We are now closing the live blog. Here is a summary of events today:
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was due to arrive in the region on Sunday. He is expected to spend the week visiting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank, to discuss efforts to reach a deal to secure the freedom of at least 136 remaining hostages in Gaza, and a ceasefire intended to calm regional tensions particularly in the Red Sea. The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said humanitarian issues in Gaza would be a top priority for Blinken during the trip.
Separately, Jake Sullivan said there would be more steps in the American response to the Jordan drone attack that killed three soldiers last weekend. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, he was quoted as saying: “We intend to take additional strikes, and additional action, to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, when our people are killed.” “What happened on Friday was the beginning, not the end, of our response, and there will be more steps – some seen, some perhaps unseen,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign,” he added.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told the Wall Street Journal that the US president, Joe Biden, had not given Israel sufficient support to its war in Gaza. “Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir told the newspaper in an article published on Sunday. “If (former US president Donald) Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné said he rejects the “forced displacement” of Palestinians into Egypt from the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment has pushed hundreds of thousands against the border, AFP reports.
Israel’s army said on Sunday its forces had raided a Hamas training facility in Gaza where militants prepared for the 7 October attack on Israel. The facility in the Palestinian territory’s main southern city of Khan Younis contained models of Israeli military bases, armoured vehicles, as well as entry points to kibbutzim, the army said in a statement. Soldiers also raided the office of Mohammad Sinwar, a senior commander in Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, it added.
There has been reaction to the strikes launched by US and Britain late on Saturday. The two nations launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems, launchers and other capabilities the Houthis have used to attack Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said. These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said in a statement. Hamas warned the attacks would bring “further turmoil” to the Middle East. The Palestinian militant group called the bombing of Houthi rebel targets “a blatant assault on the sovereignty of a sister Arab country, and an escalation that will drag the region into further turmoil”. David Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, posted to X on Sunday morning that the Houthi attacks on international shipping “must stop”, saying “their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk”.
The head of Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi alliance demanded the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from the country after deadly strikes, AFP reported. “They targeted administration offices, a (Hashed) hospital, they struck forces tasked with protecting the borders,” Faleh al-Fayyad said at a funeral ceremony for members of the group killed in the US strikes. “Targeting the Hashed al-Shaabi is playing with fire,” he warned. On Friday, US strikes in the west of Iraq struck positions staffed by pro-Iran groups, in response to an attack in January on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. An estimated 127 Palestinian people were killed and 178 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Updated
A 30-year-old Arab-Israeli woman married to a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip has recalled how she fled Israel’s bombardment of the territory with her 18-month-old and four-year-old children, terrified they would run out of fuel.
“We feared that the gas wouldn’t be enough,” she told AFP. “The road was deserted. All the way along, we saw devastated houses.”
Fatima, who was speaking under a pseudonym, left on the “very perilous” journey from al-Qarara in southern Gaza to the Rafah crossing with Egypt on 14 November.
She initially hesitated to leave her husband, but he encouraged her to go to protect their children.
After hours of waiting, a bus took them across the Sinai desert to the Egyptian town of Taba, before reaching Eilat, on Israel’s Red Sea coast.
The 48-hour trip was organised by the Israeli human rights organisations Gisha and HaMoked, which have evacuated 71 Arab Israelis so far.
She described a journey filled with anxiety and under bombardment. Once in Eilat, she and everyone else over the age of 16 spent hours being questioned and searched.
Fatima said she was interrogated about her relatives, the situation in the Gaza Strip and whether she knew anything about Hamas tunnels and headquarters in the territory.
“They questioned me about my view on 7 October, about my husband and his work,” she said. “They ordered me to open my phone to examine my photos, calls and messages.”
In Gaza, Fatima said she had endured “electricity cuts, water cuts and deserted businesses”.
She survived “36 days thanks to canned food and drinking salty water. The solar panels were barely enough to charge the phones.”
Fatima is now living in an Arab town in Israel, but said it was difficult starting a new life, with her children “scared by the sound of every plane or thunder”.
