Middle East crisis: HMS Richmond takes over Red Sea patrol
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Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond has taken over patrols to protect shipping in the “fraught” Red Sea as attacks on vessels continue.
The Type 23 frigate replaces HMS Diamond has come under fire from Iran-backed Houthi forces on three occasions during its time on duty in the region.
The rebels have attacked dozens of international vessels in the Red Sea since November, prompting air strikes from the US and UK on targets in Yemen.
HMS Richmond has a crew of 200 sailors and Royal Marines and a Sea Ceptor missile system, capable of protecting shipping spread out across an area the size of Greater Manchester – some 500 square miles of ocean.
It is also armed with machine-guns, torpedoes and a Wildcat helicopter.
02:59 PM GMT
That’s all for today
Thank you for following our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The latest developments were:
Yemen’s Houthis claim to have struck US and British ships in two separate missile attacks in the Red Sea.
The leader of the Houthis said that the group “will further escalate” if the Israeli attack on Gaza does not stop.
The crew of the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, captured by the Houthis in November, are “safe and sound” and will return to Bulgaria soon, authorities in Sofia said.
Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond has taken over responsibility for protecting shipping in the “fraught” Red Sea as attacks on vessels continue.
Israel’s evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometres, according to UN humanitarian monitors.
Israel’s ambassador to Russia was summoned to the foreign ministry after authorities said she had made “unacceptable comments” in an interview.
Israel said its forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen throughout Gaza in the past 24 hours with fighting focused on Khan Younis in the south.
At least 27,585 Palestinians have been killed and 66,978 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct 7, the health ministry in Gaza said.
Russia and China have accused the United States of stoking already high tensions in the Middle East with its recent retaliatory strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, visited Egypt as part of a Middle East crisis tour seeking a new truce and “an enduring end” to the Israel-Hamas war.
02:48 PM GMT
Cargo ship crew seized by Yemen's Houthis ‘safe’
The crew of the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, captured by Houthi rebels in November, are “safe and sound” and will return to Bulgaria soon, authorities in Sofia said on Tuesday.
The Houthis seized the Galaxy Leader on Nov 19.
Georgy Gvozdeykov, the Bulgarian transport minister, told private Bulgarian television station bTV: “The information we have ... on the sailors of the Galaxy Leader captured in the Red Sea is that they are well, safe and sound.”
The crew is staying at a hotel and their return to Bulgaria is being organised, Mr Gvozdeykov added without providing further details.
The Galaxy Leader is owned by a British company, itself owned by an Israeli businessman.
02:38 PM GMT
Houthi leader says group will escalate if attack on Gaza does not stop
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, said on Tuesday that the group “will further escalate” if the Israeli attack on Gaza does not stop.
Iran-aligned Houthis have been targeting commercial vessels with drones and missiles in the Red Sea since mid-November, in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
02:33 PM GMT
Houthis launch salvo of missiles at British and US ships
Yemen’s Houthis claim to have struck US and British ships in two separate missile attacks in the Red Sea.
In a statement, Yahya Saree, the Houthi spokesman said: “The first attack targeted the American ship Star Nasia, while the other targeted the British ship Morning Tide.”
Ambrey, a security firm, had earlier reported a drone attack on a British-owned cargo ship.
The Houthis have attacked dozens of international vessels in the Red Sea, prompting air strikes from the US and UK on targets in Yemen.
02:28 PM GMT
Two thirds of Gaza now covered by Israel’s evacuation order
Israel’s evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip now cover two-thirds of the territory, or 246 square kilometres (95 square miles), UN humanitarian monitors said Tuesday.
It said more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people is now crammed into the town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and surrounding areas.
02:02 PM GMT
HMS Richmond takes over protection of shipping in Red Sea
Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond has taken over responsibility for protecting shipping in the “fraught” Red Sea as attacks on vessels continue.
The Type 23 frigate replaces HMS Diamond, which has come under fire from Iran-backed Houthi forces on three occasions during its time on duty in the region.
01:43 PM GMT
Javier Milei arrives in Israel
Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, has arrived in Israel for his first diplomatic trip.
