Israel-Hamas war: Sunak warns Houthis after fresh missile attack

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Rishi Sunak has warned the Houthis of further Western airstrikes, after a missile from the rebel group hit a US-owned ship near Yemen.
Challenged in parliament on further military action, he said: “Of course we will not hesitate to protect our security, our people and our interests.”
In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Sunak also stressed that British military action last week was “necessary and proportionate response to a direct threat to UK vessels and therefore to the UK itself”.
The Prime Minister told MPs all planned targets had been destroyed with no reports of civilian casualties.
“I can tell the House today that our initial assessment is that all 13 planned targets were destroyed,” he said.
His comments came after Houthi forces in Yemen struck a US-owned and operated container ship M/V Gibraltar Eagle with an anti-ship ballistic missile. US Central Command said there were no reports of injuries or significant damage.
Thank you for following along today as Rishi Sunak warned the Houthis of further Western airstrikes, after a missile from the rebel group hit a US-owned ship near Yemen.
Stephen Crabb, a former Tory minister, said: “In welcoming today’s statement and the action that we have taken, can I urge the Prime Minister to give the House his assurance that he and his counterparts amongst our allies aren’t losing sight of the really big question about whether Iran should be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and whether he has considered whether it is the right time to activate the snapback sanctions provisions of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]?”
Mr Sunak replied: “There is absolutely no credible civilian justification for enrichment at the levels the IAEA has reported in Iran.
“We are determined that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon and we are actively considering next steps with our international partners. That means all diplomatic tools but including using the snapback mechanism if necessary.”
The Prime Minister said that the attacks on Houthis were to protect maritime rights so I asked him what effective action he had taken to protect the right to life of Palestinian children & halt the indiscriminate killing of children by the Israeli Defence Force. No real answer.
Richard Burgon, a former shadow cabinet minister, said there was a “real risk” that the UK could find itself in a “wider war” in the Middle East.
Mr Burgon, a Labour MP who served as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow justice secretary, added: “Don’t we now need an emphasis on de-escalation and diplomatic efforts?”
He said there was the need for a “wider diplomatic solution” and the UK to step up its calls for a ceasefire.
Rishi Sunak said nobody wanted to see the Israel-Gaza conflict last any longer than it had to, and that Hamas did not represent the “aspirations” of the Palestinian people.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, welcomed Rishi Sunak’s statements about Yemen and Ukraine.
Sir Iain told MPs Iran had “supported, supplied and continues to direct” the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah, “and all of that we understand”.
He continued: “Can I ask why it is that we are still reluctant to proscribe the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], who are responsible for so much of the coordination of this work, and we still sit with two Iranian banks in the City of London, feeding their money across to these terrible organisations?”
Mr Sunak thanked Sir Iain for his personal work supporting Ukraine, adding: “I agree with him about the risk that Iran poses to both the UK but also regional stability. We have sanctioned more than 400 Iranian individuals and entities, including the IRGC in its entirety.
“I’d also say that the National Security Act of last year implements new measures to protect the public… particularly tackling espionage and foreign interference… He will know we don’t routinely comment on proscription.”
Rishi Sunak suggested a Labour backbencher risked giving “ammunition to our enemies” by linking military action against the Houthis with the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Apsana Begum, the Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, said: “Seventy-one per cent of the British public want a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, that’s according to a latest YouGov poll taken just last month, yet last week the Government launched air strikes in the UK, an escalation of the situation in the Middle East.”
Ms Begum asked Mr Sunak whether he “had any duty towards the British public” and “the parliamentary community” when taking military action.
Mr Sunak replied: “The leader of the opposition made the point in his remarks, rightly, that we need to make sure that malign actors elsewhere would not try to distort what we have done for their own purposes.
“I would gently say to the honourable lady to conflate and link our action against the Houthis with the situation in Israel and Gaza just gives ammunition to our enemies who would seek to make things worse in the region.
