In an apparent escalation by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in their campaign targeting shipping through the vital maritime corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, a bulk carrier has sunk after being attacked by the Iranian-backed Houthis, authorities said Wednesday.
With the Israeli offensive now in its ninth month, international criticism has grown steadily over the United States’ support for Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza, and the top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Tuesday that the United States was withholding weapons needed for the war in Gaza. President Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs to Israel since May over concerns about killing civilians in Gaza. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that those 2,000-pound bombs are the only weapons under review. He told reporters that “Everything else is moving as it normally would.”
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Currently:
— For a second time, a ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels sinks in the Red Sea.
— Muslim pilgrims wrap up the Hajj with final symbolic stoning of the devil and circling of the Kaaba.
— Israel’s Netanyahu blames Biden for withholding weapons, but U.S. officials say that’s not the whole story.
— Sudan accuses the United Arab Emirates of fueling war with weapons to paramilitary rivals.
Follow news agencies’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
DAMASCUS, Syria — A Syrian army officer was killed in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday morning, Syrian state media said.
State news agency SANA reported that Israeli drone strikes hit military sites in the areas of Quneitra and Daraa in southern Syria, killing an officer and resulting in “material damages.”
The Untied Kingdom-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes came after members of factions affiliated with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah transported the wreckage of an Israeli reconnaissance plane to one of the targeted sites to dismantle it.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the strikes. Israel frequently launches strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria but rarely acknowledges them. The strikes have intensified since October against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
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