Israel-Hamas war: Russia, Iran decry strikes on Houthis

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday, Russia, which requested the emergency session, called the US and British strikes on Yemen's Houthis "blatant armed aggression against another country."

"These states all carried out a mass strike on Yemeni territory," Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said. "I'm not talking about an attack on some group within the country, but an attack on the people of the country on the whole. Aircraft were used, warships and submarines."

The United States and Britain defended the strikes as legal under international law, arguing they were in retaliation for Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The strikes were "to disrupt and degrade the Houthis' ability to continue the reckless attacks against vessels and commercial shipping," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all sides to show restraint in an already volatile situation.

"The Secretary-General further calls on all parties involved not to escalate even more the situation in the interest of peace and stability in the Red Sea and the wider region," Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Khaled Khiari, the Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, told the Security Council: "We are witnessing the cycle of violence that risks grave political security, economic and humanitarian repercussions in Yemen and the region.

"These developments in the Red Sea and the risk of exacerbating regional tensions are alarming," he added.

The German government issued a statement late on Friday reiterating that it "firmly and explicitly" rejects the accusation of genocide that has now been brought before the International Court of Justice against Israel.

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that the German government intended to intervene as a third party in the main hearing.

Hebestreit, echoing comments from Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck in Jerusalem on Thursday, said that if any group in the region harbored genocidal intent, it was Hamas. 

"On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped innocent people in Israel. Hamas' goal is to wipe out Israel. Since then, Israel has been defending itself against Hamas' inhuman attack," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.

He noted modern-day Germany's particular commitment to Israel given its Nazi past and said that as a result it also felt a special commitment to the Genocide Convention created in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

"We stand decisively against the political instrumentalization [of this convention]," the statement said. 

"We know that various countries evaluate Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip differently," Hebestreit said. "But the German government firmly and explicitly rejects the allegation of genocide against Israel currently raised at the International Court of Justice. This allegation has no basis whatsoever."  

Germany's ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also drew attention to the announcement. 

Canada does not accept the premise of South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which says Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

Israel rejected as false the accusations brought by South Africa at the ICJ, the UN's top court. 

"Our wholehearted support of the ICJ and its processes does not mean that we support the premise of the case brought forward by South Africa," he said.

Trudeau has consistently said Israel has the right to defend itself after the deadly rampage by militants of Gaza's ruling Hamas group into Israel on October 7.

But as the civilian toll mounts, he has gradually hardened his tone, and last month said Israel's close friends were worried the Gaza campaign could be endangering the country's long-term safety.

After US-led military strikes targeting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on all parties "not to escalate" the volatile situation in the Red Sea and the wider region.

Guterres called the Houthi attacks on merchant ships unacceptable.

"They endanger the safety and security of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation worldwide," he said.

Guterres urged the rebels to abide by a resolution passed by the UN Security Council this week calling for an immediate halt to the attacks.

At the same time, all UN member states that defended their ships must adhere to international law, as set out in the resolution, Guterres continued.

Johann Wadephul, a member of parliament for the conservative CDU party, told DW that his opposition party was fully behind the German government's support for US-led airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

It was necessary, he said, to send a signal to the Houthis that they could not continue their strikes on the Red Sea, which endangered supply chains. 

Wadephul added that CDU would also support the government in Berlin if it decided to support the operations in some way. "If the government comes over to us and asks us for support, there will be the political support," he said. 

According to Wadephul, Germany has naval units in the region capable of supporting the military strikes against the Houthis.

The CDU politician participates in both the foreign affairs and defense committees in the Bundestag parliament.

Ian Ralby, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Maritime Strategy, told DW that the current escalation in the Red Sea is exactly what the Houthis have been waiting for for about 10 years.

He said that the Houthis had long held the narrative that the war in Yemen was actually about fighting the US and the UK.

"And now that they have actually experienced the force of the US and the UK, they are going to be able to embolden themselves further," Ralby said.

He argued that the militants who control much of Yemen and the capital Sanaa had been opportunistic in seizing on the conflict in Gaza as a means of garnering more international and regional attention for their actions than is typically dedicated to the conflict in Yemen — which has ground on for almost a decade now.

"They are not interested in Palestine, except insofar as it gives them a reason to fight. They are very opportunistic in how they've jumped on the Israel-Gaza situation," Ralby said.

According to Ralby, the attacks on the Houthis would have to be more forceful than what we're seeing in order to be a deterrent. "Until someone changes tactics, we're likely to see a period of back-and-forth escalation in the region," he said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has urged other governments to distance themselves from Hamas and its October 7 attack on Israel.

Baerbock was speaking in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country with a government that maintains ties with Hamas and supports the Palestinian cause.

The minister said that to strengthen international law it is "central to condemn such a barbaric terrorist attack" as that launched by Hamas against Israel. The October 7 attacks killed some 1,200 people in Israel and precipitated the war in Gaza that has so far killed more than 23,000 people. 

Baerbock said that she made it clear during her visit that, in Germany's view, "a peaceful solution can only work" if the international community avoids "one-sided stances." 

The suffering of the Palestinians can only be ended "if the suffering of the Israelis [also] ends," said Baerbock, stressing that this required "one universal perspective."

The foreign minister's comments came after she met her Malaysian counterpart Mohamad Hasan in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in November said his government does not see Hamas as a terrorist organization. He said that even possible US sanctions against his country would not dissuade him.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, Israel, and the United States.

Phone and internet services are down in the Gaza Strip — the latest in a string of telecommunication outages as Israel presses ahead with its offensive against Hamas militants.

"We regret to announce that all telecom services in [the] Gaza Strip have been lost due to the ongoing aggression," the Palestinian telecom company Paltel posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Friday. "Gaza is blacked out again."