He is scheduled to hold talks on Wednesday with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who he has strongly backed since Oct 7.
Mr Netanyahu invited Mr Milei to Jerusalem in a congratulatory phone call in December, calling him a “true friend” of Israel.
Mr Milei, who has said he may convert to Judaism, is also set to meet with rabbis in Israel and visit prominent Jewish sites in Jerusalem, as well as commemorate the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
The president has also pledged to move the Argentine embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
01:35 PM GMT
8,000 displaced people evacuated from Gaza hospital
Around 8,000 displaced people have been evacuated from a besieged hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis where they had sought refuge, the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.
Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told reporters in Geneva: “Eight thousand internally displaced people who sought refuge in our Palestinian Red Crescent hospital in Khan Yunis ... left the hospital yesterday.”
He said Al-Amal had been under siege for more than two weeks, surrounded by heavy shelling and fighting. It was hit several times, including on Friday, when a volunteer was killed.
Around 100 elderly, wounded and disabled patients remained there, with about 100 staff and volunteers, the ICRC said.
01:29 PM GMT
Vessel and crew safe after Greek-owned bulk carrier targeted
An explosion was reported near a merchant vessel off Yemen’s port of Aden on Tuesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency and British maritime security firm Ambrey said.
A Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier was targeted while heading through the Maritime Security Transit Corridor southbound about 53 nautical miles southwest of Aden, Ambrey reported. The vessel was travelling from the US to India.
The vessel and crew are safe, both Ambrey and UKMTO reported.
12:49 PM GMT
Houthis sentence 13 to death on homosexuality charges
A Houthi-run court in Yemen has sentenced 13 people to public execution on homosexuality charges, according to AFP.
The sentences were handed down in Ibb, a province controlled by the Houthis whose attacks on Red Sea shipping since November have prompted retaliatory strikes by the United States and Britain.
Three others were jailed on similar charges, according to the judicial source, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
NGOs say rights abuses have increased since the Houthis started their attacks on Red Sea vessels, avowedly in protest at the Israel-Hamas war.
Niku Jafarnia, a Yemen researcher from Human Rights Watch, said: “The Houthis are ramping up their abuses at home while the world is busy watching their attacks in the Red Sea.”
12:29 PM GMT
Pictures from Rafah on Feb 6
12:20 PM GMT
Israeli ambassador arrives at Russian foreign ministry
Simona Halperin, Israel’s ambassador to Russia, has arrived at the Russian foreign ministry, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported, a day after authorities said she would be summoned over “unacceptable comments” in an interview.
In the interview with the Kommersant newspaper, Ms Halperin accused Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, of playing down the importance of the Holocaust and said Russia was being too friendly with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
12:08 PM GMT
Amnesty accuses Israeli forces of killing Palestinians in West Bank with impunity
Amnesty International has said that Israeli forces were killing Palestinians in the West Bank with “near total impunity” as the world’s attention focused on Gaza.
In a statement, the human rights organisation said: “With the world’s eyes fixed on Gaza, Israeli forces have over the past four months unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests and arrest raids, and denying medical assistance to those injured.”
Amnesty investigated four cases where Israeli forces used “unlawful lethal force” – three incidents in October and one in November – which resulted in the unlawful killing of 20 Palestinians, including seven children, it said.
The Israeli military has described its actions in the West Bank as counter-terrorism efforts necessary to prevent further attacks. Israel has strongly denied prior accusations that it has committed the crime of apartheid.
11:42 AM GMT
UKMTO receives report of incident at sea south of Yemen's Aden
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it had received a report of an incident 50 nautical miles south of Yemen’s Aden.
UKMTO added that authorities were investigating the incident and no further details were provided.
11:28 AM GMT
Protesters block humanitarian aid into Gaza
Protesters are blocking the Kerem Shalom crossing to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel is reporting.
A few hundred demonstrators are estimated to be at the crossing, despite the IDF announcing last week that it is a closed military zone, meaning it is illegal for civilians to be in the area or on nearby roads.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to reopen the crossing for the entry of aid into Gaza amid a growing humanitarian crisis there, and ministers say the aid is necessary to enable Israel to continue operating against Hamas amid intense international pressure.
