live blog
Israel says it has killed dozens of Palestinian militants again. In Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Blinken discussed a “permanent end to the crisis in the Gaza Strip” with Crown Prince bin Salman. The developments in the live blog.
According to UN observers, evacuation orders now apply to around two thirds of the Gaza Strip. In total, an area of around 246 square kilometers was affected, the observers said. Before the war began, 1.78 million Palestinians lived in the affected area, making up 77 percent of the coastal area’s population.
Israeli forces say they have killed dozens of Palestinian militants in operations across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours. In addition, numerous people were captured. According to the military, the focus of the fighting was the southern part of the city of Khan Yunis. Around 80 suspects were arrested there – including some who were accused of being involved in the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.
Another merchant ship was attacked and damaged in the Red Sea. The freighter was attacked with a drone off the coast of Yemen, parts of which are controlled by the Houthi rebels, said the British security company Ambrey. The Barbados-flagged ship suffered “minor damage” to its left side, but no one was injured. The attack reportedly occurred west of the Yemeni port city of Hodeida. According to Ambrey, the cargo ship made several “evasive maneuvers” and continued toward the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
The US armed forces say they have fired on two remote-controlled boats belonging to the Houthi rebels in Yemen that were loaded with explosives. The two “explosive unmanned watercraft” posed an “acute threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” said the US Central Command, the regional command responsible for the Middle East. The attack on the two floating drones was therefore carried out “in self-defense”.
In the struggle for a new agreement between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began another trip to the Middle East with a visit to Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh, Blinken spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the need for “regional coordination to achieve a lasting end to the crisis in the Gaza Strip,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
In the Saudi capital Riyadh, US Secretary of State Blinken spoke with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince bin Salman about the need for “regional coordination to achieve a lasting end to the crisis in the Gaza Strip.”
Blinken and bin Salman also addressed “the urgent need to reduce regional tensions,” Miller said, referring to increasing attacks in the region by Iran-backed and Hamas-aligned groups, which in turn have led to counterattacks by the United States and its allies had consequences.
The internationally recognized government in Yemen has surprisingly appointed Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak as the new prime minister. Bin Mubarak replaces the previous head of government Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, who in turn was appointed presidential advisor, as the official Saba news agency reported with reference to the Yemeni Presidential Council. A reason for the move was not given. Bin Mubarak, who was formerly Yemen’s ambassador to the United States, is considered an opponent of the Houthi militia and was kidnapped by the militants in 2015 and held captive for several days.
Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak at the 6th Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum in Marrakesh, which he attended as Foreign Minister of the Yemeni Government.
Russia and China have accused the USA in the UN Security Council of further inflaming the situation in the Middle East with air strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria. Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told an emergency meeting of the panel in New York that the US airstrikes were “deliberately” aimed at “inflaming” conflict in the region. US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood countered that the airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias were “necessary and proportionate” and constituted an act of self-defense.
The US carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria on Saturday night after the deaths of three US soldiers in a drone attack on a base in Jordan. Dozens of people were killed. The US government has promised further retaliatory attacks.
In a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Chancellor Scholz once again advocated a two-state solution. US Secretary of State Blinken has arrived in Saudi Arabia for crisis talks. Monday’s developments to read.