US says strikes hit three targets linked to Iran-backed groups in Iraq
Let’s get more details on those strikes in Iraq. Associated Press is reporting that three facilities in Iraq were hit by the US military.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in retaliation for missile and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria over the past several days.
The US strikes hit militia facilities in Jurf al-Sakhar, which is south of Baghdad, al-Qaim and another unnamed site in western Iraq, two US officials told AP.
Here is part of a statement released by Lloyd Austin:
At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq …
These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias.
The strikes come hours after the US said militants fired two one-way attack drones at al-Asad airbase, injuring US service members and damaging infrastructure. And they followed the militia’s most serious attack this year on the airbase, when it launched multiple ballistic missiles on Saturday.
Al-Asad is a large airbase in western Iraq where US troops have trained Iraqi security forces and now coordinate operations to counter the Islamic State group.
It’s 4:10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and 5:10am in Baghdad. This blog is now closing but you can still see all of our coverage on the Middle East crisis and the Israel-Gaza war until we open our fresh blog in a few hours time.
Before we go, here is a summary of the latest events:
The United States has carried out strikes in Iraq against targets linked to Iran-backed militia. Associated Press is reporting that three facilities in Iraq were hit by the US military. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in retaliation for missile and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria over the past several days. The US strikes hit militia facilities in Jurf al-Sakhar, which is south of Baghdad, al-Qaim and another unnamed site in western Iraq, two US officials told AP.
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, on Tuesday said the “clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable”, as he appealed for more aid access throughout the Gaza Strip.“The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history,” Guterres told the UN security council. “Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
He told the council that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave was “appalling” and that “the people of Gaza not only risk being killed or injured by relentless bombardments, they also run a growing chance of contracting infectious diseases like hepatitis A, dysentery, cholera.” Guterres again appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Speaker after speaker from around the globe but especially the Middle East has lined up to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and rapid pathway move to a two state solution, writes our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.
The Israeli envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, faced a walkout by some Arab ambassadors as he started by saying the world was trying to treat cancer with an aspirin, and said those advocating a ceasefire needed to realise it only meant the terror group Hamas would “remain in power, they would regroup and rearm, and soon Israel would face another attempted holocaust.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States was opposed to any permanent change to Gaza’s territory, but kept the door open to possible support for any “transitional arrangements” to resolve the conflict with Israel. “If there needs to be transitional arrangements to enable that to happen, that’s one thing. But when it comes to the permanent status of Gaza going forward, we’ve been clear, we remain clear about not encroaching on its territory,” Blinken told reporters in Abuja, Nigeria.
British foreign secretary David Cameron will travel to Israel on Wednesdaywhere he is expected to raise concerns over the high number of Palestinians killed and push for a “sustainable” ceasefire in the Gaza war.
The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) has released their latest update where they are highlighting what’s happening in Khan Younis specifically as fighting intensifies there “Hostilities were particularly intense in Khan Younis, with Israeli forces reported to having surrounded and launched a large-scale operation in the city. Heavy fighting is reported in proximity to hospitals in Khan Younis, including Al Aqsa, Nasser and Al Amal, with reports of Palestinians trying to flee to the southern town of Rafah.”
Palestinian RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fire was the likely cause of a blast that collapsed two buildings killing a group of Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday. “A militant squad surprised the force with RPG fire. The first rocket hit one of the buildings in which explosives had been laid out. The hit apparently led to the explosion that caused the collapse of the building and the building next to it,” R Adm Daniel Hagari told reporters in Tel Aviv.
Whatever the future of a post-Gaza war looks like, it cannot include the leaders of Hamas, the US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said. In a press briefing at the White House, Kirby also said the US was involved in “active conversations” on the release of more hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reports.
The United States would support another “pause” – temporary ceasefire – in Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, such as a 30, 60 or 90-day period, the White House has just said. The US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, is briefing right now in the west wing at the regular media press conference with him and the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.
Aid trucks continue to have difficulty reaching people in southern Gaza, from Egypt and, via multiple aid agency reports, are not able to get to many parts of central and northern Gaza at all. Trucks are blocked for security checks and become severely backed up prior to reaching inside Gaza.
