PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said his country decided not to join U.S.-led strikes against Houthis attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea because France is seeking to avoid escalation in Mideast tensions.
French warships in the zone will continue to help defend shipping corridors and the freedom of navigation, he said, noting that the French Navy has already intercepted missiles and drones targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea in recent weeks.
Asked at a news conference in Paris why France didn’t join U.S.-led military operations against the Houthis, Macron said, ‘’France decided not to join a coalition that carried out preventive strikes against others on their soil. Why? Because we have a posture that seeks to avoid any escalation. ... It’s a diplomatic issue, because we are vigilant and attentive about balance in the region.’’
The Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The group says it has attacked the ships in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Macron called for a cease-fire in Gaza and stressed France’s efforts to mediate in the region’s conflicts, including an unprecedented deal negotiated along with Qatar to deliver medicines Wednesday to hostages held by Hamas.
Macron noted that 41 French citizens were killed in the Hamas attack, and four French people are among those still held hostage in Gaza.
UNITED NATIONS CALLS FOR YEMEN'S HOUTHIS TO STOP ATTACKS ON SHIPPING
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is calling on Yemen’s Houthi rebels to implement the Security Council resolution adopted last week demanding an immediate halt to its attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
“We’re very concerned by the continuing strikes,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday.
The Iranian-backed Houthis, who have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2014, have said they launched the attacks with the aim of ending Israel’s devastation air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The U.N. resolution condemns the more than two dozen Houthi attacks which have disrupted one of the world’s major trade routes and raised shipping costs.
Dujarric said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Monday about the situation in the Red Sea and in Gaza. The U.N. chief “reiterated his call to all the parties to avoid any further escalation” in Yemen and implement last week’s resolution, and reiterated the need for greater humanitarian access in Gaza and the immediate release of all hostages, the U.N. spokesman said.
The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, who has been consulting with all sides, spoke to the Iranian foreign minister’s senior advisor, Ali Asghar Khaji ,earlier Tuesday, Dujarric said. They discussed “the need to maintain an environment conducive to constructive dialogue and sustained concerted regional efforts to peace in Yemen,” the U.N. spokesperson said. Grundberg and others then briefed the Security Council behind closed doors.
TWO ISRAELI HOSTAGES CONFIRMED DEAD IN GAZA
JERUSALEM — Two Israeli men who were captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack have been confirmed dead after the militant group released a video saying they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
A forum for families of hostages released statements Tuesday confirming that Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, had died in captivity in Gaza. They did not say how the men died.
The two were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri, one of several communities near Gaza that Hamas and other militants overran after breaking through Israel’s border defenses. The attack ignited the war in Gaza, which is still raging.
Hamas released a video on Monday showing Sharabi and Svirsky giving statements on camera, likely under duress, followed by images of what appeared to be their dead bodies. It said they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said Monday that the army had feared for their lives. He said Israeli forces had struck a building near where the hostages were being held but did not know their location at the time.
Hamas and other militants captured some 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack. More than 100 were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Most of the rest are still in captivity.
Hamas has said no more hostages will be released until there is a permanent cease-fire.
BERNIE SANDERS TO MAKE U.S. SENATORS VOTE ON INVESTIGATING ISRAEL FOR POSSIBLE WAR CRIMES IN GAZA
WASHINGTON — In a notable test Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders is forcing colleagues to vote on record whether to investigate human rights abuses in the Israel-Hamas war, a step toward potentially limiting U.S. military aid to Israel as its devastating attacks on Gaza grind past 100 days.
The Senate vote, a first of its kind tapping into a decades-old law, would require the U.S. State Department to, within 30 days, produce a report on whether the Israeli war effort in Gaza is violating human rights and international accords. If so, U.S. military aid to Israel, long assured without question, could be quickly halted.
While the Senate is unlikely to approve the measure, the vote by senators will begin to reveal the depth of unease among U.S. lawmakers over Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas. With no apparent end to the bombardment, Israel’s attacks against Palestinians, an attempt to root out Hamas leaders, are viewed by some as disproportional to the initial terrorist attack on Israel.
DEAL WILL A LLOW DELIVERY OF MEDICINE TO ISRAELI HOSTAGES, AND HUMANITARIAN AID TO GAZA
JERUSALEM — Qatar and France say they have mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas to allow the delivery of medications to the more than 100 Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza.
