The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they unfold.
Australian PM says Canberra probing UNRWA October 7 claims before restoring funding
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government is probing claims that some staff of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, after Australia paused funding to the aid agency last month.
“We’re examining it, along with other like-minded countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. We want that to be resolved,” Albanese tells the Australian Broadcasting Corp regarding the allegations, according to a transcript.
The Labour party leader says his government wants to make sure the accusations are “fully examined” so that all funding is “going to the purpose for which it is given.”
The prime minister adds that he does not want people “literally starving” in Gaza and “the only organization that can provide that support there is UNRWA.”
Last week, Anthony D’Adam and Stephen Lawrence, two Labour party members of the New South Wales Parliament, signed a letter calling on Foreign Minister Penny Wong to reverse the funding freeze, calling the move “incredulous.” D’Adam has been a vocal critic of Israel, signing a letter in December urging Canberra to revisit its ties.
NSW Premier Chris Mimms appeared to chide the MPs for the move in an interview with ABC on Friday, saying that “when we’ve solved all the problems in New South Wales, then we can move on to the Middle East. But we’re a long way from that.”
Biden cruises to easy win in South Carolina primary
US President Joe Biden has easily won South Carolina’s Democratic primary, clinching a state he had pushed to be first in his party’s nominating process after it revived his then-struggling White House bid four years ago.
Biden defeats the other long-shot Democrats on South Carolina’s ballot, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson. His reelection campaign invested heavily in driving up turnout in what it saw as a test drive of its efforts to mobilize Black voters, a key Democratic bloc central to Biden’s chances in a likely November rematch against former President Donald Trump.
“In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden says in a statement. “Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again.”
Republicans will vote in the state later this month, with former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley hoping to boost her long-shot bid against Trump for the GOP nomination.
White House rejects GOP-led bill for $17.6 billion in Israel aid as ‘cynical ploy’
The White House says a Republican proposal for $17.6 billion in military aid for Israel and to replenish US weapons stockpiles, but which leaves out more help for Ukraine, is a “cynical political maneuver.”
The proposal, announced by Rep. Ken Calvert of California Saturday, comes as the Senate is set to consider a long-awaited bill re-upping US funding for Ukraine, while also providing aid to Israel and stiffening controls along the US-Mexican border.
House Republicans have balked at that bill under the urging of former US president Donald Trump. Saturday’s bill seemingly allows them to show support for Israel while still pulling back military aid for Ukraine and denying US President Joe Biden a chance to look tough on immigration.
“The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says. “We strongly oppose this ploy which does nothing to secure the border, does nothing to help the people of Ukraine defend themselves against Putin’s aggression, and denies humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, the majority of them women and children, which the Israelis supported by opening the access route.”
The Democrat-controlled Senate is seen as unlikely to back the House bill.
The House has already approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package in November for Israel that the Senate declined to take up. That bill had demanded that the money for the aid be found by cutting budgets elsewhere, including the IRS.
AP contributed to this report.
Houthis vow to ‘meet escalation with escalation’ after US, UK strikes
Nasr al-Din Amer, a spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi’s rebels, says following strikes by US and UK forces Saturday that “we will meet escalation with escalation.”
“Either there is peace for us, Palestine and Gaza, or there is no peace and no safety for you in our region,” he writes on the Telegram messaging app.
Houthis publish drill showing raid on mockup of Israeli base
A video published by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebel group shows soldiers drilling for a raid on an Israeli “command and control center” and taking soldiers hostage.
Footage of the raid, dubbed “Yemen is the Pillar Support of Palestine” according to media reports, shows artillery strikes on barren mountains as well as a squad of drones dropping explosives on Israeli and American flags, some of which are covering small structures.
Commandos, some carrying Palestinian flags, are then seen raiding what are meant to be makeshift Israeli military posts, including taking down a “pillbox” made of thin canvas, shooting down surveillance cameras and flags, and tearing apart tents meant to represent military structures, before blowing up the ersatz base.
اقتحام مستوطنات واسر جنود صهاينة.. مناورة عسكرية لقوات يمنية على مواقع مفترضة لكيان العدو الإسرائيلي pic.twitter.com/6U7PA8iBbn
— المشهد اليمني الأول (@Alyemen_One) February 3, 2024
During the drill, three people dressed as Israeli soldiers are taken captive at gunpoint, including one found sitting at a table with computers, ostensibly meant to represent the command and control center. The footage also ostensibly shows the Houthi forces killing and capturing top generals and Israeli leaders.
Last month, the Houthis released a clip showing commandos entering a mock Israeli town of three home-like tents, shooting at a poster of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and taking men dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews hostage.
UK says strikes on Houthis proportionate, not an escalation
Britain has engaged in a third wave of “proportionate and targeted” strikes alongside its US allies against Iran-linked Houthi militants in Yemen to further degrade their capabilities, the government says.
Defence Minister Grant Shapps says in a statement that the strikes do not represent an escalation, amid fears that the strikes could cause the conflict in the Middle East to widen even further.
“This is not an escalation. We have already successfully targeted launchers and storage sites involved in Houthi attacks, and I am confident that our latest strikes have further degraded the Houthis’ capabilities,” Shapps says.