Evening recap

Hello Middle East Eye readers. The tensions in the Red Sea continued to rise on Wednesday, after a Houthi drone targeted and damaged an American shipping vessel.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US officially designated the Houthis as a terrorist organisation, slapping the group with sanctions. The group responding by dismissing the announcement, and said that it would continue to attack any vessels in the Red Sea that were headed to Israel.

From the start of the war in Gaza, the US said it was focused on making sure that the conflict does not escalate beyond the enclave. But with US ships now being in the line of fire, and with Iran now conducting ballistic missile attacks on numerous sites including one near the US consulate in Erbil, Iraq, the conflict is only seeming to spread wider.

Here's what you need to know from today:

A surgeon inside Nasser hospital, who works with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said that when Israeli forces heavily bombed the area close to the hospital on Tuesday night, it did so with no prior evacuation order.
Israel's military said that it killed more than 30 Palestinian fighters in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis over the past 24 hours, but also faced some casualties of its own.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said that the creation of a Palestinian government is solely a Palestinian affair, and that the US and other western governments should not interfere.
Palestinian news outlets reported that more than 80 Palestinians were arrested since Israel launched an early morning raid on the West Bank city on Wednesday. The city is continuing to face an intense military raid.

Evening recap

A surgeon inside Nasser hospital, who works with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said that when Israeli forces heavily bombed the area close to the hospital on Tuesday night, it did so with no prior evacuation order.

Israel's military said that it killed more than 30 Palestinian fighters in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis over the past 24 hours, but also faced some casualties of its own.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said that the creation of a Palestinian government is solely a Palestinian affair, and that the US and other western governments should not interfere.

Palestinian news outlets reported that more than 80 Palestinians were arrested since Israel launched an early morning raid on the West Bank city on Wednesday. The city is continuing to face an intense military raid.