Key events
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Middle East crisis live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and developments from the region.
We start with the news that Israel’s “long hand” will reach the leaders of Yemen’s Houthi movement, its defence minister, Israel Katz, vowed on Thursday, after unleashing airstrikes on several areas of the country overnight.
The Israeli airstrikes killed nine people, said Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of the country, seven in the port of Salif and two in the Ras Issa oil facility, both located in the western province of Hodeidah. The strikes also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sana’a, it added.
“I warn the leaders of the Houthi terrorist organisation: Israel’s long hand will reach you as well,” Katz said in a post on X. “Whoever raises a hand against the state of Israel, his hand will be cut off; whoever harms, will be harmed sevenfold.”
In a statement, Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen, including ports and energy infrastructure in Sana’a”, adding that the targets struck were used by Houthi forces for military purposes.
Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. Houthi militants have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since last November, in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war with Hamas.
We will be bringing you more on this shortly but in other developments today:
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The visiting UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told Agence France-Presse that there is a need for a significant aid boost across Syria after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad. “Across the country, the needs are huge. Seven in 10 people are needing support right now,” Fletcher said, adding, “I want to scale up massively international support, but that now depends on donors. The Syria fund has been historically, shamefully underfunded and now there is this opportunity.”
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Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said his country and Lebanon would work together on Syria after the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month. “A new era has now begun in Syria. We agree that we must act together as two important neighbours of Syria,” Erdoğan told a news conference, alongside Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati.
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The Israeli military has ordered another evacuation in central Gaza, even as Israel and Hamas appear to inch closer to a ceasefire agreement. “This is an advance warning ahead of an offensive,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X. The order included four residential block areas in the urban refugee camp of Bureij, where Adraee claimed that Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Israel.
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UN special envoy Geir Pedersen has called for “free and fair elections” in Syria and urged humanitarian assistance, AFP reports. Addressing reporters at the end of a visit to Damascus, Pedersen said “there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria”, which he expressed hope would also include a “political solution” in the Kurdish-held northeast.
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The US, joined by Arab mediators, is seeking to conclude a long-negotiated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. A Palestinian official told Reuters earlier today that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel, however, had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.
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At least 45,097 Palestinian people have been killed and 107,244 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Of those, 38 Palestinians were killed and 203 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
