US-led coalition struck 36 targets in 13 locations, with the US warning the Iran-backed rebels they would 'continue to bear further consequences' if Red Sea shipping attacks continued.
US Central Command forces alongside UK Armed Forces conducted strikes against Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen. Picture: AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / CENTCOM
Welcome to The Australian's rolling coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as US reprisals against Iran-linked groups anger Iraq and Syria.
Live Updates
US strikes on Iraq, Syria ‘pour oil on fire’: Hamas
Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday condemned overnight US strikes in Iraq and Syria, saying Washington had poured “oil on the fire” in the Middle East.
The US “bears responsibility for the consequences of this brutal aggression against both Iraq and Syria, which pour oil on the fire,” the group said in a statement issued in English.
“We confirm that the region will not witness stability or peace except by stopping the Zionist (Israeli) aggression and the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip.”
The United States launched air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq and Syria and promised more to come, in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three US soldiers in Jordan on Sunday.
The US military said it attacked a total of 85 targets at seven different sites in Syria and Iraq.
The strikes killed at least 23 pro-Iranian fighters in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said. In Iraq, they killed 16 people, including civilians, the Baghdad government said.
US and allied troops have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October in a campaign waged by Iran-backed armed groups angered by US support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
– AFP
Israel forges Gaza buffer zone 'at risk' to civilians
A woman walks past a destroyed building in the Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees, which was severely damaged by Israeli bombardment, in the central Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP
Israeli forces in Gaza have systematically destroyed buildings in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside the Palestinian territory, experts and rights groups told AFP, raising fears over the civilian cost.
The plan, not publicly confirmed by Israel, appears to entail taking a significant chunk of territory out of the already tiny Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, something experts as well as Israel’s foreign allies have warned against.
Since Hamas militants stormed across the border on October 7, Israeli forces have targeted structures in Gaza within a kilometre of the border, said Adi Ben Nun, a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem who has carried out an analysis of satellite imagery.
More than 30 percent of all buildings in that area have been damaged or destroyed during the war, he said.
Last month, the Israeli army’s deadliest day since the ground invasion began in late October offered a glimpse of the tactics being used to clear the border area.
Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said at the time that 21 reservists were killed “during a defensive operation in the area separating the Israeli communities from Gaza” to allow for residents’ “safe return”.
The troops had laid out explosives to blow up buildings when they were fired upon by militants, the army said.
Displacement of Gazans including from the border area could breach the laws of war, experts said.
An Israeli battle tank is deployed to guard a position as displaced Palestinians flee from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP
“We are seeing mounting evidence that Israel appears to be rendering large parts of Gaza unlivable,” said Nadia Hardman, a refugee rights expert at Human Rights Watch.
“One very clear example of that may be the buffer zone — this may amount to a war crime.” When contacted by AFP, the military declined to comment on the buffer zone.
‘No right’ Cecilie Hellestveit, of the Norwegian Academy of International Law, warned of “the prospect of ethnic cleansing, transfer, or lack of rebuilding, so that the Palestinians will eventually be forced out of the area entirely”.
Scrutiny of Israel’s actions in Gaza is likely to be heightened by last month’s International Court of Justice ruling asking Israel to prevent any acts of genocide.
The United States, Israel’s top ally and provider of military aid, has repeatedly said Gaza’s territory should not change and that a buffer zone would breach that principle.
“When it comes to the permanent status of Gaza… we remain clear about not encroaching on its territory,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Rights experts said Israel could use parts of its own territory to create a security zone.
“If the Israeli government wants a buffer zone, it has every right to create one in far larger Israel, but it has no right to seize land in Gaza,” human rights expert Ken Roth, a professor at Princeton University, said on social media.
Border security has become a priority for many Israelis, experts said, and the return to communities near the Gaza border would be seen as a sign that Hamas no longer posed a threat.
In Nahal Oz, a kibbutz barely a kilometre from Gaza that was targeted in the October 7 attack, artillery fire rang out and smoke billowed over the Palestinian territory in the distance.
Israeli troops maneuver a tank near kibbutz Nahal Oz on the border with the Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP
Like many Israelis who lived along the border before the attack, nearly all of the kibbutz’s 400 residents were evacuated and have yet to return.
“It is still not a place to go back to with children, not yet unfortunately,” Eran Braverman, a 63-year-old farmer, told AFP.
“If there really would be such a (buffer) zone… it could help a lot. I hope it happens.”
‘Back’ after two decades
Israel in 2005 unilaterally withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza, ending a presence that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete control over the coastal territory’s borders.
A narrow no-go area of varying width was maintained along the full length of the Israel-Gaza border, and the zone immediately beyond it on the Palestinian side has been restricted to cropland.
A crippling blockade since Hamas took power in 2007 was followed shortly after the October 7 attack with an Israeli siege of Gaza.
Egypt operates a buffer zone on its side of the border with the narrow Palestinian territory.
