By The Associated Press undefined
The United States conducted a fifth strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen on Thursday, even as President Joe Biden acknowledged that bombing the Iran-backed militants has yet to stop their attacks on shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has told the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario, underscoring the deep divisions between the close allies three months into Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Palestinian militants are putting up stiff resistance across the Gaza Strip, and the conflict — which shows no sign of ending — has inflamed tensions across the Middle East.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 24,400 Palestinians have died, and the United Nations says a quarter of the 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza are starving. In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war and saw some 250 people taken hostage by militants.
Currently:
— Gaza’s remaining doctors are overwhelmed by an estimated 60,000 wounded in war, the U.N. says.
— Biden says U.S. strikes against Houthi rebels will continue as bombardment has yet to deter militants.
— Snubbed by Netanyahu, Red Cross toes a fine line trying to help civilians in Israel-Hamas conflict.
— Harsh Israeli rhetoric against Palestinians becomes central to South Africa’s genocide case.
— Pakistan launches retaliatory airstrikes in Iran after an earlier attack by Tehran, killing nine people.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here’s the latest:
‘HORRIFIC CONDITIONS’ FOR CHILDREN IN GAZA, U.N. WARNS
UNITED NATIONS — Children in Gaza are suffering from “horrific conditions” and the war-ravaged territory remains the most dangerous place in the world to be a child, the deputy chief of the U.N. children’s agency says.
Ted Chaiban said at the end of a three-day visit to Gaza on Thursday that since his last visit two months ago “the situation has gone from catastrophe to near collapse.”
If the staggering decline in conditions persists, “we could see deaths due to indiscriminate conflict compounded by deaths due to disease and hunger,” the UNICEF deputy executive director said in a statement.
Chaiban said he met an 11-year-old girl named Sama on Tuesday at al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. She was skipping with friends when shrapnel from a bombing pierced her abdomen, leading to the loss of her spleen. Now, he said, her immune system is compromised “in a war zone full of disease and infection.”
Ten minutes later, he said, he met 13-year-old Ibrahim who had been in a shelter in a designated safe area when everything collapsed. His badly damaged hand went untreated, became gangrenous, and his arm had to be amputated.
“A matter of hours after we left, many families fled al-Nasser hospital, as fighting closed in on the area,” Chaiban said.
The “war on children” must stop, he said, pointing to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that nearly 25,000 people have been killed since Oct. 7, with up to 70% of them reportedly women and children.
MEXICO AND CHILE ASK INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
TO INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE CRIMES IN GAZA
MEXICO CITY — Mexico and Chile have asked the International Criminal Court to investigate possible crimes against civilians in Gaza and in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said in a statement that it filed the request “because of a growing concern about the recent escalation in violence, especially against civilians.”
There have been widespread claims of breaches of international law by Hamas and Israeli forces since the war erupted more than three months ago.
Any ICC proceedings would be separate from South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the U.N. world court, a charge that Israel denies.
The ICC is a court of last resort set up to prosecute war crimes when local courts cannot or will not take action. Israel is not a member state of the court and does not recognize its jurisdiction.
ISRAELI TROOPS FATALLY SHOOT MAN IN WEST BANK CITY OF TULKAREM
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 27-year old man was shot dead Thursday by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, as violence flares across the Israeli occupied territory.
The Palestinian man was shot in the stomach and died of his wounds, the ministry said. No further details about the shooting were immediately available.
According to the ministry, six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Tulkarem over the past 48 hours.
The Israeli army has been raiding various locations across the Tulkarem refugee camp for almost two days. In a post on X, the army said Israeli forces were conducting anti-terror operations in the camp and that armed fighters remained at large.
The West Bank has experienced a surge in violence since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed 367 Palestinians in the West Bank during that time.
BIDEN SAYS U.S. AIRSTRIKES HAVE NOT DETERRED HOUTHIS, AS MILITARY BOMBS YEMEN A FIFTH TIME
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Thursday that U.S. military strikes against against Iranian-back Houthi rebels in Yemen will continue, but acknowledged that American and British bombardment has yet to stop attacks by the militants on vessels in the Red Sea.
“When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis, no. Are they going to continue, yes,” Biden said in exchange with reporters before departing the White House for a domestic policy speech in North Carolina.
U.S. forces on Thursday conducted a fifth strike against the Houthis, with Navy warplanes targeting anti-ship missiles that “were aimed into the southern Red Sea and prepared to launch,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement posted to X.
In a statement later Thursday, Central Command said Houthi rebels launched two ballistic missiles at the Chem Ranger, a U.S.-owned, Greek-operated tanker ship. Its crew saw the missiles hit the water near the ship. No injuries or damage were reported, the command said.
The Houthis say their attacks seek to halt Israel’s war in Gaza.
