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Israel pressed its assault on Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Wednesday, sending tanks westwards while Jordan decried shelling that badly damaged its field hospital in the city.

The Jordanian army said it held Israel responsible for a "flagrant breach of international law" in damage to the facility. Israel's military denied striking or damaging the hospital, saying it opened fire after encountering a "terrorist cell" next to the hospital.

In a statement, Israel's military said it coordinated the presence of troops in the area in advance with authorities and added medics were instructed to go to safer areas. It said it could not identify the source of gunfire that injured a medical worker and the hospital remained "fully functioning."

People in and around another hospital, Nasser, fled as tanks approached the district overnight following an Israeli army statement that it had come under fire from the area.

Palestinian health officials said seven people were killed by Israeli air strikes that damaged homes near the hospital, one of only a third of Gaza's hospitals still partially operational.

Farther south from the hospital in nearby Rafah, Palestinian health official said 16 people were killed when an Israeli missile hit a house in the city just before midnight on Wednesday. Several other people were wounded, they said, expecting the number of fatalities to increase.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said extra field hospitals were expected to be up and running in the coming days.

"These have of course been necessitated by Hamas' strategic militarization of Gaza's existing hospitals," he said, adding this showed that Hamas militants were the ones breaching international law. Hamas denies using hospitals for cover.

Explosions from shelling and air strikes sounded further west in Khan Younis as the Israeli tanks moved on. Lines of thick black smoke rose from bomb sites.

As night fell, residents reported heavy Israeli tank and aerial bombing in Khan Younis as well as the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Israel said it had killed six Palestinian fighters, including the southern district Hamas officer in charge of interrogating suspected spies. The military said in a statement that the killing of counter-espionage officer Bilal Nofal "significantly impacts the terrorist organization's capacity to develop and enhance its capabilities".

'Missiles falling on us'

Further south in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have moved on Israeli advice, people cried over several shrouded bodies, including of a young girl, Masa.

"We were asleep and then we found the missiles falling on us. We got up and couldn't see anything. We started checking on each other. The girl was martyred," said her aunt, Tahreer Shoman, adding that her siblings had been wounded but survived.

In central Gaza, the Israeli military said it killed militants in Deir al-Balah who tried to fire mortars at its forces. It said soldiers apprehended seven militants and killed several others and destroyed rocket launchers in the area of Bureij, from which it said 25 rockets had been fired on Tuesday.

Fighting also raged in densely populated Jabalia in northern Gaza on Wednesday, a day after Israeli tanks stormed back into parts of the north they left last week.

In early January, Israel announced it was scaling back operations in the north of the Palestinian enclave as part of what it called a more targeted approach in its offensive against Hamas after operations that flattened entire residential districts.

At least $15 billion will be needed just to rebuild houses in Gaza, the head of the Palestine Investment Fund, Mohammed Mustafa, told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, without taking into account the extensive damage to basic infrastructure and hospitals.

Israel's military campaign has left Gaza's population facing crisis levels of hunger and at growing risk from disease as supplies run low, aid agencies say.

Aid destined for Palestinian residents and Israeli hostages in Gaza arrived in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday under a deal brokered by France and Qatar, Egyptian security and Red Crescent officials said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society later said 146 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza from the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. From the Rafah crossing with Egypt, 48 trucks entered carrying food, water and medical supplies in addition to 12 commercial trucks, it said.

The head of the United Nations' relief agency UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, described desperate scenes of overcrowding in Rafah on the Egyptian border. He said more than 1.2 million people there were seeking shelter from the fighting.

With "the struggle for survival consuming every hour", Gazans are trying to protect themselves from the cold and rain using makeshift structures of plastic sheeting, said Lazzarini in a post on the UNRWA website, renewing his call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Communications were down across Gaza on Wednesday for a sixth day, leaving its Palestinian inhabitants unable to receive warnings on social media about the movement of Israeli forces. Most have already been forced to flee several times.

Hostages

Palestinian health officials said 163 Gazans had been reported killed over the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 24,448. Israel's Gaza offensive is in its fourth month.

Israel reported two more soldiers killed, taking the toll since it began ground operations in Gaza to 193.