Updated
Israel’s army said on Sunday its forces had raided a Hamas training facility in Gaza where militants prepared for the 7 October attack on Israel.
The facility in the Palestinian territory’s main southern city of Khan Younis contained models of Israeli military bases, armoured vehicles, as well as entry points to kibbutzim, the army said in a statement.
Soldiers also raided the office of Mohammad Sinwar, a senior commander in Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, it added.
He is also the brother of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza who is believed to be the mastermind behind the October 7 attack.
During the raid on the al-Qadisiya compound in Khan Younis, the forces encountered several militants who fired at them, the army said.
The militants were “neutralised” by sniper fire, tank shelling and air strikes, it added.
Updated
Here are some images coming to us over the wires:
Updated
Canada will impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who incite violence in the West Bank and will introduce new sanctions on Hamas leaders, the foreign minister, Melanie Joly, said on Sunday, after the US took similar action last week.
In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp on Sunday, Joly, who has been in Ukraine, said some settlers “will be sanctioned” and “we will also bring new sanctions on Hamas leaders”.
She added:
We’re working actively on it. I’m making sure that while I’m in Ukraine, the work is being done in Ottawa and I look forward to doing an announcement soon.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Friday said he was considering imposing sanctions on “extremist” settlers in the West Bank, Reuters reports.
Updated
France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, said he rejected the “forced displacement” of Palestinians into Egypt from the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment has pushed hundreds of thousands towards the border, AFP reports.
At the start of his Middle East tour, (see earlier at 13.56) Séjourné addressed his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, in a joint press conference, acknowledging Cairo’s concern about the issue.
“We perfectly understand these concerns, and on this point, France’s position remains the same: we condemn and will reject any action taken in this direction,” he said.
Asked about France’s plans to recognise a Palestinian state, the minister said the step would mark “the finalisation of a political process”.
That process, he said, “must lead to this, that’s the logic”.
“The whole question is when, at what moment and under what conditions,” he continued, adding that Gaza would be “attached to the future Palestinian state”.
Updated
Continued US-UK aggression in Yemen will not affect Yemen’s decision to show its support for Gaza, Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said in a statement, after a third wave of US and UK strikes hit 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday night.
Abdulsalam added that it will not be easy to destroy Yemeni military capabilities, Reuters reports.
The Iran-backed militant group has repeatedly launched attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and elsewhere off the Yemen coast, claiming it is targeting Israeli or Israel-destined ships in protest over Israel’s war in Gaza.
However, it has frequently targeted ships with tenuous or no clear links to Israel.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was due to arrive in the region on Sunday. He is expected to spend the week visiting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank, to discuss efforts to reach a deal to secure the freedom of at least 136 remaining hostages in Gaza, and a ceasefire intended to calm regional tensions particularly in the Red Sea. The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said humanitarian issues in Gaza would be a top priority for Blinken during the trip.
Separately, Jake Sullivan said there would be more steps in the American response to the Jordan drone attack that killed three soldiers last weekend. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, he was quoted as saying: “We intend to take additional strikes, and additional action, to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, when our people are killed.” “What happened on Friday was the beginning, not the end, of our response, and there will be more steps – some seen, some perhaps unseen,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign,” he added.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told the Wall Street Journal that the US president, Joe Biden, had not given Israel sufficient support to its war in Gaza. “Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir told the newspaper in an article published on Sunday. “If Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
The US and Britain have launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, in the second day of major US operations against Iran-linked groups after a deadly attack on American troops last weekend. The strikes late on Saturday hit buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems, launchers and other capabilities the Houthis have used to attack Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said. These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said in a statement. Hamas warned the attacks would bring “further turmoil” to the Middle East. The Palestinian militant group called the bombing of Houthi rebel targets “a blatant assault on the sovereignty of a sister Arab country, and an escalation that will drag the region into further turmoil”. David Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, posted to X on Sunday morning that the Houthi attacks on international shipping “must stop”, saying “their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk”.