NETANYAHU SAYS HE HAS TOLD U.S. HE OPPOSES PALESTINIAN STATE IN ANY POSTWAR SCENARIO
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has informed the United States that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of any postwar scenario.
The announcement on Thursday exposed the deep divisions that have emerged between the close allies three months into Israel’s war against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
In a nationally broadcast news conference, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until Israel realizes a “decisive victory over Hamas.” He also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. He said he had relayed his positions to the Americans.
Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said, adding: “That collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can we do?”
“The prime minister needs to be capable of saying no to our friends,” he added.
Netanyahu spoke just a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have “genuine security” without a pathway toward Palestinian independence.
ISRAEL DESTROYS UNIVERSITY IN GAZA USING EXPLOSIVES
CAIRO — Al-Israa University said Thursday that Israeli forces blew up its main campus outside Gaza City.
Video footage circulating online, apparently taken by a drone, showed the complex of buildings, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Gaza City, being blown up in what appeared to be a controlled explosion, engulfing it in smoke. The extent of destruction could not be seen.
The university, a private institution founded in 2014, said in a statement that its main buildings for graduate studies and bachelor’s colleges were destroyed. It said Israeli forces seized the complex 70 days ago and used it as a base. It was unclear when the explosion took place.
The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
According to Hamas, Israeli forces have destroyed more than 390 schools, universities and educational institutions across Gaza since launching their campaign following the militants’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
YEMEN’S HOUTHI LEADER VOWS MORE ATTACKS ON SHIPS AT SEA DESPITE US, UK RETALIATION
SANAA, Yemen — The Houthi rebels’ supreme leader vowed on Thursday that attacks by his forces on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden would continue despite retaliation strikes from American and British forces.
The Iran-backed group, which seized much of northern Yemen in 2014, says its attacks are aimed at backing Hamas and Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip in Israel’s war on Hamas. But the Houthis have also frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel.
“We will continue targeting ships linked to Israel,” Abdel Malek al-Houthi said in a televised speech. He added the Houthi operations would “also include American and British ships.”
He also said his forces will continue to develop their military capabilities and that recent airstrikes by the United States and United Kingdom on Houthi targets do “not scare us.”
ISRAEL’S AIR DEFENSE INTERCEPTS ‘SUSPICIOUS AERIAL TARGET’ OVER THE RED SEA
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli army says it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” over the Red Sea near the southern city of Eilat on Thursday. There were no reports of casualties or damage, but the launch of the interceptor set off air raid sirens in the coastal city.
The military did not say whether the object was a drone or missile, or who may have fired it. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired drones and missiles at Israel in the past, but most have fallen short or were intercepted and shot down.
In November, a drone exploded in the yard of a house in Eilat, causing no injuries.
The Houthis have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea in what they portray as a blockade of Israel linked to its war against Hamas in Gaza. The attacks, which have disrupted global trade, have continued despite U.S.-led airstrikes against the rebels in recent days.
PAKISTAN LAUNCHES RETALIATORY STRIKES IN IRAN AS MIDEAST TENSIONS RISE
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s air force launched retaliatory airstrikes early Thursday in Iran, allegedly targeting militant hideouts in an attack that killed at least nine people and further raised tensions between the neighboring nations.
The tit-for-tat attacks between Iran and Pakistan this week appeared to target two Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border. However, the two countries have accused each other of providing safe haven to the groups in their respective territories.
The attacks come as the Middle East remains unsettled by Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran also staged airstrikes late Monday in Iraq and Syria over an Islamic State-claimed suicide bombing that killed over 90 people in early January.
Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan have long regarded each other with suspicion over militant attacks. Each nation also faces its own internal political pressures — and the strikes may in part be in response to that.
FAMILY IN TEL AVIV WILL MARK THE 1ST BIRTHDAY OF THE YOUNGEST ISRAELI HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS
TEL AVIV, Israel — Family members and supporters marked the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest Israeli held by Hamas militants in Gaza, in a ceremony in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
The red-haired infant, who has been in captivity for a quarter of his life, has become a symbol for the helplessness and anger in Israel over the dozens of hostages still held in Gaza after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
On Tuesday, his family gathered at the Bibas’ home in Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, blowing up orange balloons to hang on the walls to cover bullet holes and spatters of blood, and filling his nursery school classroom with birthday decorations.
“It’s celebrating for someone who isn’t here,” Yossi Schneider, a cousin of Kfir’s mother, Shiri, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV. “He’s supposed to be out here on the grass of the kibbutz, with balloons on the trees, with family and high-fives and presents and love and hugs, and none of those things will be there.”
In video from the Hamas attack, Kfir and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, are being held by their terrified mother as gunmen shout in Arabic. The boys’ father, Yarden, was also taken captive and appears in photos to have been wounded. Under a weeklong temporary cease-fire, Hamas released women, children and teens, but Shiri Bibas and her sons were not included in the list.
