Iran-backed Houthis target Greek and British cargo ships in Red Sea

Houthis lauch fresh attack in Red Sea after joint airstrikes by the US and the UK in Yemen

Related: US launches missiles towards Houthi targets in Yemen from warship

Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen fired six ballistic missiles at two ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with one ship reporting minor damage.

A Greek-owned bulked carrier was struck by three of the projectiles fired by the Houthis on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the militants struck a British-owned cargo ship in the Red Sea.

The USS Laboon operating near the Greek ship “intercepted and shot down a third anti-ship ballistic missile fired” by the Houthis, the US Central Command said.

The Greek-owned Star Nasia was damaged by an explosion at 11.15am GMT, a Greek shipping ministry official said.

The fresh attacks come just two days after the US and the UK conducted joint airstrikes targeting Houthi bases in Yemen.

Meanwhile, the US has walked back its previous claims that it informed the Iraqi government it would be conducting airstrikes, saying that information was relayed incorrectly.

Vedant Patel, the state department spokesperson, clarified there “was not a pre-notification” but that they notified the Iraqi government “immediately after the strikes occurred”.

The US conducted retaliatory strikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday, resulting in at least 39 casualties.

Following the strikes, the White House refused to rule out US action inside Iran.

On Sunday, president Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told US news networks that further military action was likely, and would not rule out the possibility of strikes inside Iran’s borders.

“I’m not going to get into what’s on the table and off the table when it comes to the American response,” he told CBS.

Mr Sullivan called the airstrikes “the beginning, not the end of our response”. However, the US has insisted that it does not want a wider conflict across the Middle East.

Key Points

• Houthis strike British and Greek cargo ships
• Saudi Arabia says no relations with Israel without Palestinian state
• Israeli strikes killed civilians in Syria, says military

[7 February 2024 12:51 · Chris Stevenson]

France pays tribute to victims of Hamas attack

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has paid tribute to the 42 French and French-Israeli victims of the 7 October attack on Israel during a sombre ceremony in the heart of Paris.

Four months to the day after militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages in southern Israel, the Paris ceremony opened with 42 French republican guards walking through the centuries-old Invalides building carrying large portraits of the French and Franco-Israeli victims.

To the sound of drums and violins, guards stood at the centre of the wide courtyard as families of the victims, ministers and officials looked on in silence, some also carrying pictures of loved ones they lost in the attack.

"They were not all born in France, they did not die in France, but they were part of France," Mr Macron said.

"It was 6am, and Hamas launched a massive and heinous attack by surprise, the largest antisemitic massacre of our century," he said, vowing to fight antisemitism in all its forms, in France and abroad.

Antisemitic violence has increased in many countries, including in France, in the wake of the attack and Israel's devastating invasion of Gaza in response.

Gaza's Health Ministry said on Wednesday at least 27,708 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in Israel's bombardment of Gaza, with thousands more feared buried under rubble.

[7 February 2024 13:18 · Chris Stevenson]

Saudi Arabia and Gaza

Saudi Arabia has told the United States it will not open diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, its foreign ministry has said.

Riyadh reiterated its call for permanent members of the UN Security Council that have not recognised a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital to do so, a ministry statement said.

It was referring to a state the Palestinians have long sought to establish alongside Israel in territories Israel occupied in a 1967 war: the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

[7 February 2024 13:42 · Chris Stevenson]

Airstrikes on Syria

Israeli airstrikes over Syria's central city of Homs and nearby areas killed and wounded civilians, the Syrian military has said, without giving details.

There was no immediate comment from Israel. The strikes come as tensions across the Middle East grow with the Israel-Hamas war and a drone attack last month that killed three US troops in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border.

Syrian state news agency Sana quoted an unidentified military official as saying the strikes late Tuesday damaged private and public property. The pro-government Sham FM radio station said the areas struck included the affluent al-Malaab neighborhood and Hamra Street.

At least six civilians were killed including a woman and a child, along with two militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah group and two people who could not immediately be identified, according to the Britain-based pro-opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Humanitarian Rights.