11:00 AM GMT
Aerial and tank bombardment thunders through Khan Younis overnight
Israel said its forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen throughout Gaza in the past 24 hours with fighting focused on Khan Younis in the south.
Khan Younis has been the object of the Israeli Defense Forces’ offensive for weeks. Aerial and tank bombardment thundered through the shattered city overnight, with at least 14 people killed by air strikes since the pre-dawn hours, Palestinian residents and medics told Reuters.
They said Israeli tanks and aircraft continued to pound and besiege areas around Khan Younis’s two main hospitals – Nasser and Al-Amal. Israel’s military says Hamas use hospital premises for cover, which Gaza’s ruling Islamists deny.
Rafah, Palestinians’ last southern refuge from Israeli advancements towards the border with Egypt, was battered by several air strikes and tank shelling overnight.
At makeshift tent camps in Rafah, untreated sewage flooded towards a shelter for the displaced, the latest sign of Gaza’s sanitation system collapsing, Reuters reported.
In Gaza City in the north of the narrow coastal enclave, residents reported further Israeli air strikes and tank shelling. Fighting has resurged in Gaza City two months after Israel said it had subdued the area.
10:30 AM GMT
Report into UNRWA employees’ alleged involvement in Oct 7 attack due in March
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees expects its preliminary report into Israeli claims that a dozen of its employees took part in the Oct 7 attack on Israel to be ready by early next month, its representative in Lebanon said on Tuesday.
Dorothee Klaus told reporters in Lebanon that the agency expects donors who suspended their funding after the claims emerged to review their decisions based on the probe.
“We expect a preliminary investigation report early March, based on which we assume donors would look into their decisions of having suspended funding to UNRWA,” Ms Klaus said.
The UN’s oversight office is carrying out the investigation. UNRWA has said it acted quickly to address the allegations, with its head Philippe Lazzarini firing those allegedly involved and informing the UN’s secretary general, as well as the United States and other donors.
The UNRWA was the first ever UN agency, and established by a resolution of the body’s General Assembly in 1949 to look after refugees who fled or were pushed from their homes when Israel was created.
10:23 AM GMT
Pictured: Blinken meets Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
10:01 AM GMT
US hit two Houthi sea drones in Yemen
The US struck two Houthi sea drones in Yemen on Monday, the latest of several strikes on Houthi positions since mid-January, Bloomberg reports.
“US forces identified the explosive USVs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” the US military said late on Monday.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they targeted two more ships sailing in the southern Red Sea.
The group has pledged to continue attacking vessels until Israel pulls out of the Gaza Strip.
09:51 AM GMT
Israel minister sorry after son implies Biden has Alzheimer’s
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, has apologised after his son implied in an online post that Joe Biden had Alzheimer’s disease.
Shuvael Ben-Gvir wrote that it was “important to raise awareness” about the degenerative brain condition, “which is the most common cause of cognitive decline and dementia in older people”.
The post was written above a photograph of Biden, who is 81 and seeking re-election.
Shuvael’s post was later deleted but his father wrote on the same platform that his “beloved son” had committed a “serious error” and that he “deeply disapproved” of it.
“The United States of America is our great friend and President Biden is a friend of Israel,” he wrote in Hebrew.
There was no place for such “derogatory” comments, he said, adding: “I apologise for my son’s words.”
In recent days, Mr Gvir has himself criticised Biden for not giving Israel sufficient support in the war with Gaza militants.
09:34 AM GMT
Russia summons Israel envoy to explain ‘unacceptable’ comments
Israel’s new ambassador to Russia has been summoned to the foreign ministry to explain what Moscow said were “unacceptable statements”.
Simona Halperin, who started her job last month, was accused of making comments “distorting Russian foreign policy approaches and historical realities”, Russian state-media reported.
Ms Halperin discussed a wide range of topics from the Holocaust to Russian attitudes toward Hamas in an interview with Kommersant newspaper published on Monday.
Bloomberg reported that she expressed regret that an international day commemorating the Holocaust is not on Russia’s “state calendar”, and reiterated that Israel supports Ukraine’s sovereignty. The ambassador also questioned why Hamas isn’t on Russia’s official list of terrorist organisations.