The head of Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi alliance demanded the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from the country after deadly strikes, AFP reported. “They targeted administration offices, a (Hashed) hospital, they struck forces tasked with protecting the borders,” Faleh al-Fayyad said at a funeral ceremony for members of the group killed in the US strikes. “Targeting the Hashed al-Shaabi is playing with fire,” he warned. On Friday, US strikes in the west of Iraq struck positions staffed by pro-Iran groups, in response to an attack in January on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. An estimated 127 Palestinian people were killed and 178 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Updated
US plans more strikes in Middle East against Iran-backed groups - national security adviser
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said there would be more steps in the American response to the Jordan drone attack that killed three soldiers last weekend.
Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, Sullivan was quoted as saying:
We intend to take additional strikes, and additional action, to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, when our people are killed.
“What happened on Friday was the beginning, not the end, of our response, and there will be more steps – some seen, some perhaps unseen,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign,” he added.
The comments come after an air assault by the US in Iraq and Syria on Friday that attacked more than 80 targets on sites belonging to Iran-linked militias and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Humanitarian issues in Gaza will be a top priority for the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on his trip to the region, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said.
Blinken is expected to spend the week visiting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank, to discuss efforts to reach a deal to secure the freedom of at least 136 remaining hostages in Gaza, and a ceasefire intended to calm regional tensions particularly in the Red Sea.
His French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, has travelled to Egypt (see earlier post at 13.56 for more details).
“The needs of the Palestinian people are something that are going to be front and centre,” Sullivan told CBS’s Face the Nation.
The overwhelming majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are displaced, according to the UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), with more than half the territory’s population now crowding into makeshift camps and on to the streets of Rafah city.
The US believed it was vital to secure a deal to release the remaining hostages Hamas took during its attack, including American hostages, and an accompanying humanitarian pause, Sullivan added.
“This is in the national security interest of the United States. We are going to press for it relentlessly,” Sullivan said. “So this is a paramount priority for us.”
The ball was in Hamas’s court when it came to such a deal, Sullivan said, noting that the Israelis had put forth a proposal.
Updated
Israel's national security minister says Biden administration is hampering Israel’s war effort
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told the Wall Street Journal that the US president, Joe Biden, had not given Israel sufficient support to its war in Gaza.
“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir told the newspaper in an article published on Sunday.
“If (former US president Donald) Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to respond to the interview ahead of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, saying:
We greatly appreciate the support that we have received from the Biden administration since the outbreak of the war.
I don’t need help to know how to navigate our relations with the US and the international community, while standing firm on our national interests.
We make our own decisions, even in those cases where there is no agreement with our American friends.
Benny Gantz, a retired general who joined the emergency wartime government formed by Netanyahu after the 7 October Hamas attacks, wrote on X that Ben-Gvir’s attacks on Biden “harm the strategic relations of the state of Israel, the security of the state and the war effort at this time”.
מותר שיהיו מחלוקות, גם עם בת בריתנו הגדולה והחשובה ביותר, אך עליהן להתנהל בפורומים הרלוונטים ולא בהתבטאויות חסרות אחריות בתקשורת, שפוגעות ביחסים האסטרטגיים של מדינת ישראל, בביטחון המדינה ובמאמץ המלחמתי בעת הזו.
— בני גנץ - Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) February 4, 2024
ראש הממשלה צריך לקרוא לסדר את השר לבט״פ, שבמקום לטפל בסוגיות ביטחון…
Updated
France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, has visited Egypt in his first stop on a tour of the Middle East.
He wrote on X that he had met Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and reiterated France’s commitment to “a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and a relaunch of the two-state political solution”.
Pour ma première visite au Proche-Orient, j’ai tenu à me rendre d’abord en Égypte, partenaire stratégique de la France.
— Stéphane Séjourné (@steph_sejourne) February 4, 2024
Au Président @AlsisiOfficial, j’ai rappelé notre engagement pour un cessez-le-feu humanitaire à Gaza et une relance de la solution politique à deux États. pic.twitter.com/XOqKOO3I2b
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The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, wrote on X that “last night Royal Air Force Typhoons successfully took out specific Houthi military targets in Yemen”.
