MUSCAT: The United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, met on Sunday with a senior Houthi official in Oman and called for the release of UN staff held by the militia.
A statement from Grundberg’s office said he met in Muscat with “senior Omani officials” and Mohammed Abdul Salam, spokesman for the Iran-backed Houthis.
“They addressed the recent arbitrary detention of additional United Nations personnel adding to the numerous others already held by Ansar Allah,” the statement said, referring to the Houthis.
On Friday the UN announced that the Houthis had detained seven employees, adding to 13 UN personnel and some 50 NGO workers held since June.
The Houthis said at the time that the June arrests targeted “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organizations — allegations emphatically rejected by the UN.
The statement from Grundberg’s office on Sunday said he had “reiterated the firm stance” of UN secretary general Antonio Guterres “strongly condemning these detentions and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained UN staff.”
The statement also called for the freeing of “personnel from international and national non-governmental organizations, civil society and diplomatic missions held since June 2024, as well as those held since 2021 and 2023.”
A decade of war has plunged Yemen into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations.
US President Donald Trump this week ordered the Houthis placed back on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Re-listing the Houthis will trigger a review of UN and other aid agencies working in Yemen that receive US funding, according to the order signed on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza, shattered by 15 months of war, is seen raising concerns among the enclave’s inhabitants as well as its neighbors. The proposal is likely to heighten fears among Palestinians in Gaza, which had a pre-war population of around 2.3 million, of being driven out of the coastal strip, and stoke concern in Arab states that have long worried about the destabilising impact of any such exodus.

WHAT IS BEHIND THE CONCERNS?
Palestinians have long been haunted by what they call the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when 700,000 of them were dispossessed from their homes during the war that surrounded the creation of Israel in 1948.
Many were driven out or fled to neighboring Arab states, including to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where many of them and their descendants still live in refugee camps. Some went to Gaza. Israel disputes the account that they were forced out. The latest conflict, currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire agreement, has seen an unprecedented Israeli bombardment and land offensive in Gaza, devastating urban areas.
Most Gazans have been displaced several times during Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 47,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to Palestinian health officials.

HOW HAVE PALESTINIANS MOVED DURING THIS CONFLICT?

Before Israel launched its offensive in 2023, it told Palestinians in north Gaza to move to what it said were safe areas in the south. As the offensive expanded, Israel told them to head further south toward Rafah.
Later in the war, before launching a campaign in Rafah, it instructed them to move to a new designated humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi, an area that stretches 12 km (7 miles) along the coast, starting from the western areas of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.
According to UN estimates, up to 85 percent of the population of Gaza — one of the world’s most densely populated areas — have already been displaced from their homes.

COULD A MAJOR DISPLACEMENT FROM GAZA HAPPEN?
Many Palestinians in Gaza have said they would not leave the enclave even if they could because they fear it might lead to another permanent displacement in a repeat of 1948.
Egypt, meanwhile, has kept the border firmly closed except to let a few thousand foreigners, dual nationals and a handful of others leave Gaza.
Egypt and other Arab nations strongly oppose any attempt to push Palestinians over the border. Yet, the scale of this conflict eclipses other Gaza crises or flare-ups in past decades, as does the humanitarian disaster for Palestinians.
From the earliest days of the conflict, Arab governments, particularly Egypt and Jordan, said Palestinians must not be driven from land where they want to make a future state, which would include the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Like Palestinians, they fear any mass movement across the border would further undermine prospects for a “two-state solution” — the idea of creating a state of Palestine next to Israel — and leave Arab nations dealing with the consequences.

WHAT HAVE ISRAEL’S GOVERNMENT AND ITS POLITICIANS SAID?
Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz, now serving as defense minister, said on Feb. 16, 2024, that Israel had no plans to deport Palestinians from Gaza. Israel would coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and find a way to not harm Egypt’s interests, Katz added.
However, comments by some in the Israeli government have stoked Palestinian and Arab fears of a new Nakba. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has repeatedly called for a policy of “encourging the migration” of Palestinians from Gaza and for Israel to impose military rule in the territory.