The Gulf Arab country announced Tuesday that additional quantities of humanitarian aid would be delivered to Palestinians in Gaza as part of the deal.
It marks the first agreement between the warring sides since a weeklong cease-fire collapsed in late November.
France said it had been working on the deal since October, and would provide three months’ worth of medication for 45 hostages with chronic illnesses, as well as other medicines and vitamins. The medicines are expected to enter Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday.
Hamas captured the hostages in its Oct. 7 cross-border attack that began the war. The hostages have not been visited by the Red Cross, and many, including several elderly men, are believed to be in desperate need of medication.
Qatar said the deal was reached with French assistance. The medicines are expected to be delivered on Wednesday.
U.S. STRIKES HIT YEMEN'S HOUTHI REBELS FOR THIRD TIME
WASHINGTON — The U.S. launched a new strike against the Yemen-based Houthis on Tuesday, hitting anti-ship missiles in a third assault on the Iranian-backed group in recent days, a U.S. official said.
The U.S. official said no other details were available yet on the American strike, including the precise location. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the operation had not been made public.
The strike came as the Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack against the Malta-flagged bulk carrier Zografia in the Red Sea. No one was injured. The Greek-owned vessel had been heading north to the Suez Canal when it was attacked, the Greek Shipping and Island Policy Ministry said.
This latest exchange suggests there has been no let-up in Houthi attacks on shipping in the region, despite the massive U.S. and British assault on the group Friday, bombing more than 60 targets in 28 locations.
A Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war in Yemen against the Houthis has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. The conflict, which began in 2014, has slowed to a stalemate as the Houthis maintain control of the capital and northern and western Yemen, where most of the population lives.
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Associated Press writer Lolita Baldor contributed.
AL-JAZEERA BUREAU CHIEF WHO LOST WIFE AND CHILDREN IN GAZA IS SEEKING TREATMENT ABROAD
CAIRO — Al-Jazeera’s veteran bureau chief in Gaza, who lost his wife, three of his children and a grandchild in Israeli airstrikes, has left the territory for medical treatment.
The head of Egypt’s journalist syndicate, Khaled al-Balshy, says Wael Dahdouh will travel to Qatar, where Al Jazeera is based, for medical treatment. Dahdouh, 53, crossed into Egypt earlier.
He has reported continuously on the fighting between Israel and Hamas even as it has taken a devastating toll on his own family abd was wounded in an Israeli airstrike last month that killed a cameraman working with him.
Dahdouh told Egypt’s state-run Qahera TV that he would get treatment for the hand injury he suffered in the strike and would return to work, without providing further details.
He has been the face of Al Jazeera’s 24-hour coverage of the war for millions of Arabic-speaking viewers across the region.
EUROPEAN UNION PUTS HAMAS LEADER IN GAZA ON ITS TERRORIST LIST
BRUSSELS — The European Union said Tuesday that is has put the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Hamas leader Yehya Sinwar, on its terrorist list.
EU headquarters said the move was in “response to the threat posed by Hamas and its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Israel.”
The EU says Sinwar “is subject to the freezing of his funds and other financial assets in EU member states. It is also prohibited for EU operators to make funds and economic resources available to him.” No further details were provided.
Israel believes Sinwar is operating from tunnels somewhere in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
In November, the EU froze the funds and other assets in Europe of Mohammed Deif, the commander general of Hamas’ military wing, and of deputy commander Marwan Issa.
Hamas and its military wing have been on the EU’s terrorist list as organizations for about 20 years.
QATAR'S PRIME MINISTER SPEAKS OF GAZA'S DESTRUCTION: ''GAZA IS NOT THERE ANY MORE.'
JERUSALEM — Qatar’s prime minister offered stinging criticism of Israel and the international community on Tuesday over the ongoing Israeli war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign minister, said a two-state solution was required to end the conflict and warned that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the Israeli response showed the region could not go back to the way it was before.
“Gaza is not there anymore. I mean, there is nothing over there,” he said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "It’s carpet bombing everywhere.”
He also brought up the ongoing tensions in the West Bank, which has seen Palestinians killed as well by Israeli security forces, and urged for an end to Palestinian divisions.
"We cannot have a two-state solution without having a government and politicians in Israel who believe in coexisting together side by side peacefully and we cannot have all this ongoing without ending this war,” he said.
