January 12, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and the airstrikes on Yemen has moved here.

A Houthi-run television channel is reporting that a airstrikes have hit Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

“The American-British enemy is targeting the capital, Sanaa, with a number of airstrikes,” the Houthi-run Al-Masirah news network announced early on Saturday, local time.

People living in the Yemeni capital took to social media to report hearing several loud explosions.

The US carried out further strikes against Houthi locations in Yemen, according to a US official, one day after launching a coordinated multi-nation attack on nearly 30 Houthi positions.

The additional strikes carried out Friday night (Eastern Time) were much smaller in scope than the previous night. They targeted a radar facility used by the Houthis, the official said.

The Houthis had fired at least one anti-ship ballistic missile towards a commercial vessel earlier Friday.

On Thursday, the US and UK struck 28 separate Houthi sites in an attempt to disrupt their ability to fire upon international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The two countries were also backed by Canada, Australia, Bahrain, and the Netherlands. 

The latest strike was carried out unilaterally by the United States, the official said.

The US had threatened the possibility of additional military action if the Houthis continued to launch drone and missile attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

But after the US-led strikes, the Iran-backed rebel group launched another anti-ship ballistic missile towards a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen. 

The new strikes also come after the White House said it was trying to avoid an escalation.

The set of US-led strikes on Thursday evening targeted radar facilities and command and control nodes, as well as facilities used for the storage and launch of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. These are the primary weapons the Houthis have used to target commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The attacks killed five people and wounded six more, according to a spokesman for the Houthi military. 

The Houthis vowed that their forces would respond to the attack, calling US and UK assets “legitimate targets.”

READ MORE: US carries out further strikes against Houthis in Yemen one day after hitting nearly 30 locations

Destroyed buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza seen on January 1

Martin Griffiths, the man in charge of the UN’s relief operations in Gaza, has painted a dire picture of conditions in the strip, saying his colleagues have witnessed “scenes of utter horror.”

Griffiths said many people no longer had homes to return to, with shelters in the enclave housing far more people than they could cope with.

Food and water was running out and the risk of famine was growing by the day, he added.

The health system, he said, was “in a state of collapse,” where women were unable to give birth safely, children could not get vaccinated, infectious diseases were on the rise and people had been seeking shelter in hospital yards.

In a stinging criticism, Griffiths said his team’s efforts to send humanitarian convoys to the north have been met with delays and denials amid impossible conditions, with the safety of aid workers being put in danger.

But the UN humanitarian chief also urged people not to forget “the 1,200 people killed, thousands injured, and hundreds taken in the brutal attack by Hamas and other armed groups on Israel on October 7, and the accounts of abhorrent sexual violence.” 

READ MORE: Corpses on streets amid scenes of ‘utter horror’ in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Friday and thanked him for Germany’s rejection of claims heard at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.  

The Israeli leader described the case brought by South Africa to the court as “full of hypocrisy and malice,” adding that it “must not be allowed to prevail over the moral principles shared by our two countries and the entire civilized world.”

Netanyahu also thanked Scholz for Germany’s decision to join discussions at the ICJ as a third party, which effectively signaled Berlin’s readiness to play an active role supporting Israel at the court.

On Friday, the German government said it “expressly rejects” allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Germany would intervene as a third party before the ICJ under an article allowing states to seek clarification on the use of a multilateral convention.

The second and final day of hearings at the ICJ wrapped on Friday. Israel argued that its war in Gaza was fought in self-defense and was targeting Hamas.

The previous day, South Africa alleged Israel’s leadership was “intent on destroying the Palestinians as a group in Gaza” and seeking to “bring about the destruction of its Palestinian population.”

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East at UN Headquarters in New York on Friday, January 12.

The United States said it unequivocally rejects statements made by Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for the resettlement of Palestinians out of Gaza, said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

The ambassador said during a UN Security Council briefing on the Middle East Friday that civilians must not be pressed to leave Gaza, and that such statements are “irresponsible” and “inflammatory,” along with other statements by some Israeli officials calling for the destruction of Gaza and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees. 

Thomas-Greenfield said that while such statements send the wrong message, “so too do the words we are not hearing from this Council.”

The ambassador went on to question why some council members still haven’t condemned Hamas’ October 7 attack and why some “stopped talking about the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.” 

The ambassador also said that while the Security Council focuses on Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank must not be overlooked. 

At least 340 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israelis in the past three months, the ambassador said. The US condemns these attacks, the ambassador asserted. 

