Live Updates
US and British forces jointly target the Huthis for the third time after repeated attacks on Red Sea shipping.
AFP
On the 123rd day of the Israel-Hamas war, the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will be placed under review by an independent group. Tensions continue to run high in the Middle East as a British ship suffered some damage after it was attacked by a drone off of Houthi-controlled Hodeidah in Yemen.
In Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah lost some of its combatants as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded to rocket and missile launches from Lebanese territory.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East for his fifth trip to the tension-packed region. He is in Saudi Arabia to push for a hostage deal and will also visit Egypt, Qatar, and Israel in the coming days.
The loved ones of remaining hostages in Gaza are hopeful that Hamas will soon respond to a proposed ceasefire deal that the Palestinian terror group has been reviewing since last week. A joint group of Israeli and American activists is holding a 36-hour fast near the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Geneva, raising awareness about the plight of some 130 hostages still in Hamas captivity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to remain steadfast in the country’s war goals despite pressure from the international community. His refusal to give in to Hamas’ earlier demands for a truce draws from years and years of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that U.S. President Joe Biden previously said could be resolved through a path to Palestinian statehood.
