AL-MUKALLA: The Houthis claimed on Tuesday that they had attacked a ship in the Red Sea as well as fired missiles toward Israel, and they rejected a UN Security Council statement ordering them to cease their assaults.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said that their forces fired anti-ship missiles at a “US” vessel called “Mado” in the Red Sea and a number of missiles at locations in the Israeli city of Eilat, vowing to continue their missile and drone attacks on ships and Israel until Israel lifts its siege on Gaza.
According to marinetraffic.com, which provides information on ship whereabouts and movements, Mado is a Marshall-flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker traveling from Saudi Yanbu Port to Singapore.
Since November, the Houthis have captured a commercial ship and launched hundreds of missiles and drones against commercial and navy vessels in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden, claiming to be acting in support of Palestinians.
At the same time, the Houthis rejected a UN Security Council statement on Monday that condemned their assaults, called for compliance with the UN weapons embargo on Yemen, and urged the Yemeni militia to “immediately” cease their ship attacks. “Your statement is below our feet. When you put an end to genocidal crimes, we will cease our attacks,” Houthi leader Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti said on X.
The US Central Command said on Tuesday morning that its forces had preemptively destroyed seven anti-ship missiles, three drones and three storage containers in Houthi-controlled Yemen on Monday.
“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the US military said in a statement.
Meanwhile, at least 18 people, including children and women, were believed dead or wounded on Tuesday in Yemen’s central province of Al-Bayda after being trapped in the rubble of their homes after a nearby house explosion by Houthi militia.
Yemeni activists, neighbors and government authorities said that the Houthis exploded a home belonging to an opponent in Radaa town in Al-Bayda on Tuesday morning, causing the collapse of adjacent mