Houthis claim another attack on US ship in Gulf of Aden The Houthis have claimed they fired “naval missiles” at a US ship, Chem Ranger, in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday. The attack resulted in “direct hits”, a statement from the Houthi group said, adding: The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that a retaliation to the American and British attacks is inevitable, and that any new aggression will not go unpunished. A UN rights expert has said that Israel has broken international law with its “relentless” bombardment of Gaza that has levelled neighbourhoods and collapsed the territory’s healthcare system. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, said at a Madrid news conference on Thursday: Israel has done a number of things that are highly illegal, highly unlawful. She said that while Israel has the right to self-defence, international humanitarian law must be respected “to protect people who are not actively involved in combat,” AFP reported. Albanese said she “firmly condemned” the violence carried out by Hamas in Israel – which she said amounted to war crimes and may also be crimes against humanity –but “nothing justifies what Israel has done”. She said: What has happened is over 100 days of relentless bombing – the first two weeks using 6,000 bombs per week, bombs of 2,000 pounds, in highly crowded area. Most hospitals in Gaza had been made “dysfunctional”, she said, adding that most Palestinians are dying now “not because of the bombs but because there is not sufficient infrastructure to cure them of wounds.” Albanese added: The number of kids who get amputated every day is shocking, one or two limbs. During the first two months of this (war) 1,000 kids were amputated without anaesthesia. It is a monstrosity. Houthis claim another attack on US ship in Gulf of Aden The Houthis have claimed they fired “naval missiles” at a US ship, Chem Ranger, in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday. The attack resulted in “direct hits”, a statement from the Houthi group said, adding: The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that a retaliation to the American and British attacks is inevitable, and that any new aggression will not go unpunished. Here’s some more detail on the reports of an incident earlier today near Aden in Yemen. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of an incident 115 nautical miles south-east of Aden. An update from UKMTO said the master reported an unidentified drone “in close proximity” to a merchant vessel and explosion in the water about 30 metres off the port side. It said coalition forces were responding, and that the vessel and its crew are safe. The vessel is proceeding to the next port, it said. British maritime security firm Ambrey said a Marshall Islands-flagged chemical/products tanker reported a “suspicious approach” of drones, 103 miles south-east of Aden. An advisory note reads: One (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) UAV dropped into the sea approximately 30 metres aft ... an Indian warship responded to the event. Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza, Israel and the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have destroyed the main campus of Al-Israa university in the south of Gaza City, the university said. Footage circulating on social media appeared to show the complex of buildings being blown up in what appeared to be a controlled explosion, engulfing it in smoke. It was unclear when the explosion took place, AP reported. In a statement, the university said its main building for graduate studies and bachelor’s colleges were destroyed. It said Israeli forces had seized the complex 70 days ago and used it as a base. The family of the youngest hostage held by Hamas in Gaza gathered in Tel Aviv on Thursday to mark “the saddest birthday in the world”. Kfir Bibas, who turned one on Thursday, was kidnapped by Hamas militants from the kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel alongside his parents, Yarden and Shiri, and his four-year-old brother Ariel. It is not clear whether Kfir and his family are still alive. A large crowd filled the Hostages Square in the Israeli capital, many holding orange balloons in acknowledgment of Kfir’s red hair, the Jerusalem Post reported. Near them a large screen displayed the number of days the hostages have been held in Gaza – 103. Shiri Bibas’ cousin, Yifat Zeiler, said at the ceremony: No abductee should celebrate a birthday in captivity. We thank the children and their families for such a moving gesture, and ask the decision-makers to read these wishes to understand that behind every hostage there is a whole world. Saudi Arabia is unable to pursue talks about a deal to recognise Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, the Saudi ambassador to the US has said. Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud, speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said: I think the most important thing to realise is the kingdom has not put normalisation at the heart of its policy. It’s put peace and prosperity at the heart of its policy … The kingdom has been quite clear. While there is violence on the ground and the killing persists, we cannot talk about the next day. