AL-MUKALLA: Shortly before slipping out of Sanaa early this year, Ibetisam Abualdonia, parked her daughter’s car outside her home and moved to another house. “The aim was to assure Houthi eyes I was inside the house,” Ibetisam said in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
Ibetisam, 48, was among a few Yemeni activists who had stayed inside the city for years where they paid a heavy price for challenging Houthi repression and demanding salaries.
Several days before fleeing Sanaa, as many as 14 Houthi men stormed her house where they beat and verbally abused her. The Houthis sought to punish Ibetisam for being filmed strongly criticizing their leader and the movement and demanding salaries.
“They got angry when I criticized Abdul Malik Al-Houthi. They think he is a holy man,” she said, referring to Houthi movement leader. Before raiding her house, Ibetisam said the Houthis harassed her online to stop her activism. “They subjected me to different methods of psychological pressure such as sending death threats through text messages and attacking me on social media,” she said.
After Houthi reprisal attacks, she thought that the Houthis had put her on their radar and would keep abusing her if she continued criticizing them. At the same time, the widowed mother of three had to keep demanding Houthis to pay her husband’s pension in order to survive. “They have not paid the pension for the last three years. We survive on my daughter’s salary.”
She and her children fled Sanaa under the cover of darkness. “We hired a car that drove us to Aden.”
To escape Houthi checkpoints, she covered her body in a black abaya and told the children to say they were taking their sick mother to Aden. The Houthis allowed them to move unchecked.
When she arrived in Aden, she kept a low profile and moved from one hotel to another fearing hidden Houthi eyes. “I did not tell anyone that I fled Sanaa. I kept moving hotels.”
After hearing about her ordeal, officials at the internationally recognized government helped her travel to Cairo and then to Riyadh, where she recounted to Arab News her harsh days under Houthi rule.
After hearing about her disappearance, Houthis began harassing her relatives. “They blew up my uncle’s car and burnt another car of a relative of mine. They phoned my mother, sister and other members of family, vowing to punish me,” she said.
Ibetisam said life inside Houthi-controlled Yemen has exacerbated since late 2016, when the Houthis stopping paying public sector salaries in response to a government decision to relocate the headquarters of the central bank from Sanaa to Aden.
The relocation was aimed at stopping rebels from plundering the bank’s reserves from hard currencies. But instead of paying all government employees in their territories, Houthis used salaries as a leverage to force people into joining the battlefields. Many extremely poor families bowed to the pressure and dispatched children to fight along with the Houthis. One of Ibetisam’s relatives was forced to provide a child for the fighting.
Like thousands of poor fighters, the Houthis gave Ibetisam’s relative 30,000 Yemeni riyals (SR176) every month for fighting their opponents.
Confirming media reports about Houthi mishandling of humanitarian aid, Ibetisam said that Houthis give out aid to loyalists or those families who agreed to send children to take part in fighting.
“Those who do not have combatant relatives have no choice but to beg to survive. People cannot speak out because if they criticize Houthi misbehavior, they will beat or abduct them,” Ibetisam said, adding that people in Sanaa struggle to get basic services such as cooking gas, electricity or water.
Despite Houthi repression, several Yemeni women have remained in Sanaa, where they criticize Houthi political and economic policies. The number of protesters has dwindled since late 2017, when Houthis killed former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, prompting hundreds of his followers into fleeing to government controlled areas or seeking exile. Ibetisam predicted that female activists who challenge Houthis from Sanaa would share her fate sooner or later.
Some of the minor female activists have been abducted for speaking out. “They will be either killed or forcibly disappeared. Before leaving Sanaa, I found out that they forcibly disappeared 10 women,” she said.
Since taking power in late 2014, the Houthi movement has established local police regiments known as Zaynabiat to handle protests by women. In Yemen, women usually have cultural impunity from attacks.
The Zaynabiat are infamous for suppressing rare protests in the capital and other provinces in northern Yemen. The biggest anti-Houthi protest was in October 2017, when dozens of women went out to protest against hunger and poverty inside Houthi-controlled areas.
