The USA leaves no doubt about its ability to act militarily in the Middle East. Targets at the weekend were militias allied with Iran. There is great outrage – including in Russia.
Washington/London/Gaza/Tel Aviv – The US armed forces are demonstrating retaliation and deterrence in the Middle East. On Saturday night, the US Air Force carried out attacks on more than 85 targets in Syria and Iraq.
According to US information, the target was command centers, intelligence sites and weapons depots that were used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and militias affiliated with them. The United States responded to an attack by pro-Iranian militias on January 28 in Jordan that killed three US soldiers and injured numerous others.
On Sunday night, US and British forces attacked targets of the Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen. With the support of other countries, 36 targets in 13 locations were attacked, the Defense Ministry in Washington said.
At Russia's instigation, the World Security Council is scheduled to address the retaliatory strikes on Monday. Moscow accuses Washington of deliberately wanting to escalate the conflict in the Middle East.
The militias act in solidarity with the Islamist Hamas, which is fighting against the army of US ally Israel in the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the Gaza war almost four months ago, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked merchant ships with alleged Israeli connections in the Red Sea.
Houthi: Will respond to escalation
Iran strongly condemned the attacks by the US and its partners on Houthi positions. “This was once again a violation of Yemen’s territorial integrity and therefore a clear violation of internationally recognized laws and regulations,” said Foreign Office spokesman Nasser Kanaani.
The Houthis want to continue their attacks. The bombings “will not change our position,” said Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the militant Houthi movement’s politburo. “We will respond to escalation with escalation.”
Given the dangers, major shipping companies are increasingly avoiding the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, an important trade route. This has an impact on the global economy.
The US and Britain, supported by other partners, began attacking the Houthi militia in January.
Iraq also expressed sharp criticism. The US attacks on Saturday night violated Iraq's sovereignty, with unforeseeable consequences for the entire region, said the spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces.
Hamas wants to comment on a possible ceasefire soon
In the Gaza war, a proposal negotiated by the mediators USA, Egypt and Qatar is on the table. It provides for the gradual release of the hostages kidnapped from Israel to the Gaza Strip in return for a longer ceasefire and for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel's negotiators are said to have accepted the plan.
The draft is now available for acceptance by Hamas, which will announce its position “soon,” said Osama Hamdan, a representative of the exiled Hamas political leadership in Beirut, to the German Press Agency.
Hamas and other extremist groups attacked southern Israel on October 7th, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 people. Israel responded to the worst massacre in its history with massive air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. In the only ceasefire to date in November, 105 hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons. There are currently 136 hostages being held in the coastal area on the Mediterranean. Israel assumes that almost 30 of them are no longer alive.
Pressure is growing on Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu
In Israel, thousands took to the streets again to increase pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to do more to release the hostages. Netanyahu is accused of subordinating the effort to his own political survival. Netanyahu governs together with ultra-right religious parties. They threaten to break up the governing coalition if Netanyahu makes concessions to Hamas.
The hostage families' rally on Saturday in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv was held under the motto “120 days underground”. “Prime Minister Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu, please bring her home at all costs,” the news portal “haaretz.com” quoted a 15-year-old speaker whose cousin was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip on October 7th. At another demonstration in Tel Aviv, participants demanded Netanyahu's resignation and early elections.
Hamas: Many deaths again in the Gaza Strip
According to Palestinian information on Sunday, at least 127 people were killed in the fighting in the Gaza Strip within 24 hours. The Hamas-controlled health authority said 178 other people were injured.
an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip. © Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed in the sealed-off coastal strip since the start of the war. The Hamas authorities said 66,630 more people were injured. The numbers cannot be independently verified. However, the UN and other observers point out that the authority's information has proven to be overall credible in the past.
The Israeli military said it killed more Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, for example in the area of the southern city of Khan Yunis. According to the army on Sunday, a fighter jet took out a sniper from the terrorist group Islamic Jihad. The information provided by the Israeli military could not initially be independently verified. dpa
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