“We have acted in self-defence, I’ve explained the reasons and the processes that we have followed… Separately, we will of course work very hard to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza and to try and bring about the sustainable ceasefire that we all of course want to see.”
Dame Priti Patel, a former home secretary, praised Rishi Sunak for his “crystal clear” stance on the need to degrade the Houthis’ military capabilities.
The Tory backbencher went on to note Yemen was facing a “mass humanitarian crisis”, with more than 21 million people in need of humanitarian aid, and urged the Government to ensure the nation was “not engulfed all over again, particularly the civilians of Yemen, in a mass humanitarian catastrophe”.
Mr Sunak said the Government was “steadfast in our support for the Yemeni people as one of the largest donors of lifesaving aid to the UN appeal”.
Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats and a former postal minister who has faced criticism over the Horizon scandal, was jeered as he rose to ask a question in the debate.
Sir Ed said it was “regrettable” that there had not been a vote prior to the strikes, but the Liberal Democrats did support strikes on the Houthis.
However, he went on to describe the Middle East as a “tinderbox”, asking Rishi Sunak to set out his conversations with both Nato allies and the leaders of Gulf states “to ensure that these limited strikes remain limited”.
Mr Sunak insisted he was “extensively engaging” with partners in the region, noting he spoke to the Egyptian region last night.
Rishi Sunak warned of the “risks of inaction” as he defended British and American air strikes against the Houthis.
Stephen Flynn, the leader of the SNP at Westminster, told MPs that the Houthis were “the fundamentalists’ fundamentalists” and that the perceived wisdom “would suggest they are not just content, but maybe quite happy” to be on the receiving end of American bombs.
Mr Flynn urged Mr Sunak to set out “when and how far he is willing to go” in pursuing military action “because we cannot have an escalation which leads to further regional instability”.
The Prime Minister declined to “speculate” on further military action, adding: “We hope that the Houthis will now step back and end their reckless and destabilising attacks, but we will not hesitate to protect our security and our interests where required, and we would of course follow the correct procedures, as I believe we did so in this case.
“Although the honourable gentleman is right to ask questions, we should also recognise the risks of inaction, because doing nothing would absolutely weaken international security and the rule of law, it would further damage the freedom of navigation and the global economy, and perhaps most importantly it would send a very dangerous message that British vessels and British interests are fair game and that is simply unacceptable.”
The chairman of the security committee has warned Rishi Sunak he should “certainly not” cut Britain’s defence stocks amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
After saying that Rishi Sunak was “absolutely justified” in conducting air strikes on Houthi rebels, Sir Julian Lewis told the Commons: “Given that at the time of the Falklands campaign, we had 35 Frigates and Destroyers, and were spending 4.5 per cent of GDP on defence, whereas both those figures can be cut in half to describe our situation today, does he agree with me that we certainly should not be reducing the numbers of Frigates or Destroyers, and we certainly should not be mothballing or otherwise decommissioning our amphibious assault ships?”
Mr Sunak insisted he intended to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP “when the circumstances allow” and said the UK had “consistently” been the second-largest spender on defence in Nato.
“Our plans will continue to provide that leadership. Within that there is a very strong equipment plan… which for the Royal Navy does include Type-26, Type-31 and Type-32 Frigates.”
⚠ Update: Metrics show the #Gaza Strip has now been largely offline for over 72 hours; the disruption is the longest sustained telecoms blackout on record since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war, and is likely to significantly limit visibility into events on the ground ⏲ pic.twitter.com/mkdBIZungK
Rishi Sunak told the House of Commons: “We should also recognise the risk of inaction. 
“It would weaken international security and the rule of law, further damage freedom of navigation and the global economy, and send a dangerous message that British vessels and British interests are fair game.”
He added: “The Houthis’ attack risks worsening the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen itself. 
The UK helps to feed around 100,000 Yemenis every month, with aid arriving via the very sea routes that the Houthis have in their sights.”
Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour backs this targeted action to reinforce maritime security in the Red Sea. 
