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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