He also described recent attacks on UK and international vessels in the Red Sea as unacceptable.
Last night, @RoyalAirForce Typhoons successfully took out specific Houthi military targets in Yemen, further degrading the Houthis’ capabilities.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) February 4, 2024
Recent attacks on UK and international vessels are unacceptable. It’s our duty to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom. pic.twitter.com/AV1a22G8QM
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An AFP journalist has reported strikes and tank fire on Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, with some air raids also hitting nearby Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza.
In Khan Younis, overnight Israeli shelling killed three Palestinians, medics said. Residents reported street fighting raging in western and southern areas of the city, where Israel said a soldier was killed in a Palestinian attack on Saturday.
Gaza residents have said Israeli forces have pounded areas around hospitals in Khan Younis and stepped up attacks close to Rafah (there is nowhere farther south for civilians to go as Israel and Egypt will not let them leave the territory).
Updated
A Palestinian doctor says Israeli forces in Gaza detained him when they overran a hospital and subjected him to abuse during 45 days of captivity including sleep deprivation and constant shackling and blindfolding before releasing him last week, Reuters reports.
Dr Said Abdulrahman Maarouf was working at al-Ahli al-Arab hospital in Gaza City when it was surrounded by Israeli forces in December.
He described having his hands cuffed, his legs shackled and his eyes masked for the nearly seven-week duration of his imprisonment. He said he was told to sleep in places that were covered with pebbles without a mattress, pillow or cover and with loud music blaring.
Israel’s military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment after more than a day but said it would have a statement later. It has previously denied targeting or abusing civilians and accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military operations, which Hamas denies.
Hamas warns US-UK strikes on Yemen will bring 'further turmoil' to the Middle East
Hamas has condemned a wave of US and British strikes on Yemen, warning the attacks would bring “further turmoil” to the Middle East.
The Palestinian militant group called the bombing of Houthi rebel targets “a blatant assault on the sovereignty of a sister Arab country, and an escalation that will drag the region into further turmoil”.
The US and Britain launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, in the second day of major US operations against Iran-linked groups after a deadly attack on American troops last weekend.
Summary of the day so far...
The US and Britain have launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, in the second day of major US operations against Iran-linked groups after a deadly attack on American troops last weekend. The strikes late on Saturday hit buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems, launchers and other capabilities the Houthis have used to attack Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said. These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said in a statement. David Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, posted to X on Sunday morning that the Houthi attacks on international shipping “must stop”, saying “their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk”.
The head of Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi alliance demanded the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from the country after deadly strikes, AFP reported. “They targeted administration offices, a (Hashed) hospital, they struck forces tasked with protecting the borders,” Faleh al-Fayyad said at a funeral ceremony for members of the group killed in the US strikes. “Targeting the Hashed al-Shaabi is playing with fire,” he warned. On Friday, US strikes in the west of Iraq struck positions staffed by pro-Iran groups, in response to an attack in January on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. An estimated 127 Palestinian people were killed and 178 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Stéphane Séjourné began his first Middle East trip as foreign minister, aimed at pushing for a ceasefire and hostage release, a ministry spokesperson said, with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also expected in the region in the coming days.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators have already presented Hamas with the first concrete proposal for an extended halt to fighting, which was agreed with Israel and the US at talks in Paris in late January.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters the text envisages a first phase of 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed remaining civilians among the more than 100 hostages it still holds.
Further phases would reportedly see the handover of Israeli soldiers and bodies of dead hostages.
Updated
Iraq's pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi alliance demands withdrawal of US-led coalition from Iraq
The head of Iraq’s pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi alliance has demanded the withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from the country after deadly strikes.
AFP reports:
“They targeted administration offices, a (Hashed) hospital, they struck forces tasked with protecting the borders,” Faleh al-Fayyad said at a funeral ceremony for members of the group killed in the US strikes.
“Targeting the Hashed al-Shaabi is playing with fire,” he warned.
