live blog
Israel’s army says it has killed dozens of terrorists near Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. The US reports an attack on pro-Iranian militia positions in Iraq. All developments in the live blog.
The US has asked China for help in curbing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea, according to a media report. China should influence Iran to get its allies in Yemen to comply, the Financial Times reported, citing US government circles. However, there are hardly any signs of corresponding support from the Chinese government. The USA has repeatedly raised its concerns with China over the past three months. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also raised the issue with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
The Houthi rebels in Yemen have repeatedly targeted merchant ships in the Red Sea in an attempt to express their solidarity with the radical Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
According to a media report, the Islamist Hamas is said to have shown itself open to talks about the release of some Israeli hostages. Hamas has told mediators it is willing to talk about releasing the female civilians and children in return for a “significant” ceasefire, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Egyptian officials.
During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November last year, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons. Hamas had previously linked any further release of hostages to an end to the war.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres describes the Israeli government’s rejection of a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians as unacceptable. At a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, Guterres said: “The Israeli occupation must end.” He warned that the negative stance would embolden “extremists.”
The USA says it destroyed two anti-ship missiles belonging to the Houthi rebels in Yemen on Wednesday night. They were aimed at the southern Red Sea and were ready to be fired, said the US regional command Central Command (Centcom). The US armed forces classified the missiles as an imminent threat to merchant ships and US Navy ships in the region.
According to the Russian news agency Tass, the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, France, Great Britain and the USA – plan to meet in Yemen today. “Despite the complexity of the situation in the world, we continue to exchange ideas within the framework of the regular meetings of the five ambassadors to Yemen. The next meeting will take place on January 24,” the charge d’affaires of the Russian Embassy in Yemen, Evgeny Kudrov, said in a Interview with Tass.
The military actions against the Houthis in Yemen ordered by US President Joe Biden are also met with increasing skepticism in Congress by some of his allies. In the Senate, Democrats Tim Kaine and Chris Murphy joined a written call from their Republican colleagues Todd Young and Mike Lee to Biden to seek congressional approval before continuing military action against the Iranian-backed militia. By ordering to repeatedly bomb Houthi targets in Yemen, the president may have exceeded his constitutional authority, the senators wrote in the letter sent to Biden.
At the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov strongly condemned the attacks by the USA and Great Britain, with the support of other allies, on Houthi militia positions in Yemen. It was an “unjustified aggression” and a direct threat to international peace, Lavrov said in New York.
He also called for the release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas from Israel to the Gaza Strip and for a ceasefire. The UN Security Council must also call for a ceasefire. Lavrov spoke out in favor of a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the government for rejecting this goal.
Israel’s army says it has killed dozens more terrorists in its advance in the Khan Yunis area in the south of the Gaza Strip. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said more than 100 terrorists were “eliminated” in the west of the city yesterday. The information cannot be independently verified.
Gray areas: Built-up areas in the Gaza Strip, hatching: Israeli army
The Israeli army said it surrounded the heavily contested city, which is considered a stronghold of the Islamist Hamas, on Monday. The armed forces attacked military positions and “terrorist infrastructure” and had destroyed a one-and-a-half kilometer long tunnel network and a rocket building facility in recent days, it said. Israel suspects that the Hamas leadership and Israeli hostages are in the tunnel network in the area.
Fighting continued across the Gaza Strip, army spokesman Hagari said. This is also the case in the north and in the center of the sealed-off coastal area. They continue to work around the clock to create the conditions for the return of the hostages, he said.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
The US military has responded to an attack by pro-Iranian militias in Iraq with a counterstrike. Three facilities used by the Kataib Hezbollah militia and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq were attacked from the air, the responsible regional command of the US military announced on the X platform, formerly Twitter.
A few days ago, militia members fired several rockets at the Ain Al-Assad base. The target of the counterattack was a militia headquarters as well as storage and training facilities for rockets, missiles and attack drones, it said.
The security situation in the entire region is tense due to the Middle East war, which began with the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th. The troops of the USA – Israel’s most important ally – are also in the sights of pro-Iranian militias. Iran wants to use them to create an “axis of resistance” against Israel. In recent weeks they have increased their attacks on US bases in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
According to the White House, US Middle East adviser McGurk is in talks about a hostage agreement. Foreign Minister Baerbock has once again called for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. An overview of Tuesday’s developments.