Although Israel decided against installing a buffer zone in the early 2000s, the idea has been revived two decades later, said Hellestveit.
“With the war and the reoccupation of Gaza, this plan from when Israel last had control over Gaza militarily has come back on the table,” she said.
– AFP
'Barbaric': Syria slams US strikes near historic site
The ruins of the al-Rahba fortress. Picture: Wikipedia
Syria’s culture ministry on Saturday condemned overnight US strikes that local media said damaged a historic site in Deir Ezzor province in the country’s east.
The United States launched the air strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a recent drone attack on an American base in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
Syria’s culture ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the barbaric US bombardment of the Al-Rahba fortress” in eastern Syria’s Mayadeen area.
In a statement on social media, it said the citadel, located along the Euphrates River, dates to the ninth century, without elaborating on the damage the site sustained.
The “blatant” attack violated “all international norms and charters that call for the protection and respect for cultural property,” the ministry added.
Pro-government daily Al-Watan reported antiquities chief Nazir Awad as saying the bombardment late Friday caused cracks and fissures in the fortress walls.
The full extent of the damage had not yet been assessed, Al-Watan cited Awad as saying.
Damascus said earlier Saturday that the overnight strikes killed “a number of civilians and soldiers, wounded others and caused significant damage to public and private property”.
– AFP
Pope condemns ‘terrible increase' in attacks on Jews
Pope Francis wrote a letter addressed to 'My Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel'. Picture: AFP
Pope Francis on Saturday condemned the “terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world” and the rise in anti-Semitism since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7.
“We, Catholics, are very concerned about the terrible increase in attacks against Jews around the world,” the pope wrote in a letter addressed to “My Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel” and made public by the Vatican on Saturday.
The war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza has produced “divisive attitudes in public opinion worldwide and divisive positions, sometimes taking the form of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism”, Francis said.
“We had hoped that ‘never again’ would be a refrain heard by the new generations, yet now we see that the path ahead requires ever closer collaboration to eradicate these phenomena,” he said.
He also urged prayers “especially for the return of hostages” held by Hamas since the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.
U.S. Forces, Allies Conduct Joint Strikes in Yemen
As part of ongoing international efforts to respond to increased Iranian-backed Houthi destabilizing and illegal activities in the region, on Feb. 3 at approximately 11:30 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command forces,… pic.twitter.com/hlfLY1QjOd
The United States and Britain struck dozens of targets in Yemen on Saturday in response to repeated attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that have disrupted global trade and put lives at risk.
The joint air raids in Yemen come a day after a wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria that were carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan on January 28.
The strikes hit “36 Huthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Huthis’ continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea,” the United States, Britain and other countries that provided support for the operation said in a statement.
“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Huthis use to threaten global trade, and the lives of innocent mariners,” the statement said.
The assault “targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, and radars.”
The strikes sent a message to the Houthis that they would “continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.
A picture taken during an organised tour by Yemen's Houthi rebels (on board) on November 22, 2023, shows the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, seized by Houthi fighters, docked in a port on the Red Sea in the Yemeni province of Hodeida. Picture: AFP
A senior Houthi official said the strikes had hit military camps and the area of the airport in San’a, including weapons-storage depots. At least one truck was hit as it was transporting missile parts.
The official said Hodeidah and Hajjah, the coastal provinces from where the Houthis have carried out attacks on commercial shipping, were also hit.
Houthi official, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti , said on X that the coalition strikes in Yemen wouldn’t change the group’s intention to continue its attacks until Israel ends its siege of Gaza.
“The American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation”.
– AFP, Wall Street Journal
Israel pounds Gaza as fears grow of push into Rafah
Israel pressed its blistering Gaza assault on Saturday as fears grew over a push into a southern area teeming with displaced Palestinians and Hamas said a truce deal was not yet within reach.
As fighting raged, mediation efforts to halt the nearly four-month war have gathered pace, though a Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said a proposed framework was missing some details.
An AFP journalist said air strikes and tank fire rocked Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city that has been the focus of Israel’s offensive.
Hamas officials and the Israeli army reported battles across the besieged territory, and AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing after strikes on Rafah, in the far south.
During operations in western Khan Yunis our commando forces:
🔺 Encountered and eliminated numerous armed terrorists. 🔺Located an explosives lab, stockpiles of weapons, RPGs and tactical equipment. 🔺Conducted targeted operations to strengthen operational control over the… pic.twitter.com/1svXWOMvDU
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s 2.4 million people displaced by the fierce fighting have fled to Rafah during the war, with their tents crammed along streets and in parks.
The city that had been home to 200,000 people now hosts more than half of Gaza’s population, the United Nations said.
Civilians who fled to Rafah have been pushed up against the border with Egypt, trying to avoid parts of the city exposed to bombardment and fighting in nearby Khan Yunis.
