Middle East crisis live: US carries out new strikes against Houthi anti-ship missile sites in Yemen | Israel

Patrick Wintour

David Cameron will return to the Middle East on Wednesday to press for an immediate humanitarian pause in the fighting.

Downing Street said Cameron was expected to raise “the importance of a two-state solution”.

The foreign secretary, who said the situation in Gaza is desperate, is due to visit Qatar, Israel, the West Bank and Turkey.

Lord Cameron, on his second visit to the region since returning to government, will continue to insist no permanent ceasefire can be agreed unless Hamas releases all the remaining hostages, is incapable of firing rockets at Israel, and an agreement exists that allows the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza and provide services.

His visit comes as Qatar continues to try to mediate between Israel and Hamas on a plan for a two-month ceasefire that would see the release of all hostages and a large number of Palestinian political prisoners.

Some mediators believe that if such a long humanitarian pause was agreed neither side would want to return to war.

Read the rest of our diplomatic editor’s piece on David Cameron’s planned visit here:

The US military has carried out two more strikes in Yemen which they say have destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed at the Red Sea. The US says the Houthis were preparing to launch the missiles.

US central command (Centcom) has posted on X that “U.S. forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region.”

Centcom describes the strikes as “self-defence”. These are the latest strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis over its targeting of Red Sea shipping. There was also a larger round of strikes late Monday.

The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have said their attacks on ships are in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel strikes Gaza. The attacks have disrupted global shipping and deepened concern that fallout from the Israel-Hamas war could destabilise the Middle East.

It’s 6:41am in Sana’a, Yemen and 5:41am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Welcome to our latest blog on the Middle East crisis. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.

The US says it has carried out new strikes against two Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen. US central command (Centcom) has posted on X that “forces conducted strikes against two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch.”

More on that in a moment but first, here’s 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 to ensure aid gets to where it is needed, to facilitate the release of hostages and to lower the tensions throughout the Middle East.

• 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 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.

• 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.”

• 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.