As women were getting together in Sanaa, armed Zaynabiat in black abayas beat and detained the protesters. Ibetisam said the Houthi policewomen have no offices and are under the command of Houthi observers.
In addition to suppressing dissidents, the Zaynabiat’s other roles include espionage and recruiting female members. “They exercise physical violence and kidnapping,” she said.
As a Yemeni activist who was harassed by Houthis and witnessed the signing of several peace agreements between the militia and the internationally recognized government since late 2014, Ibetisam said that only military pressure would end the conflict. “I am inclined toward the military option. Houthism is a radical movement. It is not a political group that you can get concessions from,” she concluded.
Yemeni activist who endured and challenged Houthi repression
https://arab.news/4h2tn
Yemeni activist who endured and challenged Houthi repression
- Like thousands of poor fighters, the Houthis gave Ibetisam’s relative 30,000 Yemeni riyals (SR176) every month for fighting their opponents
Israel closes Al-Aqsa Mosque, Church of the Holy Sepulchre under ‘emergency’ measures
- Most shops in Jerusalem’s Old City have been closed, with only essential stores remaining open since Friday
- Palestinians in Jerusalem fear for their safety due to lack of proper shelters amid Israel-Iran conflict
LONDON: Israeli authorities in occupied East Jerusalem have imposed a closure for the fifth consecutive day on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre while barring non-resident visitors from entering the Old City.
Israel announced a state of emergency after beginning airstrikes against Iran on Friday. Tehran retaliated by launching ballistic missiles at Israeli coastal towns and cities. Israel’s emergency measures prevented Palestinians and worshipers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards, as well as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate added on Tuesday that most shops in the Old City had been closed, with only essential stores remaining open since Friday, Wafa news agency reported.
Israeli authorities have permitted settlers to visit the area surrounding the Al-Aqsa compound and perform Jewish prayers and rituals, while forces have intensified daily raids on Palestinian towns and suburbs in Jerusalem, including the Mount of Olives, Silwan, Issawiya, Shufaat, Hizma, Eizariya, Bir Nabala and Al-Ram, Wafa added. East Jerusalem is surrounded by 84 checkpoints and barriers, including recently installed earth mounds and gates.
Although Jerusalem has been spared so far from the Israel-Iran conflict, Palestinians in the city fear for their safety due to a lack of proper shelters within their towns and neighborhoods, Wafa reported.
Israeli authorities in Jerusalem have announced the opening of schools to be used as shelters from Iranian missile attacks. However, some Palestinian experts warned that the facilities may not be large enough to accommodate a significant number of residents, and some are even unsuitable for receiving civilians.
WHO says Gaza health care at breaking point as fuel runs out
- “For over 100 days, no fuel has entered Gaza and attempts to retrieve stocks from evacuation zones have been denied,” said Peeperkorn
- Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional
GENEVA: The World Health Organization on Tuesday pleaded for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to keep its remaining hospitals running, warning the Palestinian territory’s health system was at “breaking point.”
“For over 100 days, no fuel has entered Gaza and attempts to retrieve stocks from evacuation zones have been denied,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories.
“Combined with critical supply shortages, this is pushing the health system closer to the brink of collapse.”
Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional. They have a total of around 1,500 beds — around 45 percent fewer than before the conflict began.
He said all hospitals and primary health centers in north Gaza were currently out of service.
In Rafah in southern Gaza, health services are provided through the Red Cross field hospital and two partially-functioning medical points.
Speaking from Jerusalem, he said the 17 partially functioning hospitals and seven field hospitals were barely running on a minimum amount of daily fuel and “will soon have none left.”
“Without fuel, all levels of care will cease, leading to more preventable deaths and suffering.”
Hospitals were already switching between generators and batteries to power ventilators, dialysis machines and incubators, he said, and without fuel, ambulances cannot run and supplies cannot be delivered to hospitals.
