Scores killed as fighting intensifies near Marib city

A grab from an AFPTV video shows Yemeni pro-government fighters firing at positions of Houthi rebels as they inch closer to the loyalists' last northern bastion, the strategic city of Marib, on Sep. 27, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 29 September 2021
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Scores killed as fighting intensifies near Marib city

  • Houthis seize parts of Harib district as delayed prisoner exchange goes ahead in Taiz

AL-MUKALLA: More than 150 Houthi and Yemeni government troops have been killed in fierce clashes outside the central city of Marib. 

Rashad Al-Mekhlafi, a military official at Yemen’s Armed Forces Guidance Department, told Arab News from Marib that the army troops and allied tribesmen have engaged in clashes with the Houthis in different locations south of the city, including Harib, Jouba and Jabal Murad.

“Hundreds of Houthis have been killed in the past 72 hours in clashes or in (precision strikes) by the coalition warplanes, compared to 50 deaths among our troops,” Al-Mekhlafi said, while denying media reports that the Houthis have laid siege to the city of Marib. 

Thousands of combatants and civilians have been killed in the area since the Iran-backed Houthis earlier this year renewed an offensive to recapture energy-rich Marib, the government’s last bastion in the north. 

Last week, the Houthis rolled into new areas south of Marib after tightening their grip on two districts in neighboring Al-Bayda and Shabwa provinces. 

The most serious Houthi advance that could threaten Marib is in the southern district of Harib, where the Houthis seized new areas, but the Yemeni army has dispatched troops and military equipment to push them back, Al-Mekhlafi said. 

“The Houthis have moved most of their fighters from other fronts to Marib. Marib is an important battlefield for the Houthis and the Iranians,” he added. 

Yemen army officials say that more than 40 armed vehicles and items of military equipment belonging to the Houthis have been destroyed in airstrikes in Marib province during the last 72 hours. 

Despite suffering heavy losses in Marib, the rebels have pressed ahead with the offensive and rejected local and international calls to de-escalate and accept the UN-brokered peace efforts. 

Aid organizations have repeatedly warned that Houthi attacks on Marib city, including missile and drone strikes, put hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people who live there at risk.

If the Houthis managed to capture the city of Marib, along with its oil and gas fields and power stations, the militia would get an important bargaining chip during talks about the future of the country, experts said.

Maj. Gen. Mufreh Buhaibeh, a Yemeni commander who was slightly wounded during the latest clashes with the Houthis south of Marib, said that the Yemeni army troops and allied tribesmen would keep fighting until the Houthis are defeated and are pushed out of the areas under their control. “We will fight to the last drop of our blood because we are defending our religion, our dignity, our homeland and everything,” Buhaibeh said.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni army and the Houthis on Wednesday swapped dozens of prisoners in the southern province of Taiz after successful mediation led by local tribal and social figures. 

The Yemeni army released 70 Houthis in exchange for 136 army soldiers and civilians. 

Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a Yemen army officer in Taiz, told Arab News by telephone that the latest successful prisoner swap was supposed to be carried out in May during Ramadan, but was delayed when the Houthis refused to release some of the prisoners. 

“We agreed to release dangerous Houthi snipers in exchange for releasing some civilians who were abducted from the streets,” Al-Baher said. 

“Some of the abductees are teachers or ordinary people who were seized by the Houthis while looking for (cooking) gas cylinders,” he said.

Wednesday’s exchange was the largest since October last year, when the government troops and the Houthis exchanged hundreds of prisoners.


Five Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: military

Updated 58 min 25 sec ago
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Five Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: military

  • Statement: Two of the soldiers ‘fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip’
  • Latest round of negotiations on war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha

JERUSALEM: Five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel’s military said on Tuesday, as Israel and Hamas held indirect talks in Qatar on an elusive ceasefire.

Two of the soldiers “fell during combat in the northern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that three others were killed and two severely wounded in the same incident.

The wounded soldiers were “evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified,” the military said.

The latest round of negotiations on the nearly two-year war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives of Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas seated in different rooms in the same building.

Monday’s talks ended with “no breakthrough,” a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations said.

The Hamas and Israeli delegations were due to resume talks, with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff also set to join them this week in an effort to secure a ceasefire.

The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages, taken during its October 2023 attack on Israel, and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions earlier said.

Hamas was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.


