Iranian masked gunmen seize oil tanker that US previously detained
The Iranian navy have seized an oil tanker off Oman in a retaliatory move against the United States that raised fears for shipping in the Middle East.
Five masked gunmen in black military uniforms boarded the tanker, St Nikolas, early on Thursday, the UK Marine Trade Operations organisation said.
The gunmen then covered the ship’s surveillance cameras, the Associated Press reported.
The vessel, carrying 145,000 tonnes of Iraqi crude oil and a crew of 19, was headed for Turkey before it was intercepted 50 nautical miles east of Sohar, a city on the north coast of Oman.
Iranian state media said the interception of the vessel was in retaliation to the US seizing the ship and its cargo of 980,000 barrels of oil in April last year as part of an operation to enforce sanctions on Tehran.
“After the theft of Iranian oil by the US last year, St Nikolas tanker was seized by Iran’s navy this morning with a judicial order,” Iranian state media reported on Thursday, adding that the ship was being redirected to an Iranian port.
The St Nikolas was known as the Suez Rajan when it was seized by the US.
The company that previously chartered the tanker eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of smuggling Iranian oil despite US sanctions.
19 crew members on board
Empire Navigation, the operator of the St Nikolas, said its “main concern and upmost priority is the safety of the crew on board,” which includes 18 Filipinos and 1 Greek.
It said it was in touch with the pertinent authorities and crew members’ next of kin.
Tensions have been rising in the Middle East since war broke out between Israel and Hamas, after the terror group launched a devastating attack in October. Since then, Iranian proxy groups have engaged in skirmishes with the Israeli military across the region.
Thursday’s ship seizure came after weeks of attacks targeting commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, based in Yemen.
But the latest attack appeared to be separate from those carried out by the Houthis, and took place far from the group’s usual area of operations on the opposite side of the Arabian peninsula.
Risk of escalation
Experts say Iran’s seizure of the tanker has raised the risk of an escalation of the conflict, but said this was in range of expected actions by the Islamic Republic and was not a “game changer”.
“There is so much scope for escalation, for things to go really wrong – either on purpose, or by accident,” said Tobias Borck, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.
“This seizure of the tanker adds another wrinkle of complexity,” he said. “The entire region is extraordinarily tense.”
“It’s long been part of Iran’s modus operandi in moments when it wants to demonstrate its ability to create problems, and its ability to put pressure on the West – specifically speaking, the US,” said Mr Borck.
Earlier this week, the Houthis launched their largest attack in the Red Sea shipping route since the war broke out, firing 21 drones and missiles at the US and UK vessels patrolling the area. All were intercepted with no damage or injuries reported.
04:00 PM GMT
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03:59 PM GMT
Israel accuses South Africa of serving as 'legal arm' of Hamas
Israel has accused South Africa of serving as the “legal arm” of Hamas, as lawyers presented Pretoria’s “genocide” case against Israel at the UN’s top court.
Lior Haiat, a foreign ministry spokesman, described South Africa’s case over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as “one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy in history”.
His comments come as South Africa accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to genocidal acts on Thursday and demanded that the UN’s top court order an emergency suspension of Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza.
The court will listen to Israel’s response on Friday.
03:56 PM GMT
Pictured: Israeli military rescue exercise
03:44 PM GMT
Desmond Tutu statue with Palestinian scarf to go up in Cape Town
A statue of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wearing a Palestinian scarf will be put up in Cape Town from Friday to symbolise his decades-long work championing justice for Palestinians, his foundation said.
The late Nobel peace laureate’s “life-size statue” will be temporarily on show “until the bombing of Gaza stops”, the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said on Thursday.
“He was an outspoken critic of the State of Israel’s policies and treatment of Palestine and Palestinians, which he likened to the policies and actions of apartheid South Africa,” the Foundation said.
The announcement comes as lawyers for Pretoria present their case at the UN’s top court in The Hague after the country lodged an urgent appeal to force Israel to “immediately suspend” military operations in Gaza.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has long been a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.
