ADEN: The leader of Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday his militia would make further attacks on Israel and they could target Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait.
The Iran-aligned group made several missile and drone attacks against Israel this month, highlighting the risk of the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas spreading into the wider Middle East.
“Our eyes are open to constantly monitor and search for any Israeli ship in the Red Sea, especially in Bab Al-Mandab, and near Yemeni regional waters,” Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said in a broadcast speech.
Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups since Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people.
Since then, Israel has escalated its assault on Gaza, where its forces have killed more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian officials.
The Yemen war has settled into a stalemate as the fighting has largely stopped but both parties have failed to renew a United Nations-brokered truce that expired in October.
Leader of Houthis says militia will target Israeli ships in Red Sea
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Leader of Houthis says militia will target Israeli ships in Red Sea
- “Our eyes are open to constantly monitor and search for any Israeli ship in the Red Sea,” Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said
Israeli defense minister warns Hezbollah against joining conflict with Iran
JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah to exercise caution on Friday, saying Israel’s patience with “terrorists” who threaten it had worn thin.
The head of Iran-backed Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said on Thursday that the Lebanese group would act as it saw fit in the face of what he called “brutal Israeli-American aggression” against Iran.
In other statements, the group has made no explicit pledge to join the fighting and a Hezbollah official told Reuters last week that the group did not intend to initiate attacks against Israel.
Gaza rescuers say 43 killed by Israeli forces
- Civil defense official says 26 people killed while gathered near aid distribution center
GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 43 people on Friday, including 26 who had gathered near an aid distribution center, the latest in a string of deadly incidents targeting aid seekers in the Palestinian territory.
“Forty-three martyrs have fallen as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip since dawn today, 26 of whom were waiting for humanitarian aid,” Mohammad Al-Mughayyir, director of medical supply at the civil defense agency in Gaza, told AFP.
UN warns of ‘disastrous consequences’ of escalating Sudan fighting
- The United Nations’ rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that escalating fighting in Sudan’s west and center risks aggravating harm to civilians and abuses
GENEVA: The United Nations’ rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that escalating fighting in Sudan’s west and center risks aggravating harm to civilians and abuses, more than two years into the country’s war.
Turk in a statement warned of “the disastrous consequences stemming from ongoing and escalating hostilities” in North Darfur and Kordofan states, “amid a pervasive culture of impunity for human rights violations.”
Gaza faces a manmade drought as water systems collapse, UNICEF says
- “Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva
- “We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten” said a father in Gaza
GENEVA: Gaza is facing a manmade drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations’ children agency said on Friday.
“Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40 percent of drinking water production facilities remain functional,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.
Israel is now channelling much of the aid into Gaza through a new US – and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which uses private US security and logistics firms and operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.
Israel has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring it doesn’t get to Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, called the current system for distributing aid “a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness,” in a post on X on Wednesday.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, displaced almost all the territory’s residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.
The World Food Programme called on Wednesday for a big increase in food distribution in Gaza, saying that the 9,000 metric tons it had dispatched over the last four weeks inside Gaza represented a “tiny fraction” of what was needed.
“The fear of starvation and desperate need for food is causing large crowds to gather along well-known transport routes, hoping to intercept and access humanitarian supplies while in transit,” the WFP said in a statement.
“Any violence resulting in starving people being killed or injured while seeking life-saving assistance is completely unacceptable,” it added.
Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel’s air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.
“We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people,” said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.
“We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten.”
Iran rejects any negotiation with US while Israeli attacks continue
- ‘The Americans have repeatedly sent messages calling seriously for negotiations’
- ‘But we have made clear that as long as the aggression does not stop, there will be no place for diplomacy and dialogue’
TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected any negotiations with the United States while Israel continues its attacks on Iran, in an interview with state TV broadcast on Friday.
“The Americans have repeatedly sent messages calling seriously for negotiations. But we have made clear that as long as the aggression does not stop, there will be no place for diplomacy and dialogue,” said the chief diplomat, who was due in Geneva for talks with his European counterparts.
