Houthis say they targeted US ship in Gulf of Aden Yemen’s Houthis have said they targeted the US Genco Picardy bulk carrier with missiles which resulted in a “direct hit”. A statement by the Houthi group spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, reads: The naval forces will not hesitate to target all sources of threat in the Red and Arabian sea within the legitimate right to defend Yemen and to continue supporting the oppressed Palestinian people. Médecins Sans Frontières has said patients and displaced civilians were forced to “flee in panic” last night after Israeli forces carried out heavy bombardment close to a hospital in southern Gaza without prior evacuation orders. In a series of social media posts, the medical charity said it was concerned for the safety of the staff and patients at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. Léo Cans, MSF head of mission for Palestine, described the situation at the hospital as “catastrophic”, adding that the fighting was “very close. We hear bombings around and a lot of shooting.” Qatar confirms medicine and aid for hostages and civilians entered Gaza A shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians has entered the Gaza Strip, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed. Posting to social media, Majed Al Ansari said medicine and aid “for the benefit of civilians in the Strip, including hostages” had entered the territory on Wednesday under a deal announced on Tuesday. The agreement, mediated by Qatar and France, marked the first significant progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since December, when a short-lived ceasefire collapsed. Aid trucks carrying medicine and humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza have entered through the Karm Abu Salem crossing on Wednesday. Israel bars doctors from speaking to UN investigators about 7 October attacks Doctors have been instructed by Israel’s health ministry not to speak with UN representatives investigating the Hamas attacks on 7 October. Members of the UN independent international commission of inquiry, in areas including East Jerusalem and Israel, had been contacting senior physicians and hospital staff who treated the 7 October victims, requesting information and interviews for its investigation into potential war crimes committed since 7 October. But Israel’s health ministry has issued directives prohibiting doctors and healthcare workers from cooperating with members of the UN committee, claiming that the committee is anti-Israel, according to Israeli media reports on Tuesday. Israel’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat, confirmed to NBC News today that healthcare workers have been told not to cooperate with the UN committee. He said: The commission of inquiry is there to investigate Israel without any time limits, unlike any other commission of inquiry from the UN system. Furthermore, the three people chosen to head it are famous antisemitic and anti-Israel people. The commission chair is Navanethem Pillay from South Africa, who served as UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008 to 2014 and is currently a judge ad hoc of the international court of justice (ICJ). The commission’s other leaders are Miloon Kothari from India, the first UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, and Chris Sidoti from Australia, an expert in national human rights institutions and international human rights law and mechanisms. Houthis say they targeted US ship in Gulf of Aden Yemen’s Houthis have said they targeted the US Genco Picardy bulk carrier with missiles which resulted in a “direct hit”. A statement by the Houthi group spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, reads: The naval forces will not hesitate to target all sources of threat in the Red and Arabian sea within the legitimate right to defend Yemen and to continue supporting the oppressed Palestinian people. The US has condemned recent Iranian strikes in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria, which Tehran has claimed were carried out against “anti-Iranian terrorist groups”. Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US state department, told reporters at a briefing: So we do condemn those strikes. We’ve seen Iran violate the sovereign borders of three of its neighbors in just the past couple of days. Iran launched airstrikes on Pakistani territory on Tuesday that were apparently aimed at a Sunni militant group. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said two children were killed and three others were injured in what it called an “illegal” airstrike. The strikes in Pakistan came less than a day after Iranian missiles hit targets in Syria and Iraq, in what have been seen as reprisals in the wake of a double suicide bombing in the city of Kerman on 3 January which killed more than 80 Iranians. Miller added: I think it is a little rich for, on one hand, Iran to be the leading funder of terrorism in the region, the leading funder of instability in the region, and on the other hand, claimed that it needs to take these actions to counter terrorism. Vessel hit in drone attack off Yemen "incurred damage" We have more details on the reports of a ship that was hit by a drone attack 60 nautical miles south-east of Yemen’s port of Aden. The vessel, which had been “hit on port side by an uncrewed aerial system”, and its crew are safe and proceeding to the next port of call, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organisation said. British maritime security firm Ambrey said that a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier was hit by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 