He warned that a military confrontation in the Mideast waterways “will not contain” the attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels who on Monday fired a missile, striking a U.S.-owned ship just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.
“What we have right now in the region is a recipe of escalation everywhere,” Sheikh Mohammed added.
ISRAEL SAYS ROCKETS FIRED FROM GAZA, REPORTEDLY ONE OF THE STRONGEST BOMBARDMENTS IN MORE THAN A WEEK
TEL AVIV — Israel says a barrage of at least 25 rockets was launched on Tuesday from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel, damaging a store. It was one of the strongest bombardments from Gaza in more than a week.
It came a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Israeli army was expanding military control from northern Gaza toward other parts of the strip.
Hamas has continued to fire rockets at Israel throughout the war, even as Israel says it is dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities in ever-expanding areas of Gaza. Israeli Channel 12 TV said the rockets on Tuesday were launched from the central Gaza town of Bureij.
In the area of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Israeli troops located approximately 100 rocket set-installations and 60 ready-to-use rockets, the military said, claiming its forces killed dozens of militants during the activity.
At a news conference on Monday, Gallant said he expects military operations in southern Gaza to “end soon” but gave no timeframe. He spoke a day after the White House called on Israel to curtail its offensive.
Gallant said Israel is still targeting Hamas’ leaders, calling them the “head of the snake” and said they are believed to be hiding in Khan Younis, the southern city where the offensive has been focused in recent weeks.
He stressed that military pressure is the only way to win the release of the more than 100 hostages still in Hamas captivity. “Only from a position of strength can we ensure the release of hostages,” he said.
ISRAELI MILITARY LOOKING INTO WEST BANK CLASHES ON MONDAY THAT KILLED A PALESTINIAN WOMAN
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it’s reviewing an incident in the occupied West Bank the previous day when a Palestinian woman was killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the woman — 23-year-old Ahed Mohammed — was killed along with a man, and nine Palestinians were wounded.
The Israeli military said the clashes occurred in the town of Dura, where about 100 people threw firebombs and blocks at troops, who fired back. The military said one person was killed, others were hit and that the incident was “under review.” It did not confirm reports of the woman’s death.
The West Bank has experienced a surge in violence since the war in Gaza erupted and the Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed some 350 Palestinians there since Oct. 7. Most have been killed in confrontations with Israeli forces during arrest raids or violent protests.
Palestinians from the West Bank have also carried out attacks against Israelis during that time.
EXCHANGE OF FIRE ALONG ISRAEL-EGYPT BORDER KILLS 1 IN EGYPT, INJURES AN ISRAELI SOLDIER
JERUSALEM — Israel said one of its troops was “slightly injured” in an exchange of fire along the country’s border with Egypt, which Cairo attributed to drug smuggling. One person in Egypt was killed.
The statement from the Israeli military late on Monday said the fighting happened near the Nitzana border crossing with Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula, and that there were 20 armed suspects. The Israelis and the suspects exchanged fire, with Israel saying “hits were identified” among the suspects, without elaborating.
The Israeli soldier who was hit “was evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and her family has been informed,” the military said.
The Israeli military did not identify the suspects. An Egyptian military statement on Tuesday described the suspects involved as trying to smuggle drugs. It said one person was killed and six people were arrested afterwards.
Egypt and Israel have had a peace deal since 1979, but Israel’s monthslong war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has strained ties.
U.N. CHIEF WARNS OF STARVATION AND DISEASE IN GAZA AS AID STAGGERS
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. secretary-general says Gaza faces “the long shadow of starvation” and the risk of disease outbreaks because of barriers to delivering vital aid.
Antonio Guterres did not mention Israel by name in his remarks Monday, but blamed the inability to meet Gaza’s growing humanitarian needs on widespread bombardment, barriers to entering the territory and restrictions on distribution inside of it — all under Israel’s control.
He said he was “deeply troubled by the clear violation of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing.”
Israeli officials have denied hindering aid delivery, saying the U.N. needs to provide more workers and trucks.
But Guterres said the U.N. and its partners “cannot effectively deliver humanitarian aid while Gaza is under such heavy, widespread and unrelenting bombardment.” He pointed to the deaths of 152 U.N. staffers in Gaza since the start of the war, “the largest single loss of life in the history of our organization.”
