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i am rajini vaidyanathan. you are watching "the context" on bbc news. >> we need to send a strong signal that this breach of international law is wrong, and that is why we together with allies we have decided to take this action. >> whether the prime minister was acting appropriately in taking the decision as quickly as he did without consulting parliament -- sometimes governments do, sometimes they don't. >> this is directly linked to gaza. the houthis, who are carrying out the attacks, say that is why they are doing them, and they say clearly as well that if there was a cease-fire, they would stop. they may not be telling the truth about that, that is what they are saying. rajini: welcome to the program. the white house says u.s. and british airstrikes on houthi sites in yemen have diminished

of the group's ability to launch missiles and drones. russia, turkey, and the main supporter of the houthis, iran, have condemned the action. we will bring the latest on the political and economic fallout. also in the program, british prime minister rishi sunak promises 2.5 billion pounds worth of new aid for ukraine as he pays a visit to the country. and an election which has implications for asia. the latest on elections in taiwan, as polls open in just a few hours from now. we start tonight with reaction to the american and british airstrikes on houthi targets in yemen. last night four royal air force-fighter jets took part in the rates along with u.s. navy jets. this footage is from one of the two u.k. ras strikes. officials say 16 sites were targeted, including in the comparable city -- capital city,

sanaa. they include what the u.s. because command-and-control centers, production systems, and air defense radar systems. houthi leaders say five people were killed, and they threatened to retaliate. the raids were in response to houthi attacks on ships in the red sea, which they say is in response to israel's attacks on gaza. fighters have been targeting ships with armed drones and missiles and boarding them. the british prime minister called the strikes necessary and proportionate in order to protect global trade in one of the world's busiest sea lanes. the raids have been criticized by russia, turkey,nd the houthis' key backer, iran. president erdogan has accused the u.s. and britain of trying to turn the red sea into a sea of blood. we will bring you an analysis, but first with the latest on what happened overnight and the

possible wider consequences for the region, here is our international editor jeremy bowen. jeremy: in sanaa, yemen's capital, a huge rally against the airstrikes and in support of palestinians filled the city's broadest boulevard. it was organized --the houthis do not allow unauthorized protests. without question millions in yemen and across the arab world are appalled by israel's conduct of the gaza war and regard the american and tradition airstrikes as an escalation on israel's behalf. during the night, the americans launch their attack from a carrier battle group in the red sea. like britain, they warned the houthis that this was coming if they didn't stop hitting shipping. the airstrikes are intended to show that western red lines won't turn pink under pressure. but if anything, the houthis

will be even more determined to carry on. a houthi military spokesman said the americans and british were responsible for criminal aggression, which would be answered with attacks on all possible targets on land and sea. the raf released a video of its jets taking off for yemen from the british base in cyprus. the british are trying to distance airstrikes aimed at opening the red sea from the war in gaza. >> it's clear that this type of behavior can't be met without a response. we need to send a strong signal that this breach of international law is wrong and people can't act like this with impunity, and that is why together with allies we have decided to take this action. jeremy: even more emphatically, an american military spokesman told cbs news in the u.s. that the strikes were nothing to do with gaza. >> it's important to differentiate between what is happening between israel and hamas and what is happening in the red sea. you have the houthi rebels that

are connecting indiscriminate attacks against international shipping. over 50 countries have been affected by this, affecting economic prosperity of multiple nations. jeremy: but the houthis, whose commanders captured a ship in the red sea in december, say their attacks are to support palestinians in gaza and to hit israel's allies. iran provides the houthis training and weapons, and the houthis say these attacks will go on until the fighting in gaza stops. britain and the u.s. oppose an immediate cease-fire ithe war. the airstrikes -- this was the raf raid -are only partly about freedom of navigation in the red sea. the reality is they are also directly linked to events in gaza and represent an is galatian in the crisis that is gripping the middle east. -- an escalation in the crisis that is gripping the middle east. rajini: let's take a look at houthi houthis -- who the houthis are.

