Live
Middle East
Britain will provide an additional 19 million pounds ($24 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the government said Monday, ahead of a conference in Cairo set to address increasingly desperate humanitarian needs in the Palestinian enclave ahead of winter. Read our live blog to follow the latest developments.
US Navy destroys Houthi missiles and drones targeting American ships in Gulf of Aden
US Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the warships and three American merchant vessels they were escorting through the Gulf of Aden. No damage or injuries were reported.
US Central Command said late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The merchant ships were not identified.
The Houthis claimed the attack in a statement and said they had targeted the U.S. destroyers and “three supply ships belonging to the American army in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
Britain ups Gaza aid ahead of donor conference
Britain will provide an additional 19 million pounds ($24 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the international development minister said Monday, calling for Israel to give greater access ahead of a key conference on the conflict.
“Gazans are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter,” the minister, Anneliese Dodds, said in a statement as she headed for a three-day visit to the region, including an international conference in Cairo Monday on the Gaza Strip’s aid needs.
“The Cairo conference will be an opportunity to get leading voices in one room and put forward real-world solutions to the humanitarian crisis,” she added.
“Israel must immediately act to ensure unimpeded aid access to Gaza.”
The new UK funding will be split into 12 million pounds for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP), and seven million pounds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the statement said.
Welcome to our liveblog where we give you the latest developments on the war in the Middle East. To read about yesterday’s key developments, click here.
- Britain said it will increase the amount of aid it sends to Gaza ahead of a conference in Cairo aiming to improve desperate humanitarian conditions in the strip ahead of winter.
- The US Navy destroyed Houthi missiles and drones targeting American vessels in the Gulf of Aden, US Central Command said.
- Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in Ankara late Sunday just hours after holding top-level talks in Damascus over a shock offensive by Syrian rebels, Turkish media said.
- Israel’s military said it fired on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, days into a fragile ceasefire with the Iran-backed Islamist group.
- Israel has no excuse for hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, a top German diplomat said ahead of an aid conference in Cairo next week.
- US president-elect Donald Trump named Lebanese-American businessman Massad Boulos as his senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, the latest family member to be appointed to a key position.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
Leave a Comment