Oil prices rose more than 2% as the US and UK carried out strikes against 12 places in Yemen on Friday morning.

According to The Iran Project,Brent crude futures were up $1.53, or 2%, at $78.94 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading $1.53, or 2.1% higher, at $73.55 at 3.37 am GMT.

The benchmarks were adding to gains of nearly 1% from the day before, ensuring prices were on track for a second straight weekly rise.

The US and British strikes are one of the most dramatic demonstrations to date of the widening Israel war on Gaza since its eruption in October.

Witnesses in Yemen confirmed explosions throughout the country.

US President Joe Biden said the “targeted strikes” were a clear message that the US and its partners will not tolerate attacks on its personnel or “allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation”.

Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands supported the operation, he said.

Since the commencement of the Israeli regime's relentless military campaign against Gaza in early October, the Yemenis have openly declared their support for Palestine's struggle against the Israeli occupation. The Armed Forces have conducted recent attacks on ships with ties to Israel near Yemeni ports, including the interception and seizure of a vessel associated with the Tel Aviv regime on November 19.

The ongoing Israeli siege has inflicted heavy casualties on Palestinians in Gaza, who have been enduring the war since October 7.

Gaza's Health Ministry said nearly 23,357 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in the war that the regime started following an operation staged by the Palestinian territory's resistance movements.