they are a political and military group who are a subset of the xian minority -- shia minority. they comprise a large part of yemen. most of the population live in areas like the capital, sanaa. it makes attacks on mmercial shipping possible. the movement formed in the 1990's against the then-yemeni president. its armed groups are modeled on organizations like hezbollah in lebanon. he tried to eliminate the houthi rebels but he fell. the houthis have been fighting a civil war against yemen's government. iran is suspected of supplying the houthi rebels with weapons. some news that has just come into us from the reuters news agency, and that is that the

u.s. and the u.k. struck nearly 30 locations in yemen overnight using more than 150 munitions. reuters is quoting a senior u.s. official, and that is significant because they are higher figures than previously disclosed. the lieutenant general, the director of the joint staff, told reporters he did not expect a high number of casualties from the strikes on thursday, since the targets included those in rural areas. for more on the latest from the united states, i'm joined by our state department in washington correspondent tom bateman. we have also heard from the white house in the last couple of hours as well. bring us up-to-date on the reaction we are getting from where you are. tom: well, from the lieutenant general we are getting a bit more on the scale of this strike, a bit more than we were talking about certainly as it was developing into the night.

but i also think a significant need that what he has confirmed is that there has been a further strike by houthi militia men, firing into the red sea earlier today, and that was significantly an antiship ballistic missile. these are among the weapons that the americans have pointed out that they are not going to tolerate. lee. we had president biden specifically making mention of antiship ballistic missiles in his statement last night. the point about these weapons is that they have an extremely fast trajectory. they are basically fired up in the air and they come back down with speed faster than a cruise missile, which means it is very hard for ships to maneuver out of the way. now, when he was then pushed on this, the director of the joint staff, he then went on -- he was asked about whether or not there

would be for the responses, because it is clear there is retaliatory action, retaliation by the houthis, what he did was to talk in terms of the attack on tuesday that was carried out by the houthis, which was a multi-suicide drone and cruise and ballistic missile attack. this was a thing that triggered the response by the u.k. and the u.s. yesterday. it appears as though they are setting a kind of higher bar for action by the u.s. and the u.k. to say it needs to be -- it can't just be one missile, but it needs to be a swarm affect like they saw on tuesday because it is pretty clear that they did expect a houthi retiation to this. it is also pretty clear that their action last night has not degraded the houthis' capabilities to all that accent if they were able within 12 hours to fire ballistic missile into the red sea again. these development are important.

among all that, it takes us into the territory of what the u.s. on the u.k. were trying to achieve, which was to deter the houthis from firing at shipping, but at the same time walk this line without creating an even greater escalation. we've had antony blinken, the secretary of state, in the region in the middle east for a week. that was his message. as soon as he is back in the u.s., we are seeing the grave risks of further spike across the region. rajini: i mean, that is the concern. i've been reading that the u.s. is saying it is not interested in a war with yemen, tomm but on the other hand it won't hesitate to use for the -- further force to stop retaliation and attacks from the houthis. tom: and there is this inherent contradiction, or difficulty, i suppose, dangerous difficulty in those two positions. that gets you into the much more

strategic area of what is going on here, because it is not just the sk in a sense -- the great risk is of a military conflagration of this thing spreading across the region. what we are seeing now is the narrative battlefield escalating and broadening, because the houthis presented to their own audience that they are the ones safeguarding or trying to take on the cause of the palestinians in a military sense. that is what they said they were doing when they were firing missiles into the red sea, claiming it was linked to ships connected to israel and that kind of thing. they have boosted their popularity on the ground in yemen in a significant way because of this. but there is a policy element to this that takes you into the wider arab and muslim world. they said they won't stop their attacks until there is an end to israel's siege on gaza, a cease-fire put in place. what you are seeing from the west and the u.k. in the u.s. is

to say that there is no connection between what their military action last night and the israel-hamas war -- they want to differentiate and claim it is simply about maritime shipping. that, of course, is not entirely accurate, because of course these things are connected. the fact is the u.s. and the u.k. don't want to be seen by the arab and muslim world as taking direct military action in the middle east in defense of israel. that draws them into this conflict and it creates a greater chance for the iranians, for example, to be brought into push militarily on the other side. you get a sense of escalation. that is why the western powers, the u.s. and the u.k., are trying to y there is no connection with the war in gaza. rajini: tom bateman speaking to us from washington, thank you very much r bringing us up-to-date with the very latest there. now let's speak to a senior fellow at the atlantic council's

