Israel at war: Houthis hit UK-owned ship in Red Sea, 1 injured

Palestinian killed in Israeli strike on refugee camp

By Agency Writers

A Palestinian man was killed and four others wounded Thursday in an Israeli strike on a car in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Earlier this week the Israeli army killed three Palestinian militants in an overnight raid in the camp, which has been the scene of frequent clashes in the past year.

Amateur video footage from the scene of Thursday’s incident appeared to show a car ablaze. Israeli media reported that an Israeli air strike targeted a wanted militant.

The health ministry called it an “occupation strike”. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The reported Israeli strike came hours after Palestinian gunmen opened fire at cars on a congested West Bank highway, killing an Israeli man and wounding eight others, the latest in a string of recent deadly attacks by Palestinian militants.

The territory has seen a surge in violence since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7. Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 400 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

The Gaza war erupted after an unprecedented attack by Hamas which resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has left at least 29,410 Palestinians dead, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

AFP

MSF head ‘appalled’ at US ceasefire vote veto

By Agency Writers

The head of Doctors Without Borders said he was “appalled” as the United States repeatedly vetoes UN Security Council calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, accusing the body of deliberating and delaying “while civilians died.”

“Meeting after meeting, resolution after resolution. This body has failed to effectively address this conflict,” Secretary General Christopher Lockyear told the Council.

“We have watched members of this council deliberate and delay while civilians died,” said the leader of the international NGO, which also goes by the name Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF).

As one of five permanent members of the 15-member UN Security Council, the United States has a veto that it has wielded three times so far to bar the body from calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where its ally Israel is waging a devastating war.

The toll in Gaza has seen pressure grow on the administration of US President Joe Biden to rein in its ally Israel, but the United States has argued that such a call from the Security Council could jeopardize talks to free hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 attack.

The US did circulate an alternative Gaza resolution after its most recent veto this week that does for the first time mention the word “ceasefire” — but with no call for it to be enacted immediately.

Lockyear dismissed Washington’s move as “misleading at best.” He said MSF was “appalled by the willingness of the United States to use its powers as a permanent Council member to obstruct efforts to adopt the most evident of resolutions. One demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”

“This Council should reject any resolution that further hampers humanitarian efforts on the ground and leads this Council to tacitly endorse the continued violence and mass atrocities in Gaza,” he continued.

AFP

Israel war cabinet votes to send delegation to Paris for truce talks

Israel’s war cabinet has voted to send a delegation to Paris for high-level talks on a hostage deal and ceasefire, Israel media reports.

The decision was unanimously backed by the war cabinet, the Times of Israel reports.

It comes after reports indicated Hamas has demonstrated some flexibility in contacts on the terms of a framework deal.

White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk is set to meet with Israeli officials a day after holding talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials who are leading negotiations with Hamas’s leadership in Gaza.

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is also expected to meet senior leaders from the Middle East in the coming days, regional officials said.

US, Arab states ramp up ceasefire efforts

By Agency Writers

The White House and Arab states are ramping up efforts to broker a deal that would pause the fighting in Gaza and free hostages held by Hamas, with Washington dispatching a top official to Israel Thursday at a time when the war is on the brink of escalation.

White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk is set to meet with Israeli officials a day after holding talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials who are leading negotiations with Hamas’s leadership in Gaza. In a possible sign of a revival of the talks, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is also expected to meet senior leaders from the Middle East in the coming days, regional officials said. Burns was instrumental in securing a weeklong cease-fire in November that freed more than 100 Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The talks come at a critical moment in the war in Gaza, with Israel threatening to invade Rafah, the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city where more than a million Palestinian civilians are sheltering, and fears rising for the safety of Israeli hostages. Israel has said it must attack the area to pursue Hamas fighters hiding there, but Palestinian leaders, aid groups and Western officials have warned any attack on the densely populated area could result in deaths and destruction among the civilians there. I’m 

Burns’s meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place Friday in Paris, the officials said. Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani are expected to attend the talks, regional officials said. Mossad chief David Barnea is invited but Israel hasn’t confirmed his participation in the talks, regional officials said.

The four leaders last met in Paris in January in a summit where they agreed on a formula for a six-week cease-fire that could be extended to become a permanent one.

AFP

Israel strikes kill two Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon

By Agency Writers

At least two Hezbollah fighters were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a residential building in south Lebanon on Thursday, a security source said.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

An Israeli drone shot two guided missiles at the building in Kfar Rumman, near south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh, the security source said, declining to be identified as they were not authorised to brief the media.

Kfar Rumman lies around 12 kilometres from the Israeli border. Hamas ally Hezbollah had claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Thursday, including one which it said was in response to “Israeli attacks on villages and civilian houses”.

The violence on Israel’s northern border has sparked fears of another full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.

AFP

Two Houthi missiles strike UK-owned ship, one injured

By Anne Barrowclough

Two Houthi missiles have struck a British-owned cargo ship in the Red Sea, causing damage and one minor injury, US Central Command has reported.

“The Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from southern Yemen into the Gulf of Aden. The missiles impacted MV Islander a Palau-flagged, U.K.-owned, cargo carrier causing one minor injury and damage. The ship is continuing its voyage,” CentCom said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have carried out months of attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, disrupting the key shipping route and prompting a military response from the United States, Britain and recently France.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations have also confirmed the attack, saying: “A vessel was attacked by two missiles, resulting in a fire onboard”

“Coalition forces are responding,” the organisation added.

Security firm Ambrey also reported a fire aboard the ship, which “appeared to be headed from Map Ta Phut, Thailand, and headed in the direction of the Red Sea.”

CentCom also reported that earlier, the US had shot down six Houthi drones in the Red Sea after they were identified as an imminent threat to US and allied warships.

Separately, the Houthis claimed they had attacked a ship in the Gulf of Aden with naval missiles, and targeted Eilat in Israel with ballistic missiles and drones.

Yahya Sarea, the group’s military spokesman added in an address on television the militant group had also targeted an American destroyer in the Red Sea.

The US Department of State has also released a statement condemning the “reckless and indiscriminate attacks on civilian cargo ships” by the Houthis.

In the statement, spokesman Matthew Miller writes: “The Houthis are behaving like a terrorist organisation – attacking civilians, civilian shipping, and innocent mariners, and they continue to detain the crew of the Galaxy Leader, consisting of 25 people from five different countries. This is piracy.”

With AFP