The United States has destroyed or degraded over 25 Houthi missile launch facilities and more than 20 missiles in Yemen since it started strikes in the country earlier this month, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
New Zealand is deploying a six-member defence force team to contribute to maritime security in the Middle East, prime minister Christopher Luxon has announced.
In Israel, funerals continue for soldiers who have died in the war in Gaza.
The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) noted the death toll of Israeli soldiers in their latest update saying that “As of 23 January, 219 soldiers have been killed, and 1,232 soldiers have been injured in Gaza, according to the Israeli military.”
Ocha also notes that at least 25,490 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began and 63,354 Palestinians injured, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza.
Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel, including 36 children, according to the Israeli authorities, the vast majority on 7 October.
The Israeli authorities estimate that about 136 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, says Ocha.
Family members weep as they touch the coffin of Maj Ilay Levy during his funeral ceremony at the Tel Aviv's military cemetery. Major, Ilay Levi, 24, was killed in battle in southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths has also posted on X about the update in Khan Younis.
He lists some of the main humanitarian concerns there, including access to supplies, water and sanitation:
The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) has released their latest update on the Israel-Gaza war.
They are highlighting what’s happening in Khan Younis specifically as fighting intensifies there:
Hostilities were particularly intense in Khan Younis, with Israeli forces reported to having surrounded and launched a large-scale operation in the city. Heavy fighting is reported in proximity to hospitals in Khan Younis, including Al Aqsa, Nasser and Al Amal, with reports of Palestinians trying to flee to the southern town of Rafah.
Ocha adds more detail on those fleeing Khan Younis:
On 23 January, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders via social media to Palestinians in a number of city blocks in Khan Younis. The affected area covers some four square kilometres. There are about 88,000 residents in the area, in addition to an estimated 425,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) seeking shelter in 24 schools and other institutions.
The affected area includes Nasser Hospital (475 bed capacity), Al Amal Hospital (100 beds) and the Jordanian Hospital (50 beds), representing almost 20 per cent of the remaining partially functioning hospitals across the Gaza Strip. Three health clinics are also located in the affected area. Some 18,000 IDPs are reported to be in the Nasser Hospital, with an unknown number of IDPs seeking shelter in the other health facilities.
These people are squeezing into a limited space at an UNRWA facility in Khan Younis, amid nearby gunfire and shelling.#Gaza hostilities have been particularly intense in this area, with more Palestinians fleeing south, while others are trapped.
The US has carried out strikes in Iraq against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militia, the Pentagon has said, after a weekend attack on an Iraqi airbase that wounded US forces.
“US military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq,” the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said in a statement.
“These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias,” Austin added.
On Saturday, four US personnel suffered traumatic brain injuries after Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase was hit by multiple ballistic missiles and rockets fired by Iranian-backed militants from inside Iraq.
A highly charged UN security council debate focusing on aid shipments to Gaza has been taking place.
Speaker after speaker from around the globe but especially the Middle East has lined up to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and rapid pathway move to a two state solution.
The Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi pleaded “Stop this massacre. Adopting a binding Security Council resolution forcing the end of this misery is the least that you can do now. Partial solutions will not achieve this peace.
“All of you support the two-State solution that the Israeli Government is undermining.”
He said the future of the region cannot be taken hostage by the political ambitions and radical agendas of Israeli extremists.
Abdallah Bou Habib, the Lebanese Foreign Minister urged countries not to fall into an Israeli trap of extending the war to his country. “Have not we learned anything from our past mistakes; is it not high time we acknowledge that we cannot cancel each other out?”
The United Arab Emirates envoy Lana Zaki Nusseibeh insisted “We will not support a return to the failed status quo. Before, the two-State solution was the end point to where we envisioned our diplomatic efforts would lead. Now it must be our starting point.”
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Waleed El-Khereiji condemned Israel’s killing war machine.
The Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said “instead of calling on others to exercise restraint, the US must compel the Israeli regime to stop the war and pull itself out of the trap that the Israeli regime has set to drag the US into direct conflict.”
He also says “security cannot be achieved by resorting to the use of force and committing the crime of genocide in Gaza The killing of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank cannot continue until the so-called total destruction of Hamas, because that time will never come.”
Earlier, Gilad Erdan, the Israeli envoy to the UN, faced a walkout by some Arab ambassadors as he started by saying the world was trying to treat cancer with an aspirin, and said those advocating a ceasefire needed to realise it only meant the terror group Hamas would “remain in power, they would regroup and rearm, and soon Israel would face another attempted holocaust. Is this the outcome you would seek?”
