good evening. the uk is on the brink of military action with the us against houthi rebels in yemen. rishi sunak held an evening briefing with cabinet ministers and the labour leader sir keir starmer has also been informed of the situation. the houthis, who are backed by iran, have launched a series of strikes against ships in the red sea, disrupting trade and adding to fears that the conflict between israel and hamas could escalate throughout the region. let s go straight to westminster and to our political editor chris mason. all this has just happened, what more do we know? this moment has been looking increasingly likely in the coming days. let me talk you through the choreography of this evening and what it is reasonable for us to
all of this, in an area no bigger than the isle of wight. for three hours, the court listened to south africa s case. each day, yet more desperate people will be forced to relocate from where they are sheltering and will be bombed in places where they have been told to evacuate to. entire multi generationalfamilies will be obliterated. and yet more palestinian children will become wcnsf wounded child, no surviving family. but what is genocide? according to a191r8 convention, it is a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. israel says it was acting in self defence, following the murderous hamas assaultof october the 7th,
their equivalent of the foreign secretary, antony blinken, is on his way back from an extensive trip around the middle east and one of his key objectives was to try to stop the israel gaza war escalating. the us has been most worried about this conflict spreading and drawing in other countries. yet at the same time whilst he was there, antony blinken also said it is articulately important that we respond when we are faced with aggression like that that we are seeing from the houthis, so he is drawing a clear line there and saying america isn t going to be provoked to the point where they will not act. that said, asjeremy was pointing out, america is very clear that the houthis are armed, funded and encouraged by iran, but if action is taken, if we do get that confirmation america will want to make it crystal clear that the us does not see this as them getting into any kind of fight with iran itself. , , into any kind of fight with iran itself. . , , , ,
this evening and the expectation is that the uk government is poised with international allies to be involved in military action as soon as tonight. involved in military action as soon as toniaht. , involved in military action as soon as tonight- as tonight. chris, we ll be back to ou ve as tonight. chris, we ll be back to you very shortly as tonight. chris, we ll be back to you very shortly but as tonight. chris, we ll be back to you very shortly but in as tonight. chris, we ll be back to you very shortly but in the - as tonight. chris, we ll be back to . you very shortly but in the meantime the us says there s been 27 attacks in the red sea since mid november by houthis who say they support hamas and are targeting ships headed to israel. let s get more now from our security correspondent frank gardner on who the houthis are and what the effect of their attacks has been. armed, angry and defiant. yemen s houthi rebels. a tribal mountain militia that controls much of yemen and i
has heard from lawyers for the south african government that israel s military offensive in gaza amounts to genocide. israel has strongly denied this, calling it an outrageous allegation. as part of its case, south africa is calling for an immediate halt to israel s military operation. paul adams reports. for three months the world has looked on in horror at the images from gaza. scenes of death and destruction which south africa says is evidence of genocide. this killing is nothing short of destruction of palestinian life. it is inflicted deliberately. no one is spared, not even newborn babies. the last three months have been utterly grim. over 23,000 palestinians have been killed, including entire families. around 300,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged, and 85% of gaza s population has been displaced. that s almost two million people.