66 miles south-east of Aden as it was heading east along the Gulf of Aden. It continued: The vessel’s gangway incurred damage, and at the time of writing it was deemed not usable. John Kirby, the US national security council coordinator for strategic communications, is briefing the press at the White House in Washington DC, and said “there are no negotiations here” when it comes to the US’s fresh designation of the Houthi rebels of Yemen as terrorists. Earlier on Wednesday, in a heavily flagged move, the US announced the re-designation of the Houthis as a “specially designated global terrorist” (SDGT) entity. This followed airstrikes by US and UK military forces on the Iranian-backed, Yemen-based militant group, which has launched waves of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Kirby is now throwing doubt on the Houthis’ stance that their attacks on some shipping in the Middle East is driven by opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza. He described Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as “indiscriminate” and “a threat to innocent lives and global commerce”. The daily White House press briefing that has been delayed is expected to start shortly. US national security council spokesman John Kirby will once against accompany White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to talk to and take questions from journalists in Washington DC. Kirby tends to deal with international security issues and has been fielding the bulk of journalists’ questions on the Middle East and, specifically, Israel’s war in Gaza. Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas and has bombarded Gaza, where the Islamist group holds power, since early October after Hamas militants launched a murderous attack in southern Israel from their base in the Palestinian territory. Summary of the day so far Here’s a recap of the latest developments: The US has put Yemen’s Houthi rebels back on its list of global terrorists following US-UK airstrikes on the Iranian-backed militants who have launched waves of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. US officials said they would design financial penalties against the Houthis to minimise harm to Yemen’s 32 million people. A Houthi spokesperson said the US designation would not affect the group’s operations aimed at preventing Israeli ships or ships heading to Israel from crossing the Red Sea. Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, has said his country was targeting an “Iranian terrorist group” when it launched a strike inside Pakistan. Iran said its attack mounted on Tuesday used “precision missile and drone strikes” and destroyed two strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl in the Koh-e-Sabz area of Pakistan’s south-west Balochistan province. The missile strikes were part of Iran’s sweeping reprisals across Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan and Pakistan, designed to exact revenge for a suicide bombing mounted by Isis-K, the Afghan branch of Islamic State, that killed 85 Iranians in the south-eastern city of Kerman on 3 January. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said two children were killed and three others were injured in the attack, and Islamabad has withdrawn its ambassador from Iran in protest, while forbidding Iran’s ambassador to return to Pakistan. The likelihood of a war in Lebanon is “higher than before”, the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said. Speaking to troops in northern Israel on Wednesday, IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said Israel’s military is “increasing readiness for fighting in Lebanon”. A telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip has entered its sixth day, the longest continuous outage since the war began, according to the internet monitoring group NetBlocks. Internet and telephone services collapsed across Gaza on Friday, marking the ninth blackout the territory has endured since 7 October. More people in Gaza are likely to die of hunger and famine than war, the chair of the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) has claimed. Mohammed Mustafa, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, also said at least $15bn would be needed to rebuild housing in the Gaza Strip. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has repeated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and a process that leads to sustained peace for Israelis and Palestinians, based on a two-state solution. Speaking at Davos, Guterres said: “This is the only way to stem the suffering and prevent a spillover that could send the entire region up in flames.” A shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians has been delivered to Egypt for transfer across the border to Gaza, after a deal brokered by Qatar and France. The agreement marks the first significant progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since December, when a short-lived ceasefire collapsed. Israel has killed several people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including, it claimed, the “head of terrorist infrastructure” in the Balata camp in the Israeli-occupied city of Nablus. Five people were killed inside the Tulkarm refugee camp, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its ambulances were prevented from assisting at the scene of a strike near Nablus by Israeli forces. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported 85 Palestinians were detained overnight. Israel has detained about 6,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October. The Jordanian army has said its military field hospital in the city of Khan Younis in Gaza was badly damaged as a result of Israeli shelling in the vicinity. In a statement on Wednesday, the army said it held Israel responsible for a “flagrant breach of international law”. Since 7 October, 24,448 Palestinians have been killed and 61,504 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Israel has claimed that it killed a Hamas member who it believes was “responsible for interrogating individuals suspected of espionage” in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said: “IAF aircraft eliminated Bilal Nofal, who was responsible for interrogating individuals suspected of carrying out espionage activities against the terrorist organisation in the southern Gaza Strip.” The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was briefly stranded in Davos after his plane experienced a “critical malfunction”. Blinken, who spent a day and a half at the Davos mountain resort for the World Economic Forum, was scheduled to fly back to Washington on Wednesday. A separate plane was sent from Brussels to retrieve the secretary of state. Vessel south-east of Yemen"s port of Aden reports being hit by drone The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organisation said it has received a report of an incident 60 nautical miles (95km) south-east of Yemen’s port of Aden. In an advisory note, reported by Reuters, the UKMTO said the master reported the “vessel has been hit on port side by an uncrewed aerial system”, adding: There was a fire onboard which has now been extinguished. The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has called for an “immediate pause” in fighting in Gaza. Posting to social media, Cameron, who earlier today met with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and other leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, wrote: In Gaza, we need an immediate pause to get the hostages out and aid in. Then we need to see if we can convert that pause into a sustainable ceasefire, ideally without further hostilities. IDF chief says likelihood of war in Lebanon is ‘higher than before’ The likelihood of a war in Lebanon is “higher than before”, the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said. Speaking to troops in northern Israel, IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said Israel’s military is “increasing readiness for fighting in Lebanon, we have a lot of lessons from the fighting in Gaza, many of them are very relevant to fighting in Lebanon, and there are some that must be adjusted”, the Times of Israel reported. He noted Israel’s goal to return displaced Israelis to their homes in the north, adding: I don’t know when the war in the north [will happen]. I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past. A far-right Polish MP who used a fire extinguisher to put out candles on a menorah lit for Hanukah in Poland’s parliament in December will no longer be immune from prosecution. Poland’s parliament voted on Wednesday to remove Grzegorz Braun’s immunity from prosecution, paving the way for prosecutors to press charges against the Confederation party lawmaker. Braun, a fringe far-right MP, was shown on television spraying the menorah with a fire extinguisher. Haze filled the area. The parliament took a break in proceedings to deal with the incident and Braun was suspended for the rest of the day. After extinguishing the candles, Braun took to the podium where he described Hanukkah as “satanic” and said he was restoring “normality”. Asked later if he was ashamed of his action, he said: “Those who take part in acts of satanic worship should be ashamed.” Antony Blinken "stranded" after plane breaks down in Davos The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was briefly stranded in Davos after his plane experienced a “critical malfunction” due to an oxygen leak. Blinken, who spent a day and a half at the Davos mountain resort for the World Economic Forum, was scheduled to fly back to Washington on Wednesday. Blinken had taken a helicopter from Davos to Zurich, where he boarded his plane but was then informed that the plane had been deemed unsafe to fly, according to a Bloomberg report. A separate plane was sent from Brussels to retrieve the secretary of state, while aides and members of the press had to travel to Washington by commercial flight. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has described the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) firing of journalist Antoinette Lattouf as “disconcerting”. The Australian broadcaster has confirmed that Lattouf was in December terminated from hosting Sydney Mornings on ABC radio after she reposted a Human Rights Watch video on Instagram to her personal account. But ABC’s senior management has strongly denied that its decision was influenced by outside lobbyists, following a report that a chain of leaked WhatsApp messages revealed a campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists to have Lattouf sacked days before her dismissal. Posting to social media, Albanese wrote: Whether or not the firing was affected by pro-Israel groups, it is disconcerting that a media company punishes a journo for exposing atrocities. A nurse at the main hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has described the situation at the medical facility as “disastrous”. Just before midnight on Tuesday, witnesses reported strikes on the Nasser hospital sparking panic among the hundreds of displaced people seeking shelter there. Mohammed Qudaih told NBC News: Yesterday, in the early hours of the night, the occupation vehicles made a noticeable advance towards the hospital, where there was a lot of violent artillery shelling and the sounds of very close clashes.