The Labour leader said: “We strongly condemn the Houthi attacks that are targeting commercial ships of all nationalities, putting civilians and military personnel in serious danger – including British forces.
“The Houthi attacks are unacceptable, illegal and, if left unaddressed, could lead to a devastating rise in the cost of essential food in some of the poorest countries. The international community clearly stands against the Houthi attacks.”
He added that military action must be “underpinned by a clear strategy” and noted it is the role of the Commons to “ask the right questions”, adding: “Can he confirm that he stands by the parliamentary convention that where possible military interventions by the UK Government – particularly if they are part of a sustained campaign – should be brought before this House?
“Scrutiny is not the enemy of strategy. Because while we back the action taken last week these strikes still do bring risk, we must avoid escalation across the Middle East.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak replied: “I can assure him that it was necessary to strike at speed, as he acknowledged, to protect the security of these operations”.
Rishi Sunak has said Britain attempted to resolve this through diplomacy. 
He told the Commons: “After numerous international calls for the attacks to stop, a coalition of countries gave the Houthis a clear and unambiguous warning two weeks ago.”
He cited a resolution of the UN Security Council “condemning the attacks and highlighting the right of nations to defend their vessels and preserve freedom of navigation”.
“Yet the Houthis continued on their reckless path,” he said.
British participation in air strikes against Houthi rebels was “completely unrelated” to the Israel-Gaza conflict and Yemen’s civil war, Rishi Sunak told the Commons.
The Prime Minister said: “We shouldn’t fall for their [the Houthis’] malign narrative that this is about Israel and Gaza. They target ships from around the world.
“And we continue to work towards a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza and to get more aid to civilians. We also continue to support a negotiated settlement in Yemen’s civil war.
“But I want to be very clear that this action is completely unrelated to those issues.
“It is a direct response to the Houthis’ attacks on international shipping.”
Rishi Sunak has condemned the Houthi strikes on January 9 as “biggest attack on the Royal Navy for decades”.
The Prime Minister told the Commons: “They fired on our ships and our sailors. It was the biggest attack on the Royal Navy for decades and so we acted.”
He stressed that the strikes were “limited” and “carefully targeted” to degrade Houthi capacity.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Commons: 
“The threats to shipping must cease. Illegally detained vessels and crews must be released. 
And we remain prepared to back our words with actions.”
There has been no evidence of civilian casualties in Yemen, Rishi Sunak has said.
The Prime Minister said military action taken was not done so lightly.
He said: “It was limited, not escalatory. 
“It was a necessary and proportionate response to a direct threat to UK vessels and therefore to the UK itself.”
Rishi Sunak’s statement to the Commons has begun.
Mr Sunak said Britain acted “in self-defence” and to “uphold freedom of navigation”.
He told the Commons: “I want to be clear that these were limited strikes…to degrade the Houthis capability.
“Our initial assessment is that all 13 planned targets were destroyed,” he added.
On Jan. 15 at approximately 4 p.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned and operated container ship. The ship has… pic.twitter.com/gixEMaUiVT
A woman in her 70s was killed and more than a dozen others were injured in a stabbing and car ramming attack in a city to the north of Tel Aviv, according to reports.
Police described the incident in Ra’anana as a terrorist attack and said two suspects were under arrest. The two are from the same family in Hebron, a city in the occupied West Bank, and entered Israel illegally. 
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Hospitals in the area said those injured included nine children, one of whom was seriously hurt.
One witness told the Haaretz newspaper: “I saw someone stab three people next to the mall, then steal a car, start driving, and use the car to ram [people].”
Rishi Sunak has said he “will not hesitate” to protect British security after the Defence Secretary refused to rule out further action against the Houthis to safeguard the Red Sea.
Mr Sunak, who will address MPs about the decision to take part in joint air strikes in Yemen with the US, said the military action was a “last resort” designed to “restore stability” in the region.
The RAF joined American allies in targeting Houthi locations last week as part of allied efforts to ensure international cargo vessels can freely navigate the vital shipping route.