Israel says it has killed 9,000 Hamas militants and has vowed to "eliminate" the enclave's Hamas rulers after gunmen stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. On Wednesday, Israel adjusted the number of people it says were taken hostage on October 7 to 253 from 240.

Around half of the hostages were released in an October truce during which some Palestinian prisoners were also freed.

The U.S. military is carrying out fresh strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday, Reuters and CNN reported citing U.S. officials, a day after launching a wave of attacks on nearly 30 locations in the country to degrade the Houthis' ability to strike Red Sea shipping.

The additional strikes were much smaller in scope than the previous night. They targeted a radar facility used by the Houthis, CNN report said. 

It came after the U.S. claimed the Houthis fired at least one anti-ship ballistic missile towards a commercial vessel on Friday in retaliation but said no damage ensued. 

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden warned that he could order more strikes if the Houthis continues their attacks on merchant and military vessels in one of the world's most economically vital waterways.

(With input from agencies)

The U.S. and the UK targeted Yemen's capital Sanaa on Saturday, the Houthis' Al-Masirah TV reported.  

Explosions were reportedly heard in Yemen's capital, one day after the U.S. and the UK launched air strikes against the Houthi militants who control the city.

China said on Friday that it is seriously concerned about a rise in tensions in Yemen following the air strikes launched by the U.S. and the UK and called for all parties to exercise restraint to prevent further escalation.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made the appeal at a United Nations Security Council meeting requested by Russia.

"We call on all parties, especially influential powers, to stick to the right direction of dialogue and consultation and make concrete efforts to maintain peace and stability in the Red Sea and the Middle East," he said.

The U.S. and UK launched air strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday, in response to the group's attacks on international ships in the Red Sea.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all sides "not to escalate" the volatile situation in the Red Sea, his spokesman said on Friday after Washington and London launched strikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels.

"The Secretary General further calls on all parties involved not to escalate even more the situation in the interest of peace and stability in the Red Sea and the wider region," said Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

U.S. and British air strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen this week are a response to the group's continued attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, the Yemeni government said on Friday.

The government added that Houthis bore responsibility for dragging the country into an arena of military confrontation.

The Pentagon said there is no plans for additional U.S. forces to go to Red Sea region, CNN reported on Friday.

Danish fuel-tanker company Torm said it is halting all transits through the southern Red Sea in the wake of air strikes on Yemen, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Yemen's Houthi group's highest ruling body, the supreme political council, said Friday that "all American and British interests are now legitimate targets for Houthi forces."

NATO on Friday said that overnight U.S. and British military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen were aimed at protecting shipping through the Red Sea and urged Iran to "rein in its proxies."

"These strikes were defensive, and designed to preserve freedom of navigation in one of the world's most vital waterways. The Houthi attacks must end," Dylan White, a spokesman for the Western military alliance, said.

Germany is in close contact with its partners, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday, following strikes carried out by the United States and Britain against Houthi military targets in Yemen.

Yahya Saree, the spokesperson for Yemen's Houthi group, said in a statement on Friday that the U.S. and British forces had carried out 73 strikes on Yemen, targeting the capital Sanaa and the governorates of Hodeidah, Taiz, Hajjah and Saada, during which five members of the group were killed and another six injured.

He added that the U.S.-British attack will "not go without a response or punishment."

Britain is not immediately planning further missions to strike against Houthi military targets in Yemen, British armed forces minister James Heappey told the BBC on Friday.

China called on all sides on Friday to prevent the Yemen conflict from expanding, saying it is concerned about the escalation of tensions in the Red Sea.

"We urge the relevant parties to keep calm and exercise restraint to prevent the conflict from expanding," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

Read more:

U.S., UK launch strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen

Stressing the Red Sea is an important corridor for international trade in goods and energy, Mao voiced the hope that all parties concerned will play a constructive and responsible role in maintaining the security and stability of the Red Sea region. "This is in the common interest of the international community."

She added that China is willing to work with all parties to maintain communication, push for the situation to cool down and work together to maintain the security of international shipping lanes.

Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a social media post on Friday that he had discussed growing tensions in the Red Sea and the need to preserve freedom of navigation with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi.