On Friday, US strikes in the west of Iraq struck positions staffed by pro-Iran groups, in response to an attack in January on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
The Hashed al-Shaabi, mainly pro-Iran paramilitaries now integrated into Iraq’s regular security forces, said 16 of its fighters were killed in Friday’s strikes and 36 people wounded.
“We urge the prime minister to do everything in his power to defend the sovereignty and dignity of Iraq. And this can only be done with the departure of all coalition forces from Iraq,” Fayyad said.
The US-led coalition was set up in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group that had seized swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, and Hashed had contributed to the defeat of the jihadists in Iraq.
There are roughly 2,500 US troops deployed in Iraq and about 900 in Syria as part of the coalition.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
David Cameron: Houthi attacks on international shipping must stop
David Cameron, the UK’s foreign secretary, said the Houthi attacks on international shipping “must stop” after the UK joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.
The former Conservative prime minister said the third wave of joint UK and US airstrikes on Saturday took place after “repeated warnings” for the rebel militant group to cease.
He wrote on X: “We have issued repeated warnings to the Houthis. Their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk, threatening the freedom of navigation and destabilising the region. The Houthi attacks must stop.”
The UK and the US have carried out further strikes on Houthi military targets.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) February 4, 2024
We have issued repeated warnings to the Houthis.
Their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk, threatening the freedom of navigation and destabilising the region.
The Houthi…
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Death toll in Gaza reaches 27,365, says health ministry
A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
An estimated 127 Palestinian people were killed and 178 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
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Iran says Yemen strikes 'contradict' US-UK policy of wanting to avoid a wider Middle East conflict
Iran has denounced the latest US and UK strikes on targets in Yemen, saying they “contradict” their declared intention of avoiding a wider Middle East conflict, AFP reports.
These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanani, said in a statement.
He accused the US and Britain of “fuelling chaos, disorder, insecurity and instability” by supporting Israel in its war in Gaza.
Further strikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in response to the group’s attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea is “a threat to international peace and security”, Kanani added.
On Saturday, the US and the UK struck dozens of targets in Yemen over Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which the rebels say are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The previous day, the US military struck targets in Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for a January 28 drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed to have found AK-47 rifles, RPGs, ammunition, military equipment and “technological assets” in a compound in the southern city of Khan Younis.
During the operations, an IDF fighter jet struck an Islamic Jihad sniper, according to the IDF.
In Northern Gaza, the IDF said its soldiers located 7 AK-47 rifles, three pistols, military equipment, ammunition and grenades, with its jets striking “a number of Hamas terrorist targets”.
IDF operations continue in Gaza:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 4, 2024
📍Khan Yunis
IDF troops operated within a compound and located AK-47 rifles, ammunition, military equipment, and technological assets. Additionally, troops also located RPGs inside of terrorist’s residences.
An IDF fighter jet struck an Islamic…
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Oman’s foreign minister, Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi, told the Oman news agency that the escalation in the region continues without a solution to “the unjust war” on Gaza and the death of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, according to Al Jazeera.
He reportedly said recognising the independent Palestinian state and Israel withdrawing it soldiers from the occupied Palestinian territory are ways that could help stop the war.
Israeli forces in Gaza have systematically destroyed buildings in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside the Palestinian territory raising fears over the civilian cost, according to experts and rights groups who spoke to AFP.
The plan, not publicly confirmed by Israel, appears to entail taking a significant chunk of territory out of the already tiny Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, something experts as well as Israel’s foreign allies have warned against.
Since Hamas militants stormed across the border on 7 October, Israeli forces have targeted structures in Gaza within a kilometre of the border, said Adi Ben Nun, a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem who has carried out an analysis of satellite imagery.
More than 30% of all buildings in that area have been damaged or destroyed during the war, he said.
“We are seeing mounting evidence that Israel appears to be rendering large parts of Gaza unlivable,” said Nadia Hardman, a refugee rights expert at Human Rights Watch.
“One very clear example of that may be the buffer zone – this may amount to a war crime.”
The Israeli military declined to comment on the buffer zone.