transatlantic security initiative and an expert on the red sea shipping route. thanks very much for joining us on bbc news. are you surprised by the timing of the u.s.-u.k. joint action? >> not at all. so, it was clear to everybody that somebody, meaning the u.s., the u.k., potentially other countries, had to do something went after they warned the houthis in very strong terms at the beginning of january not to connect anymore attacks on shipping, and the houthis still conducted more attacks, it was clear that the u.s. and u.k. and other countries needed to do something, or otherwise their redlines would mean nothing and that would be very dangerous, because it would mean that whatever the you because -- u.s. and u.k. say, militias and countries can disregard. they had to take action, and i

think the houthis were very aware this was coming as well. rajini: we heard from president joe biden's remarks coming in saying that we will make sure we respond to the houthis if they continue what he describes as this outrageous behavior. where do you see things going? we are going to get more retaliations, i expect,nd if you read what president biden is saying, there will be more of a response as well. >> indeed. we can eect a tit-for-tat between the u.s., u.k. on one hand, and the houthis on the other hand. but the really perilous aspect is that the houthis will tell you even more on global shipping. until now they are stuck on vessels that they said interview israel. now the u.s. and u.k. are fair game as well. the houthis themselves decide

what constitutes a u.s.-, u.k.-linked vessel. they can say that is the u.s.-linked vessel, u.k.-linked vessel. the other aspect is this will inspire other militias and other grps around the world to conduct similar attacks against global shipping because they will say look at the houthis, they are getting so much attention, norma's attention from the u.s., u.k., globalized economy, local public, we will do that, too. rajini: i wanted to mention that you have a book coming out soon called "goodbye globalization" which focuses on the vulnerability of global supply chains. we have been talking about political ramifications, but there are huge economic ramifications because of what is happening in the red sea as well. where do you see that affecting global trade? elisabeth: this is an accelerating coalition between the globalized economy and

geopolitics. we should remember that this last round of globalization that took off in the late 1980's and really in the early 1990's was based on the presumption that countries want to get along, and back in the 1990's countries were mostly getting along. it was possible to have -- to build these globe-spanning supply chains because it was in everybody's interest that global trade function to smoothly, because everybody wanted to benefit from it. what we have now is countries disagreeing and saying, well, i'm going to express my unhappiness with your policies by targeting your part of the globalized economy -- in this case, your shipping. and there isn't anything at all that western cntries can do about it, because we don't have local police and read spec -- global police and we especially don't have global maritime police without global shipping

and the globalized economy. this is the big fear that has become apparent from these red sea attacks. it is not just about the red sea, it is about the vulnerability of our globalized supply chains, because what is happening in the red sea can happen in other waterways and outside busy waterways. rajini: indeed, and that brings it all home as to how it might affect people at home and on the high street. elisabeth braw of the atlantic council's transatlantic security initiative, thank you for taking us through that story. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's take a look at other stories making the news. the u.k. economy group by more than expected in a november, according to new official figures. the office for national statistics said economy by 4.3%. the growth was driven by the services sector including a boost to retail from the black friday sales. a woman in her -- and her former

partner have been given life sentences for thmurder of their 18-month-old son. he died in a caravan in kent in 2020 with more than 50 injuries and traces of cocaine in his body. she will spend 19 years in jail, while jack won't be considered for release for 20 years. a ferry has had a bumpy crossing in the northwestern of washington in the u.s. heavy winds were causing waves to overwhelm the parking deck of the vessel. with only a few cars on board and in no passengers, the ferry was able to maintain an upright position before heading into port. you are live with bbc news. i am rajini vaidyanathan. israel has called on judges at the international court of justice to throw out the case brought by southfrica alleging that it is committing genocide in gaza. on the second and final day of hearings at the u.n.'s highest