Furthermore, field hospitals are entirely reliant on generators, and without electricity, the cold chain for keeping vaccines would fail.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to official Israeli figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 5,194 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 following a truce.
The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has reached 55,493 people, according to the health ministry.
“People often ask when Gaza is going to be out of fuel; Gaza is already out of fuel,” said WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer Thanos Gargavanis, speaking from the Strip.
“We are walking already the fine line that separates disaster from saving lives. The shrinking humanitarian space makes every health activity way more difficult than the previous day.”
How Israel used spies, smuggled drones and AI to stun and hobble Iran
- The Mossad and the military worked together for at least three years to lay the operational groundwork, according to a former intelligence officer who said he had knowledge of the attack
JERUSALEM: Israel stunned and hobbled Iran last week when it pulled off an intelligence and military operation years in the making that struck high-level targets with precision.
Guided by spies and artificial intelligence, the Israeli military unleashed a nighttime fusillade of warplanes and armed drones smuggled into Iran to quickly incapacitate many of its air defenses and missile systems. With greater freedom to fly over Iran, Israel bombarded key nuclear sites and killed top generals and scientists. By the time Iran mustered a response hours later, its ability to retaliate — already weakened by past Israeli strikes — was greatly diminished.
This account is based on conversations with 10 current and former Israeli intelligence and military officials, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss clandestine operations.
It was not possible to independently verify some of their claims. But the former head of research at Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad, confirmed the basic contours of the attack, saying she had inside knowledge of how it was planned and executed.
“This attack is the culmination of years of work by the Mossad to target Iran’s nuclear program,” said Sima Shine, the former Mossad research director who is now an analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies.
Israel’s element of surprise was enhanced by Iranian officials’ apparent assumption that Israel wouldn’t attack while talks over its rapidly advancing nuclear program were ongoing with the US
A sixth round of talks had been planned for last Sunday in Oman, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu activated “Operation Rising Lion” on Friday – after his country first notified President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu has for years said neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program was vital for Israel’s security, and Israel had previously taken steps to set back Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to weapons grade. But Netanyahu said a more aggressive attack proved necessary, as Iran kept advancing its enrichment program despite US diplomatic efforts and warnings from UN watchdogs.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction. Iran’s political leaders say their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, though it was the only country without the bomb to enrich uranium close to weapons-grade levels.
Smuggling drones into Iran
The Mossad and the military worked together for at least three years to lay the operational groundwork, according to a former intelligence officer who said he had knowledge of the attack. This person spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject.
The attack built off knowledge Israel gained during a wave of airstrikes last October, which “highlighted the weakness of Iranian air defenses,” said Naysan Rafati, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.
To further diminish Iranian air defenses and missile systems at the start of last week’s attack, Mossad agents had smuggled precision weapons into Iran that were prepositioned to strike from close range, according to two current security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the missions. Those weapons included small, armed drones, which agents snuck into the country in vehicles, according to the former intelligence officer.
Mossad agents stationed weapons close to Iranian surface-to-air missile sites, Shine said. The agency works with a mix of people, both locals and Israelis, she said.
Using AI and human intelligence to select targets
To analyze information gathered from various sources, Israel used the latest artificial-intelligence, or AI, technology, said an intelligence officer involved with selecting individuals and sites to target. He said AI was used to help Israelis quickly sift through troves of data they had obtained. That effort began last October according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media; it was one month before Netanyahu said he had ordered the attack plans.
An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year uncovered that the Israeli military uses US-made AI models in war to sift through intelligence and intercept communications to learn the movements of its enemies. It’s been used in the wars with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The intelligence officer involved in identifying the possible targets said options were first put into various groups, such as leadership, military, civilian and infrastructure. Targets were chosen if they were determined to be a threat to Israel, such as being deeply associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — a paramilitary force that controls Iran’s ballistic missiles.
The officer was tasked with putting together a list of Iranian generals, including details on where they worked and spent their free time.
