Posted by US to take ‘all necessary actions’ after troops killed in Jordan drone attack, says Lloyd Austin
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has vowed the US will take “all necessary actions” to defend its troops after three servicemen were killed and dozens injured following a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria.
“Let me start with my outrage and sorrow (for) the deaths of three brave US troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded,” Austin said at the start of a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the Pentagon.
The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops.
Austin’s comments came as the spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer following the drone attack, which marked the first time American military personnel have been killed by hostile fire in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.
Key events
Jonathan Guyer
US government employees are planning a “day of fasting for Gaza” this week to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the territory and to denounce Joe Biden’s policy toward Israel.
Representatives for Feds United for Peace, a group of several dozen government employees frustrated with the Gaza crisis who organized an office walkout earlier in the month, told the Guardian that on Thursday its members will stage a one-day hunger strike.
Participating federal employees are expected to show up to their offices dressed in black or wearing keffiyeh scarves or other symbols of Palestinian solidarity.
A federal employee speaking on behalf of the group said the Day of Fasting is a response to Israel’s use of “starvation as a weapon of war by intentionally withholding food from entering Gaza”, citing UN reporting that up 2 million people in the territory are at risk of famine.
The group says its members represent more than two dozen agencies, among them the departments of defense, homeland security and state, and include career public servants and political appointees. They expect hundreds of government employees to participate.
A walkout staged by the group earlier this month drew strong reactions in Washington, with national security officials from both parties criticizing their protests as insubordination.
Qatar says ‘good progress’ made toward new Israel-Hamas hostage deal
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, has said “good progress” was made during weekend talks with US, Israeli and Egyptian officials in Paris on a way forward toward a new hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.
Sheikh Mohammed, speaking in Washington at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council thinktank, said he hoped to present a framework for such a deal to Hamas “and get them to a place where they engage constructively”.
He confirmed that the meetings with the CIA director, William Burns, and top Israeli and Egyptian security officials had resulted in a framework for a phased truce that would see female and child hostages released first, with an increase in the trickle of aid permitted into Gaza.
The parties were “hoping to relay this proposal to Hamas and to get them to a place where they engage positively and constructively in the process”, he said.
He said Hamas had made “a clear demand” for a permanent ceasefire before the negotiations, and that the current proposal could lead to that in the future.
Saudi Arabia has urged countries to continue supporting UNRWA after the aid agency warned it would not be able to continue operations in Gaza and across the region if funding did not resume.
A Saudi foreign ministry statement said that “review and investigation procedures” related to Israel’s allegations of several UNRWA staff taking part in the 7 October Hamas attack should yield “facts coupled with evidence”.
The statement, carried by the official Saudi press agency, highlighted “the human sacrifices made by UNRWA workers”, including death and injuries, “due to the indiscriminate Israeli shelling of relief centres in Gaza”.
Supporters of the UN agency should “carry out their role in supporting the humanitarian tasks toward Palestinian refugees” in order to “alleviate the effects of the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories”, it added.
The surgical ward at al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has completely halted operations due to oxygen supplies running out, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said.
Israeli forces were continuing to target and besiege the hospital for the eighth consecutive day, targeting anyone moving near the hospital, the organisation said on Monday.
It said at least three displaced people sheltering there have been killed, and that its teams have been unable to reach them amid shelling and gunfire in the hospital’s vicinity.
“The situation inside al-Amal Hospital is tragic,” it said.
🚨Urgent: PRCS (as of 14:00 today):
📌The surgical ward at Al-Amal Hospital has completely ceased operations due to the depletion of oxygen supplies.
📌The Israeli occupation continues to target and besiege the hospital for the eighth consecutive day, amid ongoing shelling and… pic.twitter.com/uXzOy1oaip— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 29, 2024
Joe Biden met members of his national security team on Monday to discuss the attack on US service members at a military outpost in Jordan, the White House has said.
Among those present were the White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, the homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood Randall, and the national security council’s coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, it said.
Israeli troops to ‘go into action very soon’ at Lebanon border, says Gallant
Israeli troops will “very soon go into action” near the country’s northern border with Lebanon, the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said.
Addressing troops near the Gaza border on Monday, Gallant said Israeli forces were being deployed to Israel’s north, AFP reported. He said:
They will very soon go into action … so the forces in the north are reinforced.
He added that reservists would be gradually released “to prepare and come ready” for future operations.
He said the war against Hamas would take months, and claimed that quarter of Hamas fighters have been killed and at least another quarter have been wounded, Reuters reported. He said:
The ‘hourglass’ has flipped against [Hamas’s] favour … We will fight in terror hotspots. It will take months, not a single day. On the other hand, the terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said it received a report that a merchant vessel was “approached by three small craft” about 40 nautical miles west of Yemen’s Al-Mukha.
In a statement posted to social media, the agency, which is part of the Royal Navy, said the merchant vessel’s security team “fired warning shots” and “carried out self-protection measures” to deter the small craft.
The vessel and crew were reported safe and were proceeding to the next port of call, it said.
The suspension of funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) would be a “major disaster” for civilians in Gaza, an employee at the agency said.
“There is no change in the aid distribution mechanisms implemented by UNRWA in the Gaza Strip,” the employee told AFP. They added:
The situation is very dangerous, and if the United States and the supporting countries insist on stopping their support for UNRWA, this will be a major disaster.