03:35 PM GMT
Relatives reject Israel army claims against slain journalists
Family members have rejected claims by the Israeli army that two Al Jazeera journalists killed in a Gaza air strike were “terror operatives”.
Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria, who also worked as video stringers for AFP and other news organisations, were killed on Sunday while they were on an assignment for the Qatar-based channel in the city of Rafah.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army said the two men were “members of Gaza-based terrorist organisations actively involved in attacks against IDF [army] forces”.
“Prior to the strike, the two operated drones, posing an imminent threat to IDF troops,” the army said.
Hamza’s father Wael al-Dahdouh, who is Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, rejected the claims.
“These are fabrications. It is clear that they [the IDF] are attempting to defend themselves, justify what is happening and derail the issue,” Mr al-Dahdouh told AFP.
“It wants to give excuses. This is clear [even] to children here,” he said, adding that his son had been an experienced journalist.
“In this war, journalists can barely do their work, given that they are homeless and displaced,” he said.
Hamas’s press office said the army’s claims were false and that Israel “creates false pretexts to justify its massacres and crimes against Palestinian civilians and journalists”.
03:23 PM GMT
Gazan residents return to north of enclave
Gazan residents returned to scenes of total devastation in the north of the enclave, where Israeli forces have begun withdrawing this week.
Since the New Year, Israel has announced a new phase in the war, to begin drawing down forces in the northern half of the Gaza Strip where its offensive began. Even so, fighting has only intensified in southern areas.
The relative quiet in the north has let residents begin trickling back into obliterated cities, finding a moonscape often with scant trace of where homes once stood.
Yousef Fares, a freelance journalist, filmed himself walking through a wasteland surrounded by scorched ruins that was once a part of Gaza City, home to nearly a million people. A few civilians passed by, some wobbling on bicycles over a track across the mud.
“All the houses you see are destroyed, completely or partially,” he said.
“We are now at the Tuffah old cemetery, which is over 100 years old. All those graves were exhumed, they were run over by the Israeli bulldozers and tanks. People are coming from various areas of Gaza City to search for the bodies of their sons.”
Abu Ayesh, who returned to a nearby part of Gaza City, told Reuters by phone that the destruction was “earthquake-like”. “I tell [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that Gaza will be rebuilt, we will build our homes and we will rebury our dead.”
03:06 PM GMT
Analysis: South Africa's legal team was well-prepared
The images and words coming from the International Court of Justice in The Hague today are profound and powerful, writes Paul Nuki, The Telegraph’s Global Health and Security Editor.
Whatever you think of South Africa’s motive in bringing a charge of genocide against Israel, the Jewish State clearly faces a legal team that has prepared well.
There has been little in the way of empty rhetoric. Instead there is only cold data and a steely focus on the letter of the law as laid out in the Genocide Convention.
Israel still has to give its defence - that will come tomorrow - but it is going to be tough to convince the 17 justices of the court to drop the charge outright.
The problem for the defence is that so much of the evidence for the prosecution has been recorded by the alleged perpetrators themselves, soldiers and politicians.
Professor Malcolm Shaw KC, the British lawyer who will lead Israel’s defence, has his work cut out.
Read more here for a full explainer about the charge of genocide being brought against Israel
02:49 PM GMT
Gaza in pictures:
02:30 PM GMT
US special envoy hopes diplomacy will calm Lebanon-Israel border
Amos Hochstein, the US special envoy, said he was hopeful diplomacy could calm tensions on the disputed border between Lebanon and Israel, where the Israeli military and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for three months.
Mr Hochstein met Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, foreign minister, army commander and speaker of parliament in an hours-long visit to the Lebanese capital on Thursday.
“I firmly believe that the people of Lebanon do not want to see an escalation of the current crisis to further conflict,” he told reporters in Beirut.
Israeli shelling has killed at least 25 Lebanese civilians and 140 fighters from Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. At least nine Israeli troops have been killed in northern Israel.