She said the Palestinian Authority (PA) must take steps to reform and revitalize PA Security Forces, which stability in the “occupied” West Bank depends on. She added that this “means Israel must release revenue that allows the PA to pay their security forces.” 

The ambassador said the US is working towards a vision “where Israelis and Palestinians live side-by-side in peace with equal measures of security, freedom, and dignity” adding, “this is the only way forward.”

Mohammad Ali al-Houthi takes part in a protest following US and British forces strikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday, January 12.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthis Supreme Revolutionary Committee, urged the Americans and the British to “go back to your country” and focus on addressing racism rather than protecting Israeli ships.

Al-Houthi criticized the US and UK for their “aggression” in launching the Thursday airstrikes during a speech addressed to a large protest in Yemen’s capital Sanaa against the strikes.

He also advised the countries to heed a recent warning from Houthi movement leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi when he said that any attack on Yemen would be met with a robust response.

Rejecting the American claim that the strikes were launched on Yemen in “self-defense,” Al-Houthi argued, “we did not attack American shores, we did not reach the shores of Florida, we did not attack the American islands.”

He accused the US and the UK of being deviants and supporters of deviation, asserting that they are not allies of humanity. Al-Houthi further criticized Americans for threatening navigation security and actively working to raise maritime insurance prices. 

He labeled America as an enemy of the people, describing it as a source of terrorism.

Massive crowds of people gathered in the Yemeni capital Friday, holding Palestinian flags and protesting after the US and UK launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. Protesters were heard chanting “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.”

The joint strike on Houthi targets Thursday evening hit nearly 30 locations, which may have had “multiple items” hit at each location, according to the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dougals Sims II. 

He went on to say that there were “just over 150 various munitions used.”

“Those munitions came from both maritime platforms as well as air platforms, either British or US in the air,” Sims II added.

US Air Forces Central previously said in a press release that more than 60 targets at 16 locations were hit in the strikes.

Sims later added that it was a “near immediate” decision to strike the other 12 sites after they were identified to have “the ability to influence our maritime or air forces.” 

The battle damage assessment is still ongoing of the various targets, he said, but officials feel “very confident about where our munitions struck.”

Joe Biden speaks during an event at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania on January 5.

President Joe Biden says he believes the Houthis are a “terrorist group,” a designation his administration lifted on the organization but is considering reapplying. 

“I think they are,” Biden said when asked if he was willing to call the Houthis a terrorist group. 

Biden later told reporters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that it is irrelevant whether his administration formally makes that designation. He said the US and other nations would respond anyway to their attacks in the Red Sea.

“It’s irrelevant whether they’re designated,” Biden said. “We’ve put together a group of nations that are going to say if they continue to act and behave as they do, we’ll respond,” he added.

Questioned about some Democrats who said he should have sought Congressional approval for the strikes, Biden rejected their objections outright.

“They’re wrong and I sent up this morning when the strikes occurred exactly what happened,” he said

Some background: In 2021, the Biden administration reversed the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization. 

Earlier Friday, the White House reiterated it was reviewing a terror designation for the Houthis. John Kirby, the national security council spokesperson, said no decisions had been made and couldn’t provide a timeline for how long the review would take. 

This post was updated with more of Biden comments.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims II, testifies during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC on February 28, 2023.

The Houthis fired at least one anti-ship ballistic missile toward a commercial vessel since the US and allies struck a number of targets inside Yemen on Thursday night, according to the US’s director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims II.

The ballistic missile, fired Friday, “did not hit any ships of any kind,” Sims said Friday, adding that he expected the Houthis were working through things on the ground and “trying to determine what capabilities still exist for them.” 

A US official said the missile was fired toward the M/T Khalissa in the Gulf of Aden. 

The Friday attack from the Houthis follows through on a prior warning made by the group’s leader Abdul Malek Al-Houthi. After the Thursday attack from the US and UK, he said that any US attack on Yemen” will not go unanswered,” cryptically warning that the response will be “much more” than attacking US ships in the sea.

Houthi rebels’ military spokesperson Sare’e on Friday said the group would continue its aggression against commercial ships in the Red Sea.

There is a near-total internet blackout in Gaza, Internet monitoring site Netblocks reported on Friday. 

The site said telecommunications services including landline, cellular and Wi-Fi are “likely to be unavailable to most residents at the present time.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said there is a complete communication blackout with their teams in Gaza.