Among the high-level military officials killed since Friday’s attack were Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and Gen. Mohammed Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces.
In addition to AI, the Mossad relied on spies to identify top nuclear scientists and members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to one security official. At least eight members of the Guard, including the head of its missile program, were killed in a single Israeli strike on an underground bunker.
Targeting Iranian vehicles
Another facet of the attack was to strike Iranian vehicles used to transport and launch missiles.
Shine said the strategy was similar to a Ukrainian operation earlier this month in Russia. In that operation, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged with cheaply made drones snuck into Russian territory, according to Ukrainian officials.
In an interview with Iranian state-run television, the country’s police chief, Gen. Ahmadreza Radan, said “several vehicles carrying mini-drones and some tactical drones have been discovered.” He added: “a number of traitors are trying to engage the country’s air defense by flying some mini-drones.”
How far back does this go?
The Mossad is believed to have carried out numerous covert attacks on the Iranian nuclear program over the years, including cyberattacks and the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists. But it rarely acknowledges such operations.
In the 2000s, Iranian centrifuges used for enriching uranium were destroyed by the so-called Stuxnet computer virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation.
In 2018, Israel stole an archive of Iranian nuclear research that included tens of thousands of pages of records, said Yossi Kuperwasser, a retired general and former military intelligence researcher who now directs the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.
In July 2024, Israel killed a senior leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, with a bomb in a bedroom of a government guesthouse in Tehran.
Israel’s blistering attack last week on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure didn’t come out of nowhere, said retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, who heads the Israel Defense and Security Forum think tank.
It was the result of “Israeli intelligence working extensively for years in Iran and establishing a very strong robust presence,” he said.
Iraq treads a tightrope to avoid spillover from Israel-Iran conflict
- “There is a sizable risk of a spillover escalation in Iraq,” said political analyst Sajad Jiyad
- “Iraqis have a right to be worried”
BAGHDAD: In Iraqi airspace, Iranian missiles and drones have crossed paths with Israeli warplanes, forcing Baghdad to step up efforts to avoid being drawn into the region’s latest conflict.
But with Baghdad both an ally of Iran and a strategic partner of the United States, Israel’s closest supporter, it may struggle to avoid the fighting spreading to its territory.
“There is a sizable risk of a spillover escalation in Iraq,” said political analyst Sajad Jiyad.
“Iraqis have a right to be worried,” he added.
With warnings of all-out regional war intensifying following Israel’s surprise assault on Iran last week, fears are growing over an intervention by Iran-backed Iraqi factions, which have been calling for the withdrawal of US troops deployed in Iraq as part of an anti-jihadist coalition.
A senior Iraqi security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that among pro-Iran actors “everyone is cooperating with the government to keep Iraq away from conflict.”
But Jiyad warned that if the US supports Israel’s attacks, it “may lead to pro-Iran elements inside Iraq targeting US troops” or other American interests like the embassy in Baghdad or the consulate in Irbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.
This could lead to the US and Israel taking retaliatory actions within Iraq, Jiyad added.
Iraq, which has been for years navigating a delicate balancing act between Tehran and Washington, has long been a fertile ground for proxy battles.
In 2020, during US President Donald Trump’s first term, Washington killed Iran’s esteemed Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Most recently, amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Iraq was on the brink of being drawn into the conflict after pro-Iran factions launched numerous attacks on US troops in the region, as well as mostly failed attacks on Israel, in support of Palestinians.
Washington retaliated by hitting the armed groups.
In recent days, Baghdad has been working diplomatic channels to prevent the latest violence from spreading onto its turf.
It has called on Washington to prevent Israeli jets from using Iraqi airspace to carry out attacks against Iran.
It also asked Iran not to strike US targets in its territory, and was promised “positive things,” according to a senior Iraqi official.
Israel’s use of Iraq’s airspace has angered pro-Iran groups, who accused US troops of allowing it.