Communication networks in the sealed-off coastal strip have completely failed several times since the beginning of the war.

Israel has launched widespread airstrikes in the Palestinian territory and is also engaged in a ground offensive there.

Yemen's Houthis say US and British interests are "legitimate targets" for their forces after a series of strikes overnight.

The Iran-backed rebels — who control most of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa — issued a statement from their Supreme Political Council. 

"All American-British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni armed forces in response to their direct and declared aggression against the Republic of Yemen," the statement said.

"Americans and the Britons should not believe they will escape punishment of our valiant armed forces. The aggressors' joy will not be for long," it added.

While the pre-dawn strikes on dozens of targets were carried out with support from the Netherlands, Canada, Bahrain and Australia, the Houthi statement did not name these countries.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea that it claims to have connections to Israel, although very often those supposed connections are tangential at best.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he believes airstrikes by Britain and the US on Houthi military targets in Yemen will undermine the Iran-backed group's ability to launch attacks on marine traffic or Israel.

"We've carried out a series of strikes together with allies, which will, we believe, degrade and disrupt the capability. The types of things that we've targeted are launch sites for missiles and for drones," Sunak told reporters while on a visit to Ukraine.

"Initial indications are that those strikes have been successful... Our aim is very clear, it's to de-escalate tensions and restore stability to the region," he added.

Iraq has condemned the US-British attack on Houthi militia in Yemen, adding that the airstrikes risked expanding the scope of the ongoing conflict.

"We believe that expanding the scope of targeting does not represent a solution, but rather leads to widening the war," the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that it still emphasized the need to preserve the freedom of navigation in international waters.

Yemen's neighbor Oman, a mediator in attempts to end the country's long-running civil war, expressed its "worry" at the strikes.

Oman "can only condemn the use of military action by friendly countries," said a spokesman for the country's Foreign Ministry. 

"Oman has warned several times about the risk of the extension of the conflict in the region due to the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian territories," a statement said.

The Western military strikes came in response to the Houthi targeting of vessels in the Red Sea, which the militia claims to be targeting in solidarity with the  Palestinian people. The Houthis have said they are targeting vessels that are on their way to Israel or that are connected with the country.

About 12% of the world's trade typically passes through the Red Sea, from the Suez Canal to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned airstrikes carried out by the United States and United Kingdom against the Houthis in Yemen.

Erdogan said it appeared that Turkey's two NATO allies' actions risked fomenting a bloodbath in the Red Sea region.

"First of all, they are not proportional. All of these constitute disproportionate use of force," Erdogan told journalists, referring to the strikes. "It is as if they aspire to turn the Red Sea into a sea of blood," he said in comments after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

The Turkish leader also said Ankara was hearing from various channels that Houthi forces were carrying out a "successful defense" against the US and Britain.

The Western military strikes came in response to the Houthi targeting of vessels in the Red Sea, which the militia has claimed are on their way to Israel.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said he believed the International Court of Justice would rule against Israel in the genocide case being brought against it by South Africa. 

He said Turkey was producing documents at the court that would help to prove the case against Israel.

Middle East expert Elisabeth Kendall has told DW that the US and British strikes in Yemen could have broader regional consequences.

Kendall, who has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Yemen, said she doubted whether they would serve as an effective deterrent.

"I do fear that these strikes could spark a circle of conflict that could fan out into the region. I think it would be foolish if we didn't think that was a real possibility," said Kendall.

She went on to explain that the Tehran-backed Houthis had been locked in a civil war in Yemen for nine years and "are not the kind of group that is deterred by strikes."

Kendall said if the US were to flex its full military muscle against the Houthis, a regional war would follow.

"It's easy to underestimate the Houthis. Now, if the US were to unleash all of its military might against the Houthis, no, they would not be able to stand up to that. But that would result in a full, all-out regional war, no doubt," said Kendall.

Israel has opened its defense in the genocide case against it at the UN's top court, saying the allegations did not reflect the realities of the war in Gaza.

South Africa launched the emergency case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claiming Israel has breached the UN Genocide Convention. It presented its evidence to the court on Thursday.

However, Tal Becker, a legal adviser for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said South Africa had "regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture."

"The entirety of its case hinges on a deliberately curated, decontextualized and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities," he added.

Becker said Israel's actions in Gaza were acts of self-defense against Hamas and "other terrorist organizations."

"If there were acts of genocide, they have been perpetrated against Israel," Becker told the court based in The Hague.

South Africa has said it wants the ICJ judges to press Israel to "immediately" stop the Gaza campaign launched after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

In doing so, said Becker, "the applicant seeks to thwart Israel's inherent right to defend itself... and render Israel defenseless."

"Israel is in a war of defense against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people, to ensure that they do not succeed," Becker said.

"The key component of genocide, the intent to destroy a people in whole or in part, is totally lacking," he added.

The court is expected to rule on the emergency measures later this month.

You can watch the ICJ hearing live here.

A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi insurgent group has vowed to respond to airstrikes against it by the United States and the United Kingdom.

The militia said five fighters were killed in the predawn attacks on several Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. Another six fighters were injured.

"The American and British enemy bears full responsibility for its criminal aggression against our Yemeni people," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement. "It will not pass unanswered and without punishment."

Saree said there had been 73 strikes in total, across five regions.

He promised that the Houthi militia would "not hesitate to target sources of threat and all hostile targets on the ground and in the sea."

The Western military strikes came in response to the Houthi targeting of vessels in the Red Sea, which the militia has claimed are on their way to Israel.

Meanwhile, Hussein al-Ezzi, a Houthi official in the group's self-proclaimed Foreign Ministry, acknowledged "a massive aggressive attack by American and British ships, submarines and warplanes."

"America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression," he wrote, according to Houthi-aligned media.