02:15 PM GMT
Israel turning 'Gaza into a concentration camp', UN court hears
Israel is turning Gaza into a concentration camp, South Africa’s legal team argued, as it launched a landmark genocide case at the top UN court.
John Dugard, a South African lawyer and former UN special rapporteur, quoted Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, who said that “Israel turned Gaza into a concentration camp where a genocide is taking place.”
Pretoria has lodged an urgent appeal at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to force Israel to “immediately suspend” its military operations in Gaza.
Ronald Lamola, Pretoria’s justice minister, accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, adding: “No armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious... can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention.”
Ahead of the proceedings, hundreds of pro-Israeli protesters marched close to the courthouse with banners saying “bring them home”, referring to the hostages held by Hamas since it attacked Israel on October 7.
Israel has dismissed the case as “atrocious” and “preposterous” and vowed to set out a robust defence on Friday.
01:32 PM GMT
South Africa concludes opening arguments
South Africa concluded presenting its arguments at the International Court of Justice by requesting emergency measures to stop the war. The court will listen to Israel’s response on Friday. Israel has denied the allegations.
Here is a summary of what South Africa said today:
South Africa said Israel’s aerial and ground offensive aimed to bring about “the destruction of the population” of the Palestinian enclave.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, told the court: “The intent to destroy Gaza has been nurtured at the highest level of state”.
He said Israel’s political and military leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were among “the genocidal inciters.”
The legal team at the ICJ also pointed to comments by Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, who said early in the war that Israel would impose a total blockade as part of a battle against “human animals”.
Israel’s foreign ministry has accused South Africa of rank hypocrisy, saying it had ignored “the fact that Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, murdered, executed, massacred, raped and kidnapped Israeli citizens just because they were Israelis, in an attempt to carry out genocide.”
01:03 PM GMT
Pictured: South Africans protest for the success of their government's genocide case against Israel
12:53 PM GMT
Masked gunmen in military-style uniform board ship near Iran
Five masked gunmen in military-style uniforms boarded an oil tanker near Iran early on Thursday morning in what appears to be a ship seizure.
The vessel was situated about 50 nautical miles east of Sohar, a city on the north coast of Oman, just across the water from Iran.
A report from the UK Navy-run Maritime Trade Operations said that “unknown voices” were heard over the phone, along with the ship captain’s voice, and that further attempts to establish contact with the vessel failed.
Read more from The Telegraph’s Middle East Correspondent Sophia Yan here
12:37 PM GMT
Red Sea attacks do not threaten peace with Riyadh, say Houthis
The chief negotiator for Yemen’s Houthis said the group’s attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea do not threaten its peace talks with Saudi Arabia, blaming Israel’s war in Gaza for dragging the Middle East into more regional conflict.
The Houthi movement, an Iran-aligned group that controls much of Yemen after nearly a decade of war against a Western-backed and Saudi-led coalition, has emerged as a strong supporter of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its war against Israel.
The group has been attacking commercial ships it says are linked to Israel or bound for Israeli ports and has engaged directly with the US navy in the Red Sea, firing ballistic missiles and deploying armed drones against US and British warships.
The Houthis’ top negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam said the attacks in the Red Sea, however, had no impact on the peace process underway with Saudi Arabia, with the mediation of Oman and the United Nations.
“It has nothing to do with what is happening in the Gaza Strip, unless the Americans want to move other countries in the region to defend Israel, which is another matter,” he told Reuters.
12:35 PM GMT
South Africa asks World Court to order Israel to stop Gaza war
South Africa asked the World Court on Thursday to order Israel to immediately suspend its military operation in Gaza, where it says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians.
The demand came at the closing of the first day of hearings of a case brought by South Africa against Israel at the UN’s top court.
Israel will respond to the allegations on Friday.
12:22 PM GMT
Israel denies bombing Gaza ambulance
The Israeli military has denied it had bombed an ambulance in the central Gaza Strip a day earlier, which killed four medics and two other people.