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, earlier this week said Riyadh was still “certainly” open to the possibility of future ties with Israel, but also stressed the need for a ceasefire and the creation of a Palestinian state. He added: We don’t see any real sign that any strategic objectives that Israel has claimed are... coming any closer. Mark Regev, an adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, has expanded on the Israeli prime minister’s remarks earlier today where he said he opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state. “Israel would have to have security control in ways that would limit the full exercise of Palestinian sovereignty,” Regev told CNN, adding: Especially after October 7, to ask the Israeli public, the Israeli people, to say, ‘We’ll light-pedal security,’ that security isn’t the highest priority, to keep our people safe – that is to ignore reality. He added: If the Palestinians really want to move forward with Israel they have to be willing to understand those concerns. They are legitimate concerns. Reports of new attack on ship near Yemen"s Aden The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it has received a report of an incident 115 nautical miles south-east of Aden, Yemen. Authorities are investigating the report, it said, adding: Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO. US launches fifth round of strikes on Houthis as Biden concedes bombardment has not worked Joe Biden has said US strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen will continue, but conceded that the US-UK bombardment so far has not deterred the group’s attacks in the Red Sea. The US carried out a fifth round of strikes on Thursday, with Navy warplanes targeting anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch”, the US central command said in a statement on social media. The US president, speaking to reporters in Washington today before departing for a domestic policy speech in North Carolina, said: When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes. Union leaders have told Keir Starmer his position on Gaza risks alienating millions of Britons, telling the Labour leader their members are increasingly angry about his refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East. Members of Britain’s biggest unions used a regular meeting with Starmer this week to urge him to be more critical of Israel, following weeks of tension within the Labour party over the issue. “Several people at the meeting were pretty clear with Starmer,” said one person with knowledge of what happened at the meeting. They told him, ‘Your position on Gaza is alienating working people, you are out of step with the majority’. The person added that the Labour leader responded that he wanted western countries to work towards a “sustainable ceasefire” rather than calling for one to be declared immediately. Starmer’s response to the Israel-Gaza war has been a source of tension between the Labour leader and many of his MPs, councillors and members for weeks. Last year he gave an interview in which he appeared to suggest Israel was within its rights to withhold water and power from Gaza. Even though he has since rowed back from that position, many of his colleagues and supporters remain angry that he has not done more to show sympathy with the plight of people in Gaza. Families of hostages being held in captivity by Hamas shut down a road in Tel Aviv in protest. Protesters stopped traffic on the major road in Tel Aviv. Protesters also constructed a sign, reading “136”, to represent the 136 people still being held hostage. The US Pentagon clarified on Thursday that the US is not at war with the Houthis in Yemen, Reuters reported. During a Thursday briefing, a Pentagon spokesperson said that attacks against the Houthis have been acting in self-defense. The announcement comes as the US launched another round of attacks against the Houthis’ missile launchers that were used to attack international shipping lanes, CNN reported. The US has said that there is “no way” to solve security challenges in Israel and the broader region without establishing a Palestinian state, Reuters reported. Speaking at a news briefing, [US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller] said Israel has an opportunity right now as countries in the region are ready to provide security assurances to Israel. “But there is no way to solve their long-term challenges to provide lasting security and there is no way to solve the short-term challenges of rebuilding Gaza and establishing governance in Gaza and providing security for Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.” Miller’s comments come as Netanyahu said on Thursday that he rejected the notion of a Palestinian state and would only support a deal that allowed Israel to gain security control over the entire Gaza Strip. The Israeli military announced on Thursday that it killed eight people during a raid in the city of Tulkarm located in the occupied West Bank. Here is more information from Reuters: The Israeli military raided the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank for a second day on Thursday, saying it had killed eight people. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that six people had died and an organisation which represents those held in Israeli jails - the Palestinian Society Prisoner’s Club - said hundreds had been arrested over the two days. The Palestinian Red Crescent said four had been badly beaten by Israeli forces. Video footage showed many buildings had also been badly damaged or destroyed. The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence in parallel to the Gaza war that erupted on Oct. 7 with a shock cross-border killing and kidnapping spree by Islamist Hamas militants in southern Israel… US says ‘no reoccupation of Gaza’ after war A White House spokesperson said the US will not stop working towards a two-state solution as Israel continues to launch airstrikes against Palestine, Reuters reported. White House national security adviser John Kirby told reporters on Thursday that the US is still committed to a two state-solution. “There will a post-conflict Gaza, no reoccupation of Gaza,” Kirby said to reporters aboard Air Force One. Kirby’s latest comments comes as Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of a future state for Palestinians, NBC News reports. As recent as last month, Netanyahu said: “I am proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state,” NBC reported. Summary of the day so far Here’s a recap of the latest developments: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario. Israel will only agree to a deal that would see the country gain security control over the entire Gaza Strip, the Israel prime minister said at a news conference on Thursday, adding that he had “told this to the Americans”. The leader of the Iran-backed Houthis, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, has vowed to continue attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In an hour-long address on Thursday, al-Houthi urged the Arab world to mount mass boycotts of Israeli goods. Overnight the US military fired another wave of missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites, marking the fourth time in a week that it has directly targeted the group in Yemen. A total of 24,620 Palestinians have been killed and 61,830 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry on Thursday. The figures include 172 killed and 326 injured in the past 24 hours. At least 16 people have been killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. A relative of those killed told Al Jazeera that the family had relocated within Gaza three times for safety since 7 October. Israel’s military has repeatedly ordered Gaza’s civilian population to flee to the south. Internet and mobile services continue to be cut off inside the Gaza Strip by Israel. The present outage has lasted for five days, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks. An estimated 85% of Gaza’s population have been displaced and are struggling for food, while local authorites say nearly 25,000 Palestinians have so far been killed by Israeli airstrikes since 7 October. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has admitted that it is difficult to confirm if a shipment of medicine has reached Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Majed al-Ansari said medicine and aid for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians had entered Gaza on Wednesday under a deal mediated by Qatar and France, and that there was every “likelihood” that the medication had reached the Israeli hostages. Israel’s military has said it is operating on the ground “in the southernmost area that IDF ground troops have operated in so far”. In a statement on Thursday, it said it targeted Hamas infrastructure there, claiming to have recovered “numerous weapons and intelligence documents, including dozens of hand grenades, AK-47s, ammunition, excavation equipment, launchers, RPG missiles, explosives, and combat management documents”. The EU is set to adopt sanctions against Hamas on Monday that will “target individuals and ban money transfers”, according to a French foreign ministry spokesperson. EU foreign ministers are also expected to discuss possible measures against violent Israeli settlers, they said. The European parliament has voted to call for a “permanent ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, but on condition that all Israeli hostages held in the territory are released and Hamas dismantled. The resolution on Thursday, which is non-binding, stopped short of calling for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. An airstrike on southern Syria early on Thursday killed at least nine people and was probably carried out by Jordan’s air force, Syrian opposition activists said, the latest in a series of strikes in an area where cross-border drug smugglers have been active. There was no immediate confirmation from Jordan on the strike that hit the province of Sweida, and there was some confusion over the number of people killed. Tehran has strongly condemned a strike inside Iran by Pakistan which killed nine people, which Islamabad said was aimed at “terrorists”. A deputy governor of Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province said the dead included three women and four children, and were not Iranian citizens. The strike follows an Iranian attack inside Pakistan the previous day, which Tehran said was aimed at terrorists there. Pakistan said its military was on “extremely” high alert and any more “misadventure” from the Iranian side will be met forcefully. Israel’s president has said that there is an “empire of evil” emanating from Tehran