They also discussed the need for pauses of hostilities to address the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza and free all hostages, Borrell added.

An advisor to Iraq's prime minister, Fadi Al-Shammari, warned on Friday the West is expanding the conflict between Israel and Hamas and increasing tensions in the region, the state news agency (INA) reported.

His comments came after the United States and Britain launched strikes from the air and sea against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the movement's attacks on ships in the Red Sea in protest over Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

The United States and Britain have launched strikes from the air and sea against Houthi military targets in Yemen. The Friday morning strikes are the first since the Houthi group started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year. The Houthi leader warned on Thursday that any U.S. attack on his group will not go without a response.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Friday it condemns the U.S.-UK strikes on Yemen.

The group added "the American aggression confirms once again that the U.S. is a full partner in the tragedies and massacres committed by the Zionist enemy in Gaza and the region", it said in a statement. 

Houthis vowed to remain alongside Gaza after U.S., UK attacks and affirmed that "there was absolutely no justification for this aggression against Yemen," the Houthis spokesperson said in a statement.  

The spokesperson said that "there was no threat to international navigation in the Red and Arabian Sea, and the targeting was and will continue to affect Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of occupied Palestine."

Iran on Friday condemned the U.S. and UK strikes against the Houthis, calling the attacks a violation of Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Iran's Nournews reported.

The Russian permanent mission to the UN said it has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday regarding the U.S. and UK strikes on Yemen.

The governments of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, the U.S. and the UK have released a joint statement on the strikes by the U.S. and the UK on Yemen.

It said the joint strikes against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen were "in accordance with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense."

"These precision strikes were intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of international mariners in one of the world's most critical waterways," the statement continued.

"Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but let our message be clear: we will not hesitate to defend lives and protect the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways in the face of continued threats."

Houthi forces have launched retaliatory attacks on U.S. and UK warships in the Red Sea, a senior member of the Houthi group, Abdul Salam Jahaf, claimed in a statement early on Friday. But a senior U.S. official told reporters no direct retaliatory action directed towards U.S. or other coalition members was seen as of now. 

Earlier on Friday, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi has warned in a televised speech that "any American aggression will not go without response."

Saudi Arabia is following U.S. and British air strikes on neighboring Yemen with "great concern", a foreign ministry statement said on Friday, urging against escalation.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is following with great concern the military operations taking place in the Red Sea region and the air strikes on a number of sites in the Republic of Yemen," the statement said, calling for "self-restraint and avoiding escalation." 

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday the country's Royal Air Force, alongside the U.S., with non-operational support from the Netherlands, Canada and Bahrain, has carried out targeted strikes against the Houthis in Yemen following attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

The White House confirmed late on Thursday that coalition strikes have been launched in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. 

"U.S. military forces – together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands –successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world's most vital waterways," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a White House statement.

Raids were conducted on several Yemeni cities in the early hours of Friday, an official from the Houthi movement said.

"American-Zionist-British aggression against Yemen launches several raids on the capital, Sanaa, Hodeidah governorate, Saada, and Dhamar," Houthi official Abdul Qader al-Mortada said on X. 

Explosions rocked Yemen's capital Sanaa early on Friday amid media reports of U.S. and UK air strikes against Houthi targets.

Local media earlier also reported air strikes in the vicinity of Yemen's Hodeidah.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak authorized British airstrikes against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, The Times reported on Thursday.

The UK is expected to join the U.S. and other allies in carrying such missions immediately, the report said.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday demanded Yemen's Houthis immediately end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and implicitly endorsed a U.S.-led task force that has been defending vessels while cautioning against escalating tensions.

Resolution 2722 condemns "in the strongest terms" the Houthi attacks on Red Sea vessels since November 19, 2023, when they attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew. It demands the Houthi militia immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security, and immediately release the Galaxy Leader and its crew.

The resolution affirms that the exercise of navigational rights and freedoms by merchant and commercial vessels, in accordance with international law, must be respected, and takes note of the right of UN member states to defend their vessels from attacks in accordance with the international law.