Palestinians in Gaza have warned they will die of starvation if funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) does not resume.
Several countries, including the US, France, the UK, Germany and Japan, have announced the suspension of further funding to the UN agency after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of having taken part in the 7 October Hamas attacks or in the aftermath.
As the Guardian reported earlier, UNRWA said it would not be able to continue operations in Gaza and across the region beyond the end of February if funding did not resume. It said the decision to freeze funding threatened vital humanitarian work.
In the southern city of Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced people have taken refuge, Palestinians said the support they received from the agency amounted to a lifeline. Sabah Musabih, 50, told AFP:
We live on aid from UNRWA. If it stopped, we would die of hunger, and no one would look at us.
Amal Abdel Moneim, a refugee from Gaza City, said there were no other organisations offering help. He said:
If UNRWA stops supporting us, our people will be lost and dead.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said earlier today that he had cancelled planned meetings with UNRWA, and called on the head of the organisation, Philippe Lazzarini, to resign.
John Kirby: US response will be ‘very consequential’ as Biden considering his options
The US response to the drone strike on a US military outpost in Jordan will be “very consequential”, the White House has said.
Joe Biden is considering his response options, the White House’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told CNN on Monday.
Kirby would not speculate on the options being considered by the president. He said the drone attack was unacceptable, adding:
But we don’t seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Kirby described talks aimed at brokering a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas as constructive. He said a new deal was not close but that there had been “very good discussions” with Qatar, Egypt and Israel.
Sunak urges Iran to de-escalate tensions in Middle East
Rishi Sunak said he was concerned after three US service personnel were killed and dozens wounded in a drone strike on a US base in Jordan.
The UK prime minister urged Iran to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East as he spoke to broadcasters on Monday, the PA news agency reported. He said:
We are concerned and would urge Iran to continue to de-escalate tensions in the region. We absolutely condemn what has happened over the past couple of days.
We stand resolutely with our allies to bring stability and peace to the region. And that’s what we’ll continue to work towards.
Downing Street has declined to comment on whether it would back any US response to the drone attack, but insisted Britain was working to “ensure regional stability”, adding:
We will stand with our US allies in our continued and shared fight against terrorism.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said those behind the drone strike should be held to account but expressed fears about the febrile situation widening. Starmer said:
I am concerned about the possibility of escalation of an already dangerous situation in the Middle East. So we have to see this in that context and do everything that we can to ensure there isn’t escalation of the conflict, and on the contrary, that we find ways to bring this conflict to the immediate end.
Biden under pressure from Republicans to strike Iran
Joe Biden is under pressure from Republicans to strike Iran directly, and even bomb Tehran, after three US troops were killed in a drone attack on a military outpost in Jordan.
US forces have faced a near-daily barrage of drone and missile strikes in Iraq and Syria since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, but Saturday’s attack on Tower 22 draws the US much closer to a direct conflict with Iran, an outcome both sides insist they wish to avoid, but may now be unable to prevent as the incidents proliferate and escalate in impact.
Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks but Islamic Resistance in Iraq have claimed responsibility as part of efforts, galvanised by the Israel-Hamas war, to try to drive US troops out of Iraq and Syria.
It is the first time American military personnel have been killed by hostile fire in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.
In a statement, the US president pointedly said the US would hold all those responsible to account at a time of the US choosing, and the Pentagon made no attempt to disguise its belief that Iran is ultimately behind the attacks.
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and nearby cities on Monday, after weeks of relative quiet in central Israel.
As we reported earlier, rocket sirens sounded in major cities across central Israel earlier today, sending residents running for shelter.
Israel’s military said 15 rockets had been fired, six of which were intercepted. There were no reports of casualties.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
A top UN official has arrived in Israel to gather details over alleged sexual violence committed by Hamas during their 7 October attacks.
Pramila Patten, the UN envoy for sexual violence in conflict, was invited by Israeli foreign ministry “so that she could receive an unmediated impression of the extent of the atrocities and then bring Hamas’s crimes to the attention of the proper international authorities”, the ministry said in a statement.
During her trip, Patten will meet survivors, witnesses and representatives of security forces to collect evidence of sexual violence committed against women and men during the 7 October attack, it says.
She will also visit the occupied West Bank, where she will meet with the Palestinian Authority, civil society organisations, and recently released hostages, according to a statement from the UN last week.
The visit was “neither intended nor mandated to be investigative in nature, a mandate which is vested in other entities of the United Nations system, which have expressed their willingness and availability to investigate”, her office said. The statement continued:
The mission of the special representative aims to give voice to survivors, witnesses, recently released hostages and those affected to identify avenues for support, including justice and accountability and to gather, analyse and verify information to inform reporting to the security council in the exercise of her mandate.
US to take ‘all necessary actions’ after troops killed in Jordan drone attack, says Lloyd Austin
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has vowed the US will take “all necessary actions” to defend its troops after three servicemen were killed and dozens injured following a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on a US service base on the border of Jordan and Syria.
“Let me start with my outrage and sorrow (for) the deaths of three brave US troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded,” Austin said at the start of a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the Pentagon.
The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops.
Austin’s comments came as the spectre of a direct US-Iranian military conflict drew closer following the drone attack, which marked the first time American military personnel have been killed by hostile fire in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.