Powerful armed faction Kataeb Hezbollah stressed that Iran does not need “military support,” but it said that the group is “closely monitoring” the US military in the region.
It warned that if Washington intervenes in the war, the group “will act directly against its interests and bases in the region without hesitation.”
A US official urged the Iraqi government to “protect diplomatic missions, as well as US military personnel.”
“We believe Iraq will be more stable and sovereign by becoming energy independent and distancing itself from Iran’s malign influence,” the official told AFP, referring to Iraq’s dependency on gas imports from Iran.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that Iran-backed groups “continue to engage in violent and destabilising activities in Iraq.”
Israel’s surprise attack on Iran targeted military and nuclear facilities and killed many top commanders and atomic scientists. Iran responded by unleashing barrages of missile strikes on Israel.
Tamer Badawi, an expert on Iraqi armed groups, said “the more Iran struggles to sustain its firepower against Israel, the likelier it becomes that Iraqi paramilitary actors will be drawn in.”
For now, “Iran is trying to avoid collateral damage to its network by keeping its regional allies on standby. But this posture could shift,” he added.
Before launching its attack on Iran, Israel had badly hit Tehran’s proxies in the region, significantly weakening some groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“Beyond attacks within Iraq, Iran-backed Iraqi groups retain the capacity to target Israel from western Iraq using their missile arsenals, as they have done before,” Badawi said.
They might also target American interests in Jordan.
But Iraqi officials say they have other plans for their country, which has only recently regained a semblance of stability after decades of devastating conflicts and turmoil.
Iraq is gearing up for its legislative elections in November, which are often marked by heated political wrangling.
For armed groups, elections are a crucial battleground as they strive to secure more seats in parliament.
“Sometimes, the sword must be kept in the sheath, but this does not mean abandoning our weapons,” a commander of an armed faction told AFP.
The armed groups will not leave Iran, their “godfather.. in the battle alone.”
China’s Xi ‘deeply worried’ by Iran, Israel conflict
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday he was “deeply worried” by Israel’s military action against Iran, as China also accused US leader Donald Trump of “pouring oil” on the mounting conflict.
Following decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel launched a surprise aerial campaign last week against targets across Iran, saying it aimed to prevent its arch-foe from acquiring atomic weapons — an ambition Tehran denies.
The sudden flare-up in hostilities has sparked fears of a wider conflict, with Trump urging Iran back to the negotiating table after Israel’s attacks derailed ongoing nuclear talks.
Trump also issued an extraordinary warning on his Truth Social platform: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!“
Asked about Trump’s remarks, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said: “Fanning the flames, pouring oil, making threats and mounting pressure will not help to promote the de-escalation of the situation, but will only intensify and widen the conflict.
“The Chinese side calls on all relevant parties, especially countries with special influence on Israel, to shoulder their responsibilities, take immediate measures to de-escalate tensions, and prevent the conflict from expanding and spreading.”
China’s President Xi Jinping called for de-escalation of the conflict “as soon as possible” during a meeting with Uzbekistan’s President in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, state media reported.
“Israel launching military action against Iran has caused a sudden escalation in tension in the Middle East, China is deeply worried about this,” Xi said, according to Xinhua.
“We oppose any act that infringes upon the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of other countries.”
China’s embassies in Iran and Israel also urged Chinese citizens to leave the countries “as soon as possible,” after Israel and Iran traded heavy strikes.
“The Chinese Embassy in Iran has coordinated with the Iranian side to facilitate outbound travel and reminds Chinese citizens currently in Iran to leave the country... as soon as possible,” the embassy in Tehran said in an online statement.
It suggested border crossings with Turkiye, Armenia, and Turkmenistan as possible routes out.
China’s embassy in Israel urged citizens to depart “in the direction of Jordan” as it warned that the conflict was “continuing to escalate.”
“Much civilian infrastructure has been damaged, civilian casualties are on the rise, and the security situation is becoming more serious,” it said in a post on WeChat.