Houthis vow response after US and UK joint strike
Yemen’s Houthis said US and British airstrikes “will not deter us” and vowed a response after dozens of targets were hit in retaliation for the Iran-backed rebels’ repeated Red Sea attacks, AFP reports.
The joint air raids in Yemen late Saturday followed a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria in response to a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan.
Saturday’s strikes hit “36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” the United States, Britain and other countries that provided support for the operation said in a statement.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes “are intended to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia to conduct their reckless and destabilising attacks.”
Neither Austin nor the joint statement identified the specific places that were hit, but Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the capital Sana’a and other rebel-held areas were targeted.
Saree reported a total of 48 airstrikes, and said on X that “these attacks will not deter us from our … stance in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” where Israel’s war in Gaza has raged since early October.
The latest strikes “will not pass without response and punishment,” Saree said.
Updated
Scores killed across Gaza in overnight strikes
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said early Sunday that at least 92 people had been killed overnight, as the group considers a proposal that would halt its war with Israel in the besieged Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
Hamas’ media office said the strikes included an Israeli bombardment of a kindergarten in Rafah where displaced people were sheltering.
International mediators are making a full-court press to seal a proposed truce deal thrashed out last week in Paris.
But a top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said on Saturday that the proposed framework was missing some details.
Hamas needed more time to “announce our position”, Hamdan said, “based on … our desire to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer”.
US and Britain launch strikes against dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen
The United States and Britain struck at least 30 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in another wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have attacked US and international interests in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
Ships and fighter jets on Saturday launched strikes against the Houthis. It followed an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday targeting other Iran-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three US troops – William Jerome Rivers, Kennedy Ladon Sanders and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett – in Jordan last weekend.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the military action “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”
For more on this story:
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the Middle East crisis, I’m Yang Tian bringing you the latest news.
The US and Britain launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen on Saturday, in the second day of major operations against Iran-linked groups after a deadly attack on American troops.
The latest strikes marked the third time the US and Britain had conducted a large, joint operation to strike Houthi launchers, radar sites and drones.
More details soon, in other developments:
The US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, issued a statement on the new strikes in Yemen. He said the military action “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels”.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, also issued a statement, saying the strikes were “proportionate and targeted”. He stressed they were not an escalation, adding: “I am confident that our latest strikes have further degraded the Houthis’ capabilities.”
Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, supported by Voyager tankers, carried out the strikes against Houthi locations in Yemen. The Typhoons used Paveway IV precision-guided bombs against several military targets. An MoD statement said a ground control station at as-Salif, west of Sana’a, which was used to control Houthi drones, was hit. It adds that the aircraft also attacked targets at Bani.
A spokesperson for the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, warned that the US reprisal strikes in Syria and Iraq will have disastrous consequences for the region. Iraq’s Anbar Operations Command reported 16 fatalities and 25 injuries, but no official death toll has been issued. A senior US administration official has said Iraq was given short-notice warning that the US would strike. The Baghdad government dismissed the assertions as “lies”.
The UN security council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon on the US strikes in Iraq and Syria, according to reports. The meeting, requested by UN permanent member Russia, will take place at 4pm Eastern time (2100 GMT) on Monday, it has been reported.
The Syrian military said on Saturday that the US occupation of Syrian territory “cannot continue” after Washington carried out the deadly strikes. Syria’s defence ministry said the “blatant air aggression” of US forces led to a number of civilians and soldiers being killed, others being wounded and some significant damage to public and private property.
Israeli forces struck densely populated areas across the middle and southern Gaza Strip in a midnight attack on Friday and early Saturday, killing at least 25 people, the Palestinian health ministry said. Israeli fighter jets struck Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, as well as the city of Rafah in the south. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said at least 107 people had been killed and 165 injured overnight. At least 27,238 Palestinians have been killed and 66,452 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry.
A senior Hamas official has confirmed it has received a framework for a ceasefire proposal in the Israel-Gaza war, but said a final agreement has not yet been reached. “We will announce our position” soon, Osama Hamdan said at a news conference in Beirut on Saturday. Qatari officials, who are mediating the talks along with Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, expressed newfound optimism throughout this week that an agreement was in sight.
