UNITED NATIONS, January 12. /TASS/. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will convene two meetings on the Middle East later on Friday, Russia’s Permanent Mission to the global organization said, referring to the situation in the Gaza Strip and the US-UK joint strikes on Yemen.

The first meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. local time (8 p.m. GMT - TASS) will discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, the Russian mission wrote on its Telegram channel on Thursday. The forced displacement of Palestinians is expected to be discussed.

An open briefing in the wake of strikes carried out by the United States and Great Britain on Yemen will be held next. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to be keynote speaker.

The armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom delivered strikes on positions held by the Ansar Allah (Houthi) rebel movement in Yemen in the early hours of Friday. US President Joe Biden said the strike on Yemen was ordered in response to "unprecedented Houthi attacks" in the Red Sea and that the strikes targeting Houthi munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems were delivered "in self-defense."

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with it to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until the operation in the Palestinian enclave stopped. According to estimates by US Central Command, the Houthis have attacked more than 20 vessels and civilian ships in the Red Sea since mid-November.

The US Air Force said it has so far struck more than 60 targets at 16 facilities belonging to Yemen’s Houthis.