A still from a video shows multiple explosions in Saada province, north of Sanaa, Yemen, on January 12, local time.

Iran condemned airstrikes carried out by the US and UK in Yemen. 

“This unwarranted war violates Yemen’s sovereignty, international law, the UN Charter, and Security Council resolutions, jeopardizing regional peace and security,” the Permanent Mission of Iran to the United Nations said in a statement Friday posted on X.

Iran slammed the US and UK’s “illegal actions,” saying that “their opposition to Russia’s amendments to the resolution hints at a premeditated intention to commit this aggression.” 

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the country’s foreign minister, also criticized the strikes, writing on X, “Instead of a military attack on Yemen, the White House should immediately stop all military and security cooperation with Tel Aviv against the people of Gaza and the West Bank so that security returns to the entire region.” 

Some background: The US and UK militaries launched strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Thursday, marking a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

US President Joe Biden said he ordered the strikes “in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”

The director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, has reached an agreement with Qatar on deliveries of medications to hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced in a statement Friday.  

The medications will be delivered “in the next few days,” according to the statement.  

Qatar played a key role in brokering an agreement between Hamas and Israel in November that led to a week-long truce and the release of more than one hundred hostages, as well as hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Last month, Barnea met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani to discuss indirect negotiations to resume the hostage releases, but talks apparently failed to make progress.

In response to the announcement, the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are demanding proof that their loved ones are receiving these medications.

Liat Bell Sommer, a spokesperson for the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum Headquarters, reiterated that “the War Cabinet must demand visual proof that medicines have reached the hostages.”

Antonio Guterres speaks at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on December 22, 2023.

The United Nations chief said Houthis should immediately stop all attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called such attacks unacceptable and said they endanger global supply chains and “have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation worldwide,” according to a statement.

He said that countries defending their ships from Houthi attacks must do so in accordance with international law and not escalate the situation.

It comes after United States and United Kingdom militaries, supported by several other countries, launched strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Thursday.

The Biden administration and its allies had warned that the Iran-backed militant group would bear the consequences of its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. US and UK officials have defended the strikes, citing self-defense.

The Houthi Supreme Political Council said United States and United Kingdom interests are “legitimate targets” for the Houthis.

According to a statement carried by Houthi-run Al-Masirah news on Friday, the council said the presence of the US, UK, and “all those who allied with them” in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait are “unacceptable and violate all laws.”

The council reiterated the Houthis would continue “measures taken by the armed forces in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab to prevent the passage of Israeli ships or those carrying goods to the occupied Palestinian ports, whatever the cost.”

The Houthi statement warned Arab countries, specifically its neighboring countries, against supporting any attacks on Yemen.

Missile fired near Yemen: The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Friday that a missile was fired toward a vessel in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen.

The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko) advised its members to stay away from the Bab al-Mendab Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, for “several days.”

CNN’s Caitlin Danaher, Lucas Lilieholm and Hira Humayun contributed reporting to this post.

Israeli flares light up the night sky above Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 6, 2023.

Relentless bombardment, power outages and shortages have pushed nearly every hospital in the beleaguered northern Gaza Strip out of service, with evidence of repeated attacks on and in the vicinity of medical facilities — despite the presence of doctors, patients and civilians inside, a CNN analysis has found.

At least 20 out of 22 hospitals identified by CNN in northern Gaza were damaged or destroyed in the first two months of Israel’s war against Hamas, from October 7 to December 7, according to a review of 45 satellite images and around 400 videos from the ground, as well as interviews with doctors, eyewitnesses and humanitarian organizations. Fourteen were directly hit, based on the evidence collected and verified by CNN and analyzed by experts.

Israel says that Hamas operates inside and underneath hospitals, and is using them for military operations, including as command centers, weapons stores and to hide hostages. The Israelis have released footage they say is evidence of those Hamas operations. The videos do not offer definitive proof, and Hamas has denied the claims.

CNN sent a list of the hospitals identified as damaged or destroyed to the Israel Defense Forces. In response, the IDF said it “did not conduct any targeted attacks against hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” adding that “Hamas systematically misuses hospitals and medical facilities.”

To provide a window into how Gaza’s hospitals became battlegrounds, CNN took an in-depth look at the deterioration of the strip’s biggest and second-biggest medical facilities, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, up until they ceased operations in November. Al-Shifa has since resumed some services.