The army said in a statement to AFP: “A review was conducted based on the details provided to the IDF [Israeli military] which shows that no strike was carried out in the described area.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society had said six people were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike at the entrance to the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza.
The roof of the ambulance was completely destroyed and part of the vehicle crushed, AFP photos show.
Jagan Chapagain, the head of the International Federation for Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, called the attack “unacceptable” in a social media post and said “I strongly condemn their killing”.
11:59 AM GMT
French military escorting country's ships through Red Sea
French naval forces are accompanying ships with French interests through the Red Sea region, the country’s top naval commander in the area said on Thursday, adding that Paris’ current mandate did not include striking Houthi rebels directly.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been targeting Red Sea shipping routes to show their support for Hamas, which is fighting Israel in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters, Rear-Adml Emmanuel Slaars, joint commander of French forces in the region, said France was working closely with the US-led Prosperity Guardian mission by exchanging information and carrying out patrols, but said command of French forces remained entirely under Paris’ control.
“The French operation consists of, on the one hand, patrolling the maritime zones where the Houthis operate to stop them,” Slaars said. “These patrols are in coordination with the Prosperity Guardian operation,” he said.
“On the other hand, we regularly escort French-flagged ships or with French interests in the Red Sea. We accompany them all along their crossing.”
11:40 AM GMT
Pictured: Palestinians gather at the Nelson Mandela Square in Ramallah, West Bank, to demonstrate support for the 'genocide' case South Africa filed against Israel
11:22 AM GMT
South Africans rally in support of 'genocide' case against Israel
Dozens of people took to the streets of Cape Town in one of several demonstrations planned across South Africa to support the government’s “genocide” case against Israel.
Lawyers for Pretoria are presenting their case at the UN’s top court in The Hague, where South Africa lodged an urgent appeal to force Israel to “immediately suspend” its military operations in Gaza.
Standing on the steps of the High Court in the southwestern port city of Cape Town, pro-Palestinian demonstrators held signs reading “Stop the genocide” and “Boycott apartheid Israel”.
“Free Palestine,” some chanted.
Seehaam Samaai, a lawyer in attendance, said: “The important issue for us is that there is a ceasefire, that military actions are stopped in Gaza.”
Further rallies are planned in Cape Town and other cities.
10:37 AM GMT
Blinken meets Egypt's Sisi
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president, in Cairo, as he concluded a bout of frenetic diplomacy between Israel and its neighbours over the war in Gaza.
The visit came a day after Sisi met King Abdullah of Jordan and Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority president, in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, as Washington pushes for a path forward from the bloodshed in Gaza and the conflict threatens to spread further to Lebanon, Iraq and Red Sea shipping lanes.
After the talks, Egypt and Jordan warned that Israel’s crackdown, which has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, must not displace the strip’s 2.3 million people or end in an Israeli occupation.
Israel and its US backers have insisted that it is not Israel’s plan.
10:13 AM GMT
Israel has 'pushed Gazans to the brink of famine,' South Africa says
Israel’s military operations in Gaza have pushed the people there to the “brink of famine”, a top lawyer for South Africa told the UN’s top court.
Adila Hassim said that “the situation is such that the experts are now predicting that more people in Gaza may die from starvation and disease” than direct military action.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, issued a video statement on Wednesday night defending his country’s actions and insisted they had nothing to do with genocide.
“Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,” he said. “Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law.”
10:10 AM GMT
Mapped: Ship seized by masked men
09:53 AM GMT
South Africa accuses Israel of breaching Genocide Convention
South Africa has accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, saying that even the October 7 Hamas attack could not justify such alleged actions.
Pretoria has lodged an urgent appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to force Israel to “immediately suspend” its military operations in Gaza. Israel has dismissed the case as “atrocious” and “preposterous”.
Ronald Lamola, Pretoria’s justice minister, said: “No armed attack on a state territory no matter how serious... can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention.