which must be faced by a very strong coalition, and that Gaza’s population is entrenched in a network of terror. Billions of dollars, Isaac Herzog told the Davos conference, are being spent to destabilise the world, with Iran funding proxies all around the region. Of the situation in Gaza, he said “We care, we care, it is painful for us that our neighbours are suffering so much,” adding that they were entrenched in a network of terror, which Israel was determined to remove. Israel has joined a notorious band of authoritarian states with a history of imprisoning journalists by detaining Palestinian reporters without trial since the beginning of the latest war in Gaza. A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released on Thursday said that for the first time, Israel figures in its list of “worst jailers of journalists”, putting it on a par with Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until it achieves a “decisive victory over Hamas” during a nationally broadcast news conference on Thursday. Israel has destroyed about two-thirds of Hamas’ fighting regiments in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister said, Reuters reported. He said: There are two stages to the fighting; The first is destroying the Hamas regiments, those are their organised combat frameworks. Up until now, 16 or 17 out of 24 have been destroyed. After that there is the (stage) of clearing the territory (of militants). The first action is usually shorter, the second usually takes longer. The victory will take “more long months, but we are determined to achieve it,” the Israeli leader added, the Times of Israel reported. He said: We will continue to fight at full strength until we achieve all our goals – the return of all our hostages – and I say again, only military pressure will lead to their release; the elimination of Hamas; and certainty that Gaza will never again represent a threat to Israel. Netanyahu says he opposes Palestinian state in any postwar scenario Benjamin Netanyahu has said he informed the US that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario. Israel will only agree to a deal that would see the country gain security control over the entire Gaza Strip, the Israel prime minister said at a news conference on Thursday. He said: In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control all territory west of the Jordan. This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do? Netanyahu added that he had “told this to the Americans”, adding: The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends. The leader of Yemen’s Houthi movement, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, has urged the Arab world to mount mass boycotts of Israeli goods as he claimed US and UK missile attacks launched on his country were a sign of the impact of the Houthis’ attacks on Israeli-linked commercial shipping in the Red Sea. In an hour-long address carried on Arabic media channels and suffused with religious rhetoric, al-Houthi said it was “a great honour and blessing to be confronting America directly”. Overnight the US military fired another wave of missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites, marking the fourth time in a week that it has directly targeted the group in Yemen. In his speech on Thursday, al-Houthi claimed the only impact of the recent missile strikes had been to improve his army and navy’s technology, and he ridiculed Joe Biden “as an elderly man that has trouble climbing the stairs of an aeroplane yet is travelling 9,000 miles to attack those that wanted to stand by the oppressed people of Gaza”. He asked why those that oppressed Gaza felt they had the right to label others as terrorists for fulfilling their religious duty to come to the help of Palestinians, a reference to Washington’s decision on Wednesday to give notice it intends formally redesignate the Houthis as a terrorist group. And he said the Houthis had been singled out because they were prepared to take practical steps to support the Palestinians whereas the general position of the leaders of many Arab and Islamic countries remained lukewarm and weak. His speech, containing attacks on the Zionist lobby and homosexuals, was replete with warnings that the war was part of a wider battle between Zionists that worship the devil and the Muslim world. He urged Yemenis to come out in a mass show of support on Friday for their countrymen killed by US forces. US and UK airstrikes "do not scare us": Yemen"s Houthi leader vows to continue attacks in Red Sea The leader of the Iran-backed Houthis, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, has vowed to continue attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. “We will continue targeting ships linked to Israel,” al-Houthi said on Thursday in his first public address since the UK and US launched strikes last week against Houthi-controlled sites, AP reported. Houthi operations would “also include American and British ships”, the Houthi leader added. He said his forces will continue to develop their military capabilities and that the US and UK strikes on Houthi targets do “not scare us”. Talks are progressing to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that could include a month-long humanitarian pause to allow the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to a report. A senior Arab official told NBC News that the negotiations were part of a bigger deal that could result in the normalisation of ties betwen Israel and Saudi Arabia. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: Arab states are in advanced discussions on an initiative to secure a ceasefire and a release of hostages, part of a broader plan that could offer Israel normalisation of ties with Arab and Muslim states, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia if [Israel] agreed to irreversible steps to the creation of a Palestinian state. A western diplomat told the outlet that talks included a proposal for a “humanitarian pause”, lasting between a month or longer, followed by a permanent ceasefire. The pause would enable more hostages to be released, they added. The outlet cited two diplomats as saying that Hamas was refusing to agree to a deal without the promise of a permanent ceasefire, something Israeli officials have balked at. Israel has joined a notorious band of authoritarian states with a history of imprisoning journalists by detaining Palestinian reporters without trial since the beginning of the latest war in Gaza. A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released on Thursday said that for the first time, Israel figures in its list of “worst jailers of journalists”, putting it on a par with Iran. The worst offenders were China and Myanmar, two countries with a long history of suppressing free speech, which each imprisoned more than 40 journalists in 2023. They were followed by Belarus, Russia and Vietnam. Israel is in sixth place after the CPJ recorded 17 Palestinian journalists in its jails in December, the first time the country has featured among the worst offenders. It is now holding 19. Others were detained and released. Iran was also imprisoning 17 journalists. Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s chief executive, said Israel’s inclusion on the list of detained journalists reflected a broader crackdown on free speech and criticism of the war in Gaza. She said: Israel’s standing in CPJ’s 2023 prison census is evidence that a fundamental democratic norm – press freedom – is fraying as Israel exploits draconian methods to silence Palestinian journalists. This practice must stop. The CPJ said Palestinian journalists are mostly held under the Israeli military’s powers to detain people in the occupied territories without trial or time limit. The practice, known as administrative detention, permits the army to arrest a person on suspicion alone. Some Palestinians have been held for years without charge. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has admitted that it is difficult to confirm if a shipment of medicine has reached Israeli hostages held in Gaza. On Wednesday, Majed al-Ansari said medicine and aid for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians had entered Gaza under a deal mediated by Qatar and France. It came a day after Doha announced a deal “between Israel and [Hamas], where medicine along with other humanitarian aid is to be delivered to civilians in Gaza … in exchange for delivering medication needed for Israeli captives in Gaza”. Al-Ansari told CNN today that 11 tonnes of medical supplies were delivered to Palestinian health authorities in Gaza through Egypt, and that there was every “likelihood” that the medication had reached the hostages held in Gaza since the 7 October attacks. He added: The security situation is certainly not easy. It would be very difficult to involve the Red Cross or any other organisation at the moment. As we reported earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is not playing any part in delivering medicine to Israeli hostages being held in Gaza as part of the deal. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said yesterday it did “not have the ability to guarantee” that medicine would reach Israeli hostages in Gaza. A 27-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces on Thursday during a two-day operation in the occupied West Bank area of Tulkarm, according to reports. The latest fatality took place in Nur Shams refugee camp on the edge of Tulkarm, in the north of the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and health ministry said. A local official described the man killed as a civilian who was not involved in fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, AFP reported. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops had killed “at least eight terrorists” in Tulkarm and were working to “uncover roads where explosive devices were planted”. Here’s some detail on the news that the EU is set to adopt sanctions against Hamas on Monday, according to a French foreign ministry spokesperson. Brussels will adopt “a regime of sanctions against Hamas” that will “target individuals and ban money transfers”, Christophe Lemoine told reporters on Thursday. On Tuesday, the EU added Yahya Sinwar, the political leader of Hamas in Gaza, to its “terrorist” sanctions blacklist over the 7 October attacks. The EU last month added two of Hamas’s top military commanders, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, to its terrorist blacklist. Hamas has already been designated as a terrorist organisation by the EU. EU foreign ministers are also expected to discuss possible measures against violent Israeli settlers, Lemoine said.