“We are exhausted,” said displaced Gazan Mahmud Abu al-Shaar, urging “a ceasefire so that we can return to our homes”.
Diaa Bakroun, who shares a tent with his extended family in Rafah, said “we can’t survive”.
A young boy carries empty jerry cans in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP
Hamas remained defiant, with an official from the Palestinian group saying it was “holding its ground” in Khan Yunis.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said it was deeply concerned about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Yunis, which has pushed more and more people south.
“Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next,” said OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke.
Reports of deadly strikes in #Rafah are deeply shocking.
Hundreds of thousands of #Gaza's children are squeezed into this tiny corner with no protection.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Thursday that the military — which began its ground invasion in the territory’s north and has gradually advanced south — “will also reach Rafah”.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. Picture: AFP
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Saturday called on all parties to avoid further escalation in the Middle East after US strikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria and Iraq.
“Everybody should try to avoid that the situation becomes explosive,” Borrell said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Borrell said the US response was expected after President Joe Biden signalled that Washington would hit back following the deadly drone attack on an American base in Jordan.
“Certainly every attack contributes to the escalation, and the ministers have expressed their serious concern for this process,” he said following the meeting.
“We can only call on everybody to understand that at any moment from this series of attacks and counter attacks, a spark can produce a greater incident.”
Borrell said that in a bid to calm the spiral of violence the EU would launch a naval mission in the Red Sea this month to help protect international vessels from attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
Borrell said the mission would be “defensive” and not conduct any attacks on land against the Yemeni rebels.
Smoke rises over buildings in Khan Yunis during Israeli bombardment on February 2, 2024, as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza. Picture: AFP
A senior Hamas official said Saturday that a final agreement had not yet been reached over a tentative truce deal to pause the nearly four-month war with Israel in Gaza.
Hamas leaders were reviewing a proposed framework thrashed out by top officials from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, said Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas official in Lebanon.
But more time was needed to “announce our position”.
He told a news conference that his movement “has repeatedly said” it was “open to discussing any initiative… putting an end to this barbaric aggression against our Palestinian people”.
But while Hamdan confirmed the group had received the truce proposal drafted by mediators in Paris, he said an agreement had not yet been reached and that the plan was missing some details.
“We will announce our position” soon, “based on… our desire to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer,” he added.
The war broke out with Hamas’s October 7 attack that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also seized around 250 hostages, around a hundred of whom were released during a week-long truce in late November. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, including at least 27 captives believed to have been killed.
In response, Israel has launched a withering air, land and sea offensive that has killed at least 27,238 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
A Hamas source said the current three-stage truce proposal included an initial six-week pause in fighting that would see some hostages released for Palestinian prisoners, with potential extensions.
Hamdan, whose movement demanded a total ceasefire prior to any agreement, also denounced an “Israeli disinformation campaign” aimed at “distorting” Hamas’s position.
Israel has “rejected all initiatives made so far… in order to continue the aggression”, he said.
Hamdan also criticised the decision of several countries to suspend financing for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) because of the presumed involvement of a handful of its employees in the October 7 attacks.
He called it an “irresponsible measure based on Zionist lies and collective punishment.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East yet again in the coming days to press for an agreement, the State Department said.
Blinken will visit mediators Qatar and Egypt as well as Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia starting Sunday, it added.
His fifth trip since the war broke out comes after Qatar said there were hopes of “good news” soon about the negotiations.
Hamas’s Qatar-based leader Ismail Haniyeh said any ceasefire must lead to “a full withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Gaza.
American forces carried out strikes on Saturday against six anti-ship missiles belonging to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the US military said.
USCENTCOM Destroys Six Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles in Yemen
On Feb. 3, at approximately 7:20 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command forces conducted strikes in self-defense against six Houthi anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea. U.S. forces… pic.twitter.com/W9BVxiYedU
The missiles were “prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.
US forces identified the cruise missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels,” Central Command said on social media.
Earlier Saturday, CENTCOM said its forces shot down eight drones near Yemen the day before and destroyed four more before they could be launched.
CENTCOM said the four drones hit on the ground belonged to the Houthis, but did not identify a country or group linked to those that were shot out of the air.
The Houthis began targeting Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.
US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
In addition to strikes against the Houthis, the United States set up a multinational naval task force aimed at protecting shipping on the transit route, which carries up to 12 percent of global trade.
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday on the US strikes in Iraq and Syria, which it launched in retaliation for the death of three American soldiers.
The meeting, requested by permanent member Russia, would discuss the attacks launched by Washington against Iran-backed groups it has accused of attacking US troops in the region.
If Washington doesn’t reconsider its approach to the Indo-Pacific, it risks allowing Beijing to consolidate control over a region vital to global shipping routes and security.
JD Vance and Elon Musk are leading criticism of the judge who restricted DOGE access to the Treasury’s payment system, a sign of the tensions ahead between the White House and courts.