“Israel’s response to the October 7 attack has crossed this line and given rise to the breaches of the convention,” he added, setting out South Africa’s case at the ICJ.
09:32 AM GMT
PRCS: Healthcare workers are not a target
Healthcare workers are #NotATarget. pic.twitter.com/ngSFMiwXfd
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) January 10, 2024
09:19 AM GMT
Pictured: Smoke rises following Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip
09:01 AM GMT
Amnesty International has 'not determined whether Gaza situation amounts to genocide'
Amnesty International said it had not determined whether “the situation in Gaza amounts to genocide” but that “there are alarming warning signs, given the staggering scale of death and destruction” in the three-month-old war.
It flagged “an appalling spike in dehumanising and racist rhetoric against Palestinians by certain Israeli government and military officials”.
In its statement, Amnesty said Israel’s “illegal siege in Gaza” was “inflicting unfathomable levels of suffering” and putting the survival of those in Gaza at risk.
08:57 AM GMT
Israel to face Gaza genocide charges at World Court
The International Court of Justice in the Hague was set to hold two days of hearings because of the case brought by South Africa in December, which claimed the war in Gaza violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Of the genocide accusations, rejected by Israel and the United States, Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, said on Wednesday: “Our opposition to the ongoing slaughter of the people of Gaza has driven us as a country to approach the ICJ.
“As a people who once tasted the bitter fruits of dispossession, discrimination, racism and state-sponsored violence, we are clear that we will stand on the right side of history,” Mr Ramaphosa said.
Eylon Levy, spokesperson for the Israeli government, responded: “The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel, as Pretoria gives political and legal cover to the Hamas rapist regime.”
The hearings will deal exclusively with South Africa’s request for an emergency order that Israel suspend military action in Gaza while the court, also known as the World Court, hears the merits of the case - a process that could take years.
In its 84-page filing, South Africa said that by killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious mental and bodily harm and by creating conditions “calculated to bring about their physical destruction”, Israel is committing genocide against them.
The 1948 treaty defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
08:54 AM GMT
Houthi rebels who attacked British ship trained at elite Iranian academy
Houthi rebels, who have fired missiles at a British Navy ship in the Red Sea, trained at an elite Iranian naval academy.
Some 200 mercenaries, who control swathes of Yemen, were sent to the leading naval institution in Iran to receive instruction from Revolutionary Guard officials, The Telegraph can reveal.
Details of the training, gathered by intelligence sources in Iran, demonstrate Tehran’s direct involvement in widening the conflict in the Middle East.
Read more here
08:46 AM GMT
Q&A: Will Israel be charged with genocide at The Hague?
Justices of the International Court of Justice in the Hague will sit to consider an extraordinary charge: that Israel, the Jewish state born of the Holocaust, is now itself committing genocide.
A South African legal team will present a dossier of evidence which they claim shows a clear intent by Israel to commit humanity’s most heinous crime. They will then ask the Court to formally order an emergency suspension of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Genocide is a difficult crime to prove and if the case goes forward, it could take a decade or more to decide. But for now the Court is only being asked to decide if there is prima facie evidence of genocide in Gaza – that the charge of genocide is plausible.
If it does so – and there is precedent to suggest it might – the ruling could have enormous diplomatic and economic repercussions for Israel, effectively rendering it a pariah state.
It could also alter the course of the war in Gaza.
Read more here
08:44 AM GMT
Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza, Netanyahu says
Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population, Benjamin Netanyahu has said, publicly rebuffing calls by some right-wing ministers to permanently occupy the enclave for the first time.
The Israeli prime minister opposed calls from Right-wing members of his government, including Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister, for Palestinians to leave Gaza voluntarily, making way for Israelis to settle there.
His comments come as Israel prepared to defend itself at the top UN court against accusations of genocide in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter: “I want to make a few points absolutely clear: Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.”
Potentially timing his comments ahead of the court hearings, he added: “Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law.”