Trump hosts Netanyahu in push for Gaza deal

Updated 08 July 2025
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Trump hosts Netanyahu in push for Gaza deal

  • Netanyahu was more cagey on peace with the Palestinians and ruled out a full Palestinian state, saying that Israel will ‘always’ keep security control over the Gaza Strip
  • The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier told AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hosted Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at the White House on Monday as he pressed the Israeli prime minister to end the devastating Gaza war.
Netanyahu’s third visit since Trump’s return to power comes at a crucial time, with the US president hoping to capitalize on the momentum from a recent truce between Israel and Iran.
“I don’t think there is a hold up. I think things are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the dinner when asked what was preventing a peace deal.
Sitting on the opposite side of a long table from the Israeli leader, Trump also voiced confidence that Hamas was willing to end the conflict in Gaza, which is entering its 22nd month.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if clashes involving Israeli soldiers would derail talks.
The meeting in Washington came as Israel and Hamas held a second day of indirect talks in Qatar on an elusive ceasefire.
Netanyahu meanwhile said he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — the US president’s long-held goal — presenting him with a letter he sent to the prize committee.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said.

But Netanyahu was more cagey on peace with the Palestinians and ruled out a full Palestinian state, saying that Israel will ‘always’ keep security control over the Gaza Strip.
“Now, people will say it’s not a complete state, it’s not a state. We don’t care,” Netanyahu said.
Several dozen protesters gathered near the White House as Trump and Netanyahu met, chanting slogans accusing the Israeli prime minister of “genocide.”
Trump has strongly backed key US ally and fellow conservative Netanyahu, lending US support in Israel’s recent war by bombing Iran’s key nuclear facilities.
But at the same time he has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza. Trump said on Sunday he believes there is a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week.
“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt said Trump wanted Hamas to agree to a US-brokered proposal “right now” after Israel backed the plan for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives seated in different rooms in the same building.
Monday’s talks ended with “no breakthrough,” a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP. The Hamas and Israeli delegations were due to resume talks later.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was due to join the talks in Doha later this week in an effort to get a ceasefire over the line.
The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier told AFP.
The group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.
In Gaza, the civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 12 people on Monday, including six in a clinic housing people displaced by the war.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,523 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.

 


Trump says Hamas ‘want to have that ceasefire’ in Gaza

Updated 08 July 2025
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Trump says Hamas ‘want to have that ceasefire’ in Gaza

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump voiced his confidence Monday that Hamas was willing to agree a truce with Israel, as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for an end to the Gaza war.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if clashes involving Israeli soldiers would derail talks.


Libya authorities intercept over 100 migrants off coast

Updated 08 July 2025
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Libya authorities intercept over 100 migrants off coast

  • Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising

TRIPOLI: Libyan authorities on Monday said they had intercepted 113 migrants off the country’s coast and recovered three bodies in separate operations over three days.
The bodies of three “illegal migrants of African nationalities” were discovered on a beach in Misrata, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tripoli, the Ministry of Interior said.
Also on Monday, security forces on a speedboat intercepted 54 migrants off Garabulli, 50 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli, the ministry added.
They were brought back to the capital’s port and handed over to the competent authorities, it said.
The day before, “as part of a plan to intensify maritime patrols during the summer,” 20 migrants “of various nationalities” were rescued off Zawiya, 45 kilometers west of Tripoli, the ministry said Sunday.
On Saturday, 39 migrants were intercepted off the eastern coast of Tripoli, the ministry reported, without providing further details about where they were found or their point of departure.
Libya has been gripped by unrest since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.
It has become a hub for tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach Europe, risking their lives at sea.
Migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities — even in international waters before reaching the Italian coast, some 300 kilometers away — are forcibly returned to Libya and held in detention under harsh conditions frequently condemned by the United Nations.
 

 


Ending war in Gaza is ‘Trump’s utmost priority’

Updated 07 July 2025
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Ending war in Gaza is ‘Trump’s utmost priority’

  • Israel’s refusal to allow free and safe entry of aid is key sticking point in Doha truce talks

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s “utmost priority” is to end the war in Gaza and free hostages held by Hamas, the White House said on Monday before a crucial meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will this week travel to Qatar, where Israel and Hamas are holding indirect talks. Israel’s refusal to allow the free and safe entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza remains the main obstacle to progress in the ceasefire talks in Doha, Palestinian sources said. Mediators hosted two more rounds of discussions on Monday. 

The US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely.
Hamas has long demanded a final end to the war before it would free remaining hostages, but Israel will not halt fighting until all hostages are free and Hamas dismantled. Trump said last week that he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza deal.
However, Israel has intensified its military campaign in Gaza and sharply restricted food distribution. “God willing, a truce will take place,” Mohammed Al-Sawalheh, 30, from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, said on Monday after another Israeli air strike. “We cannot see a truce while people are dying. We want a truce that will stop this bloodshed.”