Taken together, the two hospitals reflect the similarities CNN observed in reviewing evidence from the first two months of the war: that what should be protected facilities are being bombed, encircled and shot at by tanks, and that surrounding infrastructure, ambulances and roads are being hit, affecting efforts to treat patients, evacuate facilities and deliver aid.

Read the full, immersive investigation on how Gaza’s hospitals became battlegrounds.

Israel’s military continued operations across Gaza City on Friday, with a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense saying Israeli artillery was targeting civilian housing. 

Mahmoud Basal said in a video recording that the Gaza City neighborhood of Al-Sabra had been hit hard and a “number of injuries” from the area have arrived at hospitals.

Israel’s military says it does not deliberately target civilians. In an update Friday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said dozens of militants had been killed in a series of operations in the central and southern part of the strip, including some Hamas commanders.

Death toll: The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which collects data from some Hamas-run institutions in Gaza, has updated its toll of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 7 to at least 23,812.  

More than 10,000 of those killed are children, the health ministry says. It also estimates that more than 8,000 people are missing, buried under rubble.

One of Gaza’s main hospitals that is still functioning is warning of an imminent halt to medical services due to a lack of fuel. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah said a promised delivery of fuel — expected at midday on Thursday — had failed to arrive, meaning the hospital was on the point of running out completely and putting some patients at risk of death.

Correction: This post has been updated to change the name of the Civil Defense official quoted to Mahmoud Basal.

This screenshot captured from a video released by the Houthi group on January 10, shows Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea making a statement.

As the Israel-Hamas war triggers attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels against vessels in the Red Sea, Arab Gulf states that for years were embroiled in a deadly war with the Houthis are now on high alert.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday called for restraint after the United States and the United Kingdom launched strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Yemen.

In a statement, Riyadh on Thursday expressed concern over the strikes in Yemen and called for “restraint and avoiding escalation in light of the events the region is witnessing.” The oil-rich monarchy, along with neighboring United Arab Emirates, may be caught in a difficult position. Both states were once the targets of attacks in 2019 and 2022, respectively, blamed on either Iran or its Houthi proxy in Yemen.

The Yemen conflict had however begun to ease last year, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE embarked on a journey toward peace with Iran, and consequently the Houthis in Yemen. In April, the Saudi-Houthi peace talks brought about a de-facto ceasefire after eight years of hostilities.

While neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE have publicly joined the US and its allies in their Red Sea military actions, the escalating conflict in the waterway is likely sounding alarm bells at home. American security guarantees against potential Iranian or Houthi aggression have long been paramount to both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

The issue has even led to painful rifts in Gulf-US relations when the American security presence was perceived to be waning in the region. In May, the UAE said that as a result of evaluating its security cooperation with its partners, Abu Dhabi was no longer taking part in a US-led coalition protecting Gulf shipping.

It is unclear how Gulf Arab states will respond to ongoing Houthi aggression in the Red Sea, especially as both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi continue to oppose Israeli strikes on Gaza.

The internationally recognized government of Yemen holds the Iran-backed Houthi militant group “responsible for dragging the country into a military confrontation” in the Red Sea, according to a press release Friday from Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Houthis are using “misleading claims that have no real connection to supporting our brothers and sisters in the occupied Palestinian territories,” the press release added.

The Saudi-backed government said that the military escalation in the area “threatens the security and safety of international navigation.”

What to know about the Yemeni government: A civil war has been raging in Yemen for nearly a decade. It started in 2014 when Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government, triggering a civil war. The conflict spiraled into a wider war in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to beat back the Houthis. Eight years later, the coalition has been unable to dislodge the Houthis, who remain in control of much of Yemen. A ceasefire was finally signed in 2022, but it lapsed just after six months. Warring parties have not, however, returned to full-scale conflict.

The US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on two companies for shipping Iranian goods which are sold to help fund the Houthis.

The US imposed the sanctions a day after carrying out strikes in Yemen against the Houthis in response to the spate of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The goods were shipped on behalf of a US-sanctioned, Iranian-backed financier, Sa’id al-Jamal, according to the Treasury Department. He was sanctioned by the US in June 2021 for his role in helping to fund the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force and the Houthis.

The revenue from the sales of these goods “supports the Houthis and their continued attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,” the Treasury Department said in a news release.

Friday’s sanctions target:

In addition to Friday’s sanctions against the two companies, the Treasury Department also identified as blocked property four ships used by the companies to disguise the Iranian origin of the goods.