was separate to Operation Prosperity Guardian, a naval coalition operating in the Red Sea:
These strikes have no association with and are separate from Operation Prosperity Guardian, a defensive coalition of over 20 countries operating in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and Gulf of Aden.
Gen Michael Erik Kurilla, the USCentcom Commander says of the Houthis:
Their illegal and dangerous actions will not be tolerated, and they will be held accountable.
On Jan. 11 at 2:30 a.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command forces, in coordination with the United Kingdom, and support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain conducted joint strikes on Houthi targets to degrade their capability to continue their illegal and… pic.twitter.com/bR8biMolSx
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 12, 2024
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The US central command have now released images of their operation against military targets in Yemen:
There are very few images coming out of Yemen so far. But here is one we’ve received. It shows a fire in Sana’a, but it’s not confirmed if this is as a result of the US and UK joint strikes.
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US and Britain launch air and missile strikes on Yemen's Houthis
The US and Britain launched air and missile strikes in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, aimed at halting attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Washington and London have announced.
Joe Biden, the US president, said American and British forces, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands were involved in the overnight attack, which appeared to target a dozen sites in the country.
In a statement, Biden said: “These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea – including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history.
“These attacks have endangered US personnel, civilian mariners, and our partners, jeopardised trade, and threatened freedom of navigation.”
Biden also said he would be willing to authorise further attacks on Yemen if Houthi attacks on shipping did not stop. “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary,” he said.
Houthi forces claimed to have instantly retaliated against western warships, but a senior US military official said late on Thursday night no Houthi response had so far materialised.
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Welcome and opening summary
Hello and welcome to our latest blog on the Middle East crisis. It’s currently 7:21am in Sana’a and 6:21am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against targets linked to Houthis in Yemen. It’s the first time strikes have been launched against the Iran-backed group since it started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest events so far:
An official from Yemen’s Houthis has reacted to the bombings on X. Abdul Qader al-Mortada said: American-Zionist-British aggression against Yemen launches several raids on the capital, Sanaa, Hodeidah governorate, Saada, and Dhamar
The US and British militaries have used warship-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets in the strikes, several US officials told the Associated Press. The military targets include logistical hubs, air defence systems and weapons storage locations.
US president Joe Biden has released a statement on the strikes – where he highlights the countries involved in the military action – including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands. Biden said: These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes. I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.
Britian’s prime minister Rishi Sunak has also released a statement on the military action, describing it as “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence” and saying that the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain offered “non-operational support”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement that “particular care was taken to minimise any risks to civilians” and that “early indications are that the Houthis’ ability to threaten merchant shipping has taken a blow”
Ten countries were involved in the strikes, according to a joint statement released by the White House from the government’s of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, United Kingdom, and the United States saying they will “not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways”.
Saudi Arabia says it is monitoring situation with “great concern”. The kingdom’s foreign ministry has told Reuters news agency it is calling for restraint and “avoiding escalation” in light of the strikes launched by the United States and Britain.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin says the US is prepared to take “follow-on” action to protect US forces, Reuters reports. Austin is in hospital due to surgery complications.
Some Democrats have reacted to the military strikes saying that the president should be coming to Congress first before taking action , US representative Ro Khanna from California says “The President needs to come to Congress before launching a strike against the Houthis in Yemen and involving us in another Middle East conflict.
But US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnel was in support of the action, although he said it was “overdue”
Australia has commented on its part on the strikes in Yemen. Defence minister Richard Marles says that Australia provided personnel support to the US and UK in their strikes.
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