Israel’s cabinet passed an amended 2024 state budget on Monday that added 55 billion shekels ($15 billion) of extra spending, after three months of war with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the Finance Ministry said.
The extra funding includes money for defence and compensation for those impacted by the war, along with greater allocations for healthcare, police, welfare and education.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency received a report of an incident 95 nautical miles southeast of Yemen’s Aden, it said in an advisory note on Monday.
UKMTO WARNING 009/JAN/2024ATTACKWarnings – 2024 (https://t.co/5An1YH0JyE)#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/DgFAqnGf85
UKMTO added that authorities are investigating.
The chief negotiator for Yemen’s Houthis said that the group’s position has not changed since US-led air strikes on Yemen and warned that attacks on ships headed to Israel will continue.
Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters: “Attacks to prevent Israeli ships or those heading to the ports of the occupied Palestine will continue.”
He added that the group’s demands are still for an end of the Israeli offensive in Gaza and to allow humanitarian aid to the north and south of the strip.
His comments come after US forces shot down a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at an American warship on Sunday, in the first confirmed attack of its kind since allied strikes on the group last week.
Read: US fighter jet downs Houthi missile fired at warship
Grant Shapps has said the UK-US strikes against Houthi rebels last week were intended “as a single action”.
But when asked if further military action was planned, the Defence Secretary replied: “I can’t predict the future for you.
“We will not put up with a major waterway… being closed on a permanent basis” to international shipping, Mr Shapps added.
The Iranian connection to the Houthis is “very clear,” Grant Shapps has said in a speech at Lancaster House.
The Defence Secretary said: “We see that the connection [between Iran and the Houthis] is very clear.”
Mr Shapps would not comment further when pressed by reporters on what Iran has said. 
Three United Nations agencies called on Israel to allow access to the port of Ashdod, north of Gaza, for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.
Bringing food and supplies to the besieged population of Gaza, which is increasingly at risk of famine, also depends on the opening of new entry routes into the territory, the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a joint statement.
The use of Ashdod, located some 25 miles north of the Gaza border, is “critically needed by aid agencies”, they said, while calling for a “fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza”.
Allowing humanitarian agencies to use that port “would enable significantly larger quantities of aid to be shipped in and then trucked directly to the badly affected northern regions of Gaza, which few convoys have managed to reach”, they said.
Britain “needed to act” against the Houthis, Grant Shapps has said, after the UK and US launched strikes on the Iran-backed group last week.
The attacks on a string of targets inside Yemen were in response to the Iran-backed rebels targeting of shipping in the Red Sea.
The Defence Secretary told the BBC that “freedom of navigation … must be protected”, hours after the US said it had shot down a Houthi missile fired at one of its warships in the region.
The missile was fired on Sunday toward the USS Labnoon, which was operating in the southern Red Sea, and downed by US fighter jets near the port city of Hudaydah, on Yemen’s west coast. 
Asked whether the UK will launch fresh military action, Mr Shapps said: “I rather hope we don’t need to”.
“Let’s wait and see what happens, because it’s not that we want to be involved in action in the Red Sea. But ultimately freedom of navigation is an international right that must be protected,” he added.
Rishi Sunak has said that the Government would “not hesitate” to protect security in the Red Sea.
The Prime Minister said: “We faced an escalating series of attacks from the Houthis on commercial shipping, including an attack on a Royal Navy warship. That’s unacceptable.
“It’s right that we took proportionate, targeted action against military targets to send a strong message that that behaviour is unacceptable.
“It was a last resort, it came after the end of exhaustive diplomatic activity including a UN Security Council. Now, I think it is encumberment on the Houthis to recognise the international condemnation for what they are doing and desist. But we, of course, will not hesitate to protect our security where required.”
Joe Biden’s patience with Benjamin Netanyahu is “running out,” a US official has told Axios.
Mr Biden is said to be frustrated with the Israeli prime minister’s rejection of US requests related to the war in Gaza.
