In response to repeated attacks by Houthi rebels against ships, the United States and the United Kingdom carried out their third joint operation against “36 rebel targets” this Saturday, February 3. At the request of Russia, which has accused Washington of “sowing chaos” in the Middle East, the UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Monday February 5.
At the same time, French elected officials from the left are calling for an immediate “ceasefire” in Gaza, while 92 people died overnight following Israeli strikes in Rafah.
Information to remember
⇒ 36 rebel targets in Yemen were bombed by the United States and the United Kingdom
⇒ Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 92
⇒ A delegation of French elected officials goes to Rafah
US, UK bomb dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen
The United States and the United Kingdom announced on Saturday February 3 that they had bombed dozens of targets in Yemen, in response to repeated attacks carried out by Houthi rebels supported by Iran against ships. These strikes targeted 36 rebel targets “in 13 locations in Yemen in response to continued attacks by the Houthis against international and commercial maritime traffic as well as warships transiting the Red Sea”, specifies a joint statement from the United States, United Kingdom and other countries which supported the operation.
The attack targeted “deeply buried arsenals, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems and radars of the Houthis,” the document added. The Houthis have promised to retaliate for these attacks. This Sunday, February 4, in the morning, the United States also announced that it had carried out a new strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile which was “ready to be launched against ships in the Red Sea”, according to the US Middle Command. Orient (Centcom).
These air raids in Yemen come the day after a series of American strikes against elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian armed groups in Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for the death of three American soldiers in Jordan on January 28. At the request of Russia, which has accused Washington of “sowing chaos” in the Middle East, the UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Monday February 5.
At least 92 dead in nighttime strikes in Gaza
The Hamas Ministry of Health indicated this Sunday, February 4, that at least 92 people had been killed by Israeli night strikes in the Gaza Strip. An attack hit a kindergarten in Rafah (in the south) where people who had fled the fighting had found refuge, according to the press office of the government of the Islamist movement. The Israeli army subsequently bombed the town of Khan Younes where, according to Israel, Hamas officials are hiding.
Truce proposal: “We cannot talk about an agreement”, according to Hamas
A senior Hamas official in Lebanon affirmed this Saturday, February 3, that his movement was open to any discussion that would put an end to Israeli “barbaric aggression” in Gaza. As a reminder, a draft truce agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, drawn up by Qatari, American and Egyptian mediators, notably provides for the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners incarcerated by Israel.
Hamas received this proposal, but details are missing, believes this senior official. It is “a framework agreement that needs to be studied […] We can’t yet talk about an agreement.”
Israeli army claims to have struck thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah targets
The Israeli army claimed this Saturday, February 3, to have struck thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah targets in Syria and southern Lebanon since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. “We attacked more than 50 targets on the ground and by air,” insisted army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, while the Israeli army rarely admits its operations in Syria. He also reported strikes against “more than 3,400 Hezbollah targets throughout southern Lebanon”, claiming that 200 “terrorists and commanders” had been killed during the same period.
A delegation of French elected officials goes to Rafah and demands a “ceasefire”
“We demand a permanent and immediate lasting ceasefire,” declared LFI MP Eric Coquerel during a press conference in Cairo, this Saturday, February 3. Around fifteen French elected officials, mainly from the left, are expected in Rafah this Sunday. This group brings together LFI deputies and senators, environmentalists, communists and overseas. “We came in a spirit of friendship for all the people of the region,” continued the elected official, who has been working on this trip since December.
He underlined the “context” of their trip, a week after the International Court of Justice called on Israel “to “take all measures in its power to prevent” acts that could fall under the United Nations Convention on Genocide .