Middle East crisis live: Houthis say they will escalate Red Sea attacks during Ramadan as US and UK strike Yemen
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A ship taking almost 200 tonnes of food to Gaza left a port in Cyprus on Tuesday morning, in a pilot project to open a new sea route of aid to a population on the brink of famine.
The charity ship, Open Arms, was seen sailing out of Larnaca port in Cyprus, towing a barge containing about 200 tonnes of flour, rice and protein.
The mission, mostly funded by the United Arab Emirates, is being organised by US based charity World Central Kitchen, while Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms is supplying the ship.
Israel has been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people.
After five months of war, the UN says a quarter of people in the besieged Palestinian territory are on the brink of starvation.
Aid agencies’ efforts to get humanitarian aid to where it is most needed have been severely hampered by a combination of logistical obstacles, a breakdown of public order and lengthy bureaucracy imposed by Israel.
Israel has said it welcomed sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it left the staging area in Cyprus.
The airstrikes hit port cities and small towns in western Yemen, killing at least 11 people and injuring 14, a spokesperson for Yemen’s internationally recognised government has told Reuters.
US Central Command (Centcom) said it carried out six strikes on Monday, claiming it destroyed an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles in Houthi controlled areas.
“These weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” Centcom said in its statement, adding that the strikes were carried out to “protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer”.
March 11 Red Sea Update
Between 8:50 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. (Sanaa time) on March 11, Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Houthi-controlled areas of into the Red Sea toward merchant vessel Pinocchio, a Singaporean-owned, Liberian-flagged… pic.twitter.com/NmXtLSsswT
Attacks from the Houthis in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa, while stoking fears that Israel’s war in Gaza could spread to destabilise the wider Middle East.
Despite reprisals from the US, UK and other coalition partners, the Houthis have escalated their campaign of attacks on commercial vessels in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Tuesday that the group would escalate their military operations during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
A ship taking almost 200 tonnes of food to Gaza left a port in Cyprus on Tuesday morning, in a pilot project to open a new sea route of aid to a population on the brink of famine.
The charity ship, Open Arms, was seen sailing out of Larnaca port in Cyprus, towing a barge containing about 200 tonnes of flour, rice and protein.
The mission, mostly funded by the United Arab Emirates, is being organised by US based charity World Central Kitchen, while Spanish charity Proactiva Open Arms is supplying the ship.
Israel has been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people.
After five months of war, the UN says a quarter of people in the besieged Palestinian territory are on the brink of starvation.
Aid agencies’ efforts to get humanitarian aid to where it is most needed have been severely hampered by a combination of logistical obstacles, a breakdown of public order and lengthy bureaucracy imposed by Israel.
Israel has said it welcomed sea deliveries and would inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it left the staging area in Cyprus.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have said they will escalate their military operations in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Their announcement came as Yemen’s internationally recognised government said that at least 11 people had been killed in airstrikes carried out by the US and UK.
Here are some of the other latest developments:
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said on Tuesday that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was undermining Israel with his approach to the war in Gaza and urged the country to change course or lose even more international support. The US president, Joe Biden, said on Saturday that Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping” by conducting the war in a way contrary to the country’s values. Asked about his comments on Tuesday, Wong agreed and said international support for Israel would continue to fray unless it addressed the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
The Israeli military is checking whether it has killed Hamas’s deputy military leader in an airstrike in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday. If his death is confirmed, Marwan Issa will be the highest-ranking official from the Islamist militant movement killed by Israel in the five months of war.
The UN secretary-general António Guterres has reiterated his calls for an end to hostilities in Gaza and the increased delivery of humanitarian aid, describing international humanitarian law as in tatters. He told the media that a “threatened Israeli assault on Rafah could plummet the people of Gaza into an even deeper circle of hell”. He also called for the release of hostages held by Hamas and the removal of “all obstacles to ensure the delivery of lifesaving aid at the speed and massive scale required” to Gaza.
Israel has launched airstrikes near Lebanon’s eastern city of Baalbek, security sources and state media have said, in the second raid in the region since cross-border hostilities began after the Gaza war. Sources told Reuters and AFP that the strikes had killed one person and injured others.
Twelve of Israel’s most prominent human rights organisations have signed an open letter accusing the country of failing to comply with the international court of justice’s provisional ruling that it should facilitate access of humanitarian aid into Gaza.