One US official told Axios: “The situation sucks and we are stuck. The president’s patience is running out”.
The US president last spoke with Mr Netanyahu on December 23, ending the phone call by saying “this conversation is over”.
Chris van Hollen, a Democratic Senator, told the outlet: “They are pleading with the Netanyahu coalition, but getting slapped in the face over and over again.”
On Sunday, the White House said it was the “right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in Gaza.
More than 60 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across Gaza overnight, the Hamas-run health ministry has claimed.
It said dozens of people were also wounded in what the militant group’s media office described as “intense” Israeli strikes and artillery bombardments across the Gaza Strip.
The strikes hit the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, as well as areas around Gaza City, the media office said.
It said two hospitals, a girls’ school and “dozens” of homes were among the targets.
A Turkish court released pending trial an Israeli footballer on Monday who was detained after displaying a message referring to the Israel-Hamas war during a first division match.
Sagiv Jehezkel, 28, displayed a bandage on his wrist reading “100 days. 07/10” next to a Star of David as he celebrated scoring a goal for Antalyaspor against Trabzonspor on Sunday.
Turkish prosecutors launched a criminal investigation over Jehezkel’s alleged “incitement to hate” and his club tore up the player’s contract for “exhibiting behaviour that goes against our country’s sensitivities”.
NTV television reported that a private plane had been sent from Israel on Monday to pick up Jehezkel and his family so that they could return home.
Mr Jehezkel’s detention was furiously condemned the same day by top Israeli officials, sending relations between the two regional powers to a new low.
In testimony to the police, Mr Jehezkel said he “did not intend to provoke anyone”.
“I am not a pro-war person,” the private DHA news agency reported him as saying.
The US shot down an anti-ship missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday.
On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m. (Sanaa time), an anti-ship cruise missile was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward USS Laboon (DDG 58), which was operating in the Southern Red Sea. The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah by… pic.twitter.com/jftZHQhA2e
There were no injuries or damage reported.
There is nothing comfortable about this war, Grant Shapps has said.
The Defence Secretary told the BBC that it is “really, really important” that this conflict is brought to a conclusion.
Asked if he remained confident and comfortable about how the war is being fought amid scenes of destruction, Mr Shapps said: “There is nothing comfortable about this war”.
He added that no one can look at such scenes without feeling “unbelievably upset and uncomfortable”.
Grant Shapps has defended saying “watch this space” ahead of the UK and US air strikes on Houthi locations last week following a report that it had annoyed the Americans.
The Sunday Times quoted a senior diplomat as saying there was “some real annoyance” in Washington after the remark was made.
Asked about the report, Mr Shapps told Sky News: “That is not true.
“I speak to my American friends all the time and they – and we – were very clear that we would be signalling the fact that if they didn’t stop, then there would be action.
“And so I used that phrase very deliberately in order to say ‘If this carries on, then we will have to step in’.
The White House has said that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli leaders again vowed to press ahead with their operation against Hamas.
Speaking on CBS, John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman, said the US has been speaking to Israel “about a transition to low-intensity operations” in Gaza.
“We believe it’s the right time for that transition. And we’re talking to them about doing that,” he said on the channel’s news series Face the Nation.
Grant Shapps told Sky News the actions of the Iran-backed militant group in Yemen were “completely unacceptable” and described it as “almost like thuggery”, with ships from more than 50 nations targeted along the vital global shipping route.
He said the purpose of the air strikes with the US last week was “not to go into Yemen or anything like that”, but to “send a very clear, I hope unambiguous message” for the Houthis to stop their assaults.
The Cabinet minister continued: “We will now watch and monitor the situation very carefully.
“As we’ve said – not just to the Houthis but to their Iranian masters, in a sense, because they are really proxies for Tehran – this cannot go on.
“International shipping … freedom of navigation is just a given and always has been for many, many years. We cannot have that situation where they are trying to harass it and we will keep a very close eye.
“If we have to take further action, that is something that we will consider.”