The resolution emphasizes the need to address the root causes, including the conflicts contributing to regional tensions and the disruption of maritime security in order to ensure a prompt, efficient and effective response.

It calls for caution and restraint to avoid further escalation of the situation in the Red Sea and the broader region, and encourages enhanced diplomatic efforts by all parties to that end, including continued support for dialogue and Yemen's peace process under the UN auspices.

Three Russian amendments to the draft, including the mentioning of the conflict in Gaza as a contributor to regional tensions, failed to be adopted by the Security Council.

Resolution 2722 was adopted with 11 votes in favor, none against, and four abstentions, namely by Algeria, China, Mozambique and Russia.  

The Houthi spokesperson in Yemen, Mohammed Abdul Salam said on Thursday the UN resolution on navigation on the Red Sea is a "political game."

The spokesperson said the U.S. is the one violating international law.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover: People watch as a ship transits the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea in Ismailia, Egypt, January 10, 2024. /CFP)

Yemen's Houthis rebels said in a statement on Wednesday that they had targeted a U.S. ship supporting Israel in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles and drones.

An uncrewed aerial vehicle launched from Yemen was shot down in self-defense by a U.S. ship in the southern Red Sea on Saturday in the vicinity of several commercial vessels, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

No casualties or damage were reported, it said.

The U.S. Navy has reported no damage or casualties from the detonation of a Houthi drone boat in the Red Sea. The latest attack came one day after 12 countries issued a joint statement, cautioning the Houthis of unspecified "consequences" unless they halt their attacks. A U.S. official suggested it was a final warning.

The Houthi group in Yemen launched on Wednesday missiles targeting a cargo ship in the Red Sea, the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement.

The Houthi forces carried out an operation targeting the ship CMA CGM TAGE, he said in a live broadcast aired by the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

"The operation came after the ship's crew refused to respond to calls from our forces, including fiery warning messages," he said.

The Houthi group will continue to prevent Israeli ships or those heading to Israel from navigating in the Red Sea and Arab Sea until food and medicine aid are allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, the spokesperson stressed.

Before dawn, residents in the western province of Taiz recorded and shared videos on social media capturing three missiles launched from the western coastal area of al-Barah towards the southern part of the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday that it had received reports of up to three explosions near a merchant vessel in the Bab El-Mandeb.

Earlier that day, the U.S. Central Command stated that the Houthis had targeted cargo ships in the Red Sea. It said this was the 24th time the Houthis had attacked such vessels.

The Houthis' latest attack came nearly three days after a military helicopter of the U.S. Navy patrolling the Red Sea shot and killed 10 Houthi fighters and sank their three boats while they were trying to approach a merchant ship.

The Houthis have escalated their attacks on Israel-linked ships since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on October 7, 2023, demanding that food and medicine aid be allowed to enter the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.

The Houthi group controls much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

(Cover: Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea, November 20, 2023. /CFP)

The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Southern Red Sea on Tuesday morning.

Multiple commercial ships in the area reported the impact of the missiles though no damage was reported, according to the statement.

The Houthis have not responded to the claim. 

Yemen's Houthi rebels issued a new warning to the United States on Friday, cautioning against any military escalation and pledging to continue attacks on "Israel-related" commercial ships in the Red Sea.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea, in a statement broadcast on the rebel-run al-Masirah TV, affirmed the group's commitment to counter "any potential aggression on Yemen."

He also sent a warning to nations considering participation in the U.S.-led coalition aimed at protecting the ships.

In recent weeks, the rebel group has targeted "Israel-related" cargo vessels in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, citing solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

On November 19, the Houthis hijacked a cargo ship, the Galaxy Leader, in the Red Sea and took it and its crew to Hodeidah port.

The Houthis said they would stop attacks on ships if food and medicine aid were allowed into the Gaza Strip.

Last week, the U.S. announced a multinational maritime coalition to secure the ships passing through the Red Sea after a series of Houthi attacks.

The rebels control much of northern Yemen, including the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, since they ousted the Yemeni government from the capital Sanaa.

(Cover: A cargo ship crosses the Suez Canal, one of the most critical human-made waterways, in Ismailia, Egypt, December 29, 2023. /CFP)