court, one of the lawyers acting for israel argued that demands to end the offensive in gaza lacked any merit. >> when a population is ruled by a terrorist organition that cares more about wiping out its neighbor than about protecting its own civilians, there are acute challenges protecting the civilian population. those challenges are exacerbated by the dynamic and evolving nature of intense hostilities in an urban area, where the enemy exploits hospitals, shelters, and critical infrastructure. rajini: on thursday, south africa accused the highest levels of the israeli state of nurturing genocidal intent against palestinians in gaza. israel's foreign advisor said south africa presented a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture. south africa is asking the icj to issue an injunction to stop

israel's military campaign and protect the palestinian people. israel has announced it has made an arrangement with qatar that will allow the delivery of medications to hostages being held by hamas in gaza. the supplies are expected to be given over the coming days. we can now speak to a senior member of fatah and former palestinian authority foreign minister, also the nephew of the late palestinian leader yasser arafat. thank you very much for joining us on bbc news. you're a former head of the palestinian delegation before the icj, w and it was many years ago, i note, but i wanted to get your reaction to elements the past few days. >> we the palestinians are satisfied and happy with the fact that south africa is accusing israel of committing the heinous act of genocide. we have been suffering unprecedented heinous actions by the israeli army for about 100 days.

gaza strip was destroyed almost completely. there's almost 30,000 people killed in these attacks that along the names and the injured, people were buried under the rubble, things like that. suddenly, of course we felt we were alone. we felt we live in a world without rules and international law, in which israel officials are dealing with arrogance and contempt with their counterparts from different countries of the united nations itself or anything of that sort. and suddenly there is a ray of hope there is an action that might bring israeli officials to their senses, to make them believe that they are accountable, that they have to answer for their actions, horrible actions, as horrible as they are. so it's good.

and i hope that it would succeed it is telling,, also, that it is south africa bringing the case. this is the country of nelson mandela, the country that defeated apartheid, the country that has the upper moral ground. and frankly, it is very important symbolically and we are thankful to them. rajini: ok, i should just point out that israel has fiercely rejected those claims from south africa. prime minister netanyahu saying it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is hamas . nasser: but that is wrong. even if it was hamas, what kind of logic is this? we are fighting hamas so we are destroying the whole strip and killing thousands and thousands of people. that is wrong. that is wrong under international law, under the rules of conduct of all states of war. nevertheless the israelis are saying anything, and frankly,

international media and international affairs will are buying with the israelis say without any questions. rajini: i'm just putting their position forward, just so that we have their position as well, and we have obviously heard your perspective and what south africa thinks about the case. let's talk about what happens when this conflict ends, because that is a big question mark. what is the future of a post-conflict gaza? what do you see a future? nasser: the future is going to be actually difficult. the tasks are huge. how to rebuild a place that has been destroyed totally, as the situation now in gaza as a result of the israeli military campaign. nevertheless, we will do it. however, it's very important also to end any israeli

difficulties in the road, because that will make the task impossible, virtually impossible. and frankly, what the israeli prime minister is trying to do now is to send a defeat as victory, internally and externally also to the palestinian people, to the region, to europe, and the united states of america. he lost the war. unfortunately, there are no victors in this war. nevertheless, he is trying to present the case as if he won. he wants to reoccupy the gaza strip one way or another, to establish buffer zones and to impose a siege on gaza. that is going to make the task ahead of us impossible to achieve, and that will prove again once more that the intent was to destroy gaza and commit genocide against the palestinian people -- rajini so, at the moment, the

war goes on, and recover what is happening on the ground in gaza -- we cover what is happening on the ground in gaza every day, and you describe the suffering we see day in and day out. the reason israel says it is carrying out this military operation is to eliminate hamas and its capabilities. if israel does succeed in taking out most of the hamas infrastructure and leadership, will it destroy hamas's support networks and its chance of reforming as another possible group? nasser: well, i said from the very beginning that destroying hamas completely or eliminating hamas is not possible. narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond jas. man: bdo. accountants and advisors.

narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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