The ambassador spoke “disrespectfully about the efforts that Russia is making” in helping resolve the situation with the hostages, the ministry said. Her comments on commemorating the Holocaust almost amount to interference in internal affairs, it said, adding that it is “an extremely unsuccessful start to a diplomatic mission”.
09:14 AM GMT
Palestinian death toll rises to 27,585
At least 27,585 Palestinians have been killed and 66,978 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct 7, the health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday.
Some 127 Palestinians were killed and 143 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
09:02 AM GMT
Russia and China accuse US of stoking tensions in Middle East
Russia and China have accused the United States of stoking already high tensions in the Middle East with its recent retaliatory strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria.
The US military struck dozens of targets in Syria and Iraq overnight on Friday into Saturday, in retaliation for a drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers on Jan 28.
Vasily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador, said during a UN Security Council meeting on Monday: “It’s clear that American airstrikes are specifically, deliberately aimed to stoke the conflict.”
Jun Zhang, the Chinese ambassador, similarly claimed that the “US actions will certainly exacerbate the vicious cycle of tit-for-tat violence in the Middle East.”
08:51 AM GMT
Pictured: IDF operations in the Gaza Strip
08:39 AM GMT
More than 100 arrested at US protest against state investing in Israel bonds
Police arrested more than 100 people protesting the Pennsylvania state government’s investments in Israel on Monday.
A spokesperson for the Department of General Services, which includes the Pennsylvania Capitol police, said 126 people were taken into custody at what he described as an unpermitted, unauthorised demonstration. They were ordered to disperse before being arrested, issued citations for trespassing and then released.
The protesters, many wearing T-shirts that said “divest from genocide”, clapped and chanted during the protest, which organisers said was targeted at the state Treasury Department’s investment in Israel bonds.
One large sign said the state should reinvest that tax money in health care, housing, schools and climate.
The event was organised by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Philly Palestine Coalition and the Pennsylvania Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Lilah Saber, a participant in the protest, said it was solely focused on the state’s investment in Israel bonds.
“We did not plan on being arrested, but we were arrested,” Ms Saber said.
08:31 AM GMT
More on the Houthis Red Sea attacks
Yemen’s Houthis claim to have struck US and British ships in two separate missile attacks in the Red Sea.
In a statement, Yahya Saree, the Houthi spokesman said: “The first attack targeted the American ship Star Nasia, while the other targeted the British ship Morning Tide.”
Ambrey, a security firm, said the British-owned ship “reportedly incurred minor damage on the port side” in an attack off the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, adding there were no casualties.
The ship sped up and performed “evasive manoeuvres” before continuing south toward the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the firm said.
British maritime security agency UKMTO said it had received a report of an incident off Hodeida.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, without identifying the vessel or the flag it was flying: “The master stated that a projectile was fired at his vessel on the port side which passed over the deck, causing slight damage to the bridge windows.
“The vessel and crew are safe,” it added, saying the ship was proceeding on its voyage as planned.
08:16 AM GMT
Blinken heads to Egypt to seek ‘enduring end’ to Gaza war
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Egypt as part of a Middle East crisis tour seeking a new truce and “an enduring end” to the Israel-Hamas war.
In Cairo, Mr Blinken is scheduled to meet Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president, the day after he held talks in Riyadh with Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince.
The trip, Mr Blinken’s fifth to the region since the start of the nearly four-month-long war, will later include stops in Israel and Qatar.
Mr Blinken’s diplomatic push has been given fresh urgency as Israeli forces press further south towards Rafah, a Palestinian city on the southern border with Egypt where more than half the population of the Gaza Strip has taken shelter.
08:13 AM GMT
Israeli forces kill dozens of Gaza gunmen, military says
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen and captured scores in operations throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the military said in a statement on Tuesday, describing southern Khan Younis as a focus of the fighting.
It said around 80 suspects were taken into custody in Khan Younis, including some accused of taking part in the Oct 7 killing and kidnapping spree in southern Israel by Hamas terrorists that triggered the almost four-month-old Gaza war.
