Photograph: Yahya Arhab/EPA
Closing summary
The US and Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are both vowing escalation after the US launched a wave of deadly airstrikes on Saturday with the stated aim of deterring the rebel group from attacking Red Sea shipping. Officials said 53 people had been killed including “five children and two women”, and that 98 people had been injured.
The Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and the al Jawf governorate, north of the capital Sana’a, were said to have been targeted by fresh US airstrikes on Monday. In the early hours of Monday morning, the Houthi rebels said they had carried out two missile and drone attacks in 24 hours that included targeting the USS Harry S Truman, an American aircraft carrier, in the Red Sea. These claims have not been confirmed on the record by Washington.
US President Donald Trump warned on Monday afternoon that Iran will be held responsible and face “dire” consequences for any further attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
Tens of thousands of people protested in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen on Monday following the deadly US attacks. Many demonstrators waved placards and assault rifles, chanting “death to America, death to Israel”, at a huge protest in the capital Sana’a, while rallies were also held in Saada, Dhamar, Hodeida and Amran.
Iran will respond to Trump’s invitation to talks after proper scrutiny, the foreign ministry said on Monday, accusing Washington of not matching actions with words.
An Israeli air strike killed three Palestinian men – all from the same family – in Gaza on Monday as they tried to gather firewood, medics said. Later on Monday, medics said an Israeli air strike killed a father and his son inside a school sheltering displaced families in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp, near the site of the earlier airstrikes, raising the day’s death toll to at least five. There have been many more reports of Palestinians being killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, came into effect on 19 January.
Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles continue to be positioned around the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. Wafa correspondents are reporting that Israeli bulldozers are levelling streets and widening others to allow for the entry of more military vehicles.
Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he will seek to dismiss the director of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, through a cabinet vote later this week, in a move that will prompt further accusations of authoritarianism. The Israeli prime minister said in a video statement on Sunday that “ongoing distrust” made it impossible for him to continue to work with Ronen Bar, who has led Shin Bet since 2021.
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Updated
Iran will be held responsible and face 'dire' consequences for any further Houthi attacks, Trump says
Donald Trump has said Iran will be held responsible and face “dire” consequences for any further attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The US president said in a post on Truth Social:
Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN. Any further attack or retaliation by the “Houthis” will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there. Iran has played “the innocent victim” of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control. They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, “Intelligence.” Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!
His comments come as US officials say airstrikes launched against Houthis will continue indefinitely, after a first round on Saturday killed at least 53 people and injured almost 100 more. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Sunday that his group would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues its attacks on Yemen.
In response to the deadly American airstrikes, the Houthis have subsequently claimed responsibility for two attacks on the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman and several American warships in the Red Sea, though these reports have not been confirmed by the US.
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