British foreign secretary David Cameron will travel to Israel on Wednesday where he is expected to raise concerns over the high number of Palestinians killed and push for a “sustainable” ceasefire in the Gaza war.
Reuters reports that Cameron’s trip, which will include visits to the West Bank, where the western-backed Palestinian Authority is based, and to Qatar and Turkey, is his third to the Middle East in just over two months.
He will advocate for a pathway out of the war involving the release of all Israeli hostages held by Gaza’s ruling Islamist Hamas group, with the Palestinian Authority taking over the running of the enclave, and an end to rocket attacks on Israel.
In Israel, Cameron will tell Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu more should be “done, more quickly to significantly increase the flow of life-saving aid into Gaza” and he will raise “concerns over the high number of civilian casualties”, according to a Foreign Office statement.
“No one wants to see this conflict go on a moment longer than necessary,” Cameron said. “An immediate pause is now necessary to get aid in and hostages out. The situation is desperate.”
David Cameron will also urge Israel to open more crossing points to allow aid deliveries into Gaza, including the Israeli port at Ashdod and the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that water, fuel and electricity must be restored.
US says strikes hit three targets linked to Iran-backed groups in Iraq
Let’s get more details on those strikes in Iraq. Associated Press is reporting that three facilities in Iraq were hit by the US military.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in retaliation for missile and drone attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria over the past several days.
The US strikes hit militia facilities in Jurf al-Sakhar, which is south of Baghdad, al-Qaim and another unnamed site in western Iraq, two US officials told AP.
Here is part of a statement released by Lloyd Austin:
At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq …
These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias.
The strikes come hours after the US said militants fired two one-way attack drones at al-Asad airbase, injuring US service members and damaging infrastructure. And they followed the militia’s most serious attack this year on the airbase, when it launched multiple ballistic missiles on Saturday.
Al-Asad is a large airbase in western Iraq where US troops have trained Iraqi security forces and now coordinate operations to counter the Islamic State group.
Reged Ahmad here picking up the blog from Tom Ambrose
The US central command (Centcom) have posted on X about those latest strikes carried out in Iraq.
They say the strikes were “In response to attacks by the Iranian-backed militia group Kataib Hezbollah (KH), including the attack on al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq”
U.S. Forces Strike Kataib Hezbollah Capabilities in Iraq In response to attacks by the Iranian-backed militia group Kataib Hezbollah (KH), including the attack on al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq on Jan. 20, on Jan. 24 at 12:15 a.m. (Iraq time), U.S. CENTCOM forces conducted… pic.twitter.com/rSnbQdlRD4
More details have emerged about the strikes in Yemen that took place on Monday.
Britain said in a joint statement on Tuesday that 24 countries, including the United States, Germany and Australia, conducted additional strikes on Monday against eight targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
In response to continued illegal and reckless Houthi attacks against vessels transiting the Red Sea and surrounding waterways, the armed forces of the United States and United Kingdom, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, conducted additional strikes against eight targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen
The joint statement was issued by Britain’s prime minister’s office, which added “These strikes were designed to disrupt and degrade the capability of the Houthis to continue their attacks on global trade and innocent mariners from around the world, while avoiding escalation.”
This post was amended to remove the suggestion that fresh strikes have just taken place.
New Zealand is deploying a six-member defence force team to contribute to maritime security in the Middle East, prime minister Christopher Luxon has announced.
Luxon said the Houthi attacks against commercial and naval shipping were “illegal, unacceptable and profoundly destabilising”, adding:
This deployment, as part of an international coalition, is a continuation of New Zealand’s long history of defending freedom of navigation both in the Middle East and closer to home.
The team will contribute to the self-defence of ships in the region, in accordance with international law, but no personnel will enter Yemen, Luxon said.
Foreign affairs minister, Winston Peters, said the deployment is in support of the free flow of trade, on which New Zealanders rely, and should not be conflated with the country’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict, which includes supporting a two-state solution and the parties taking steps towards a ceasefire.
“Any suggestion our ongoing support for maritime security in the Middle East is connected to recent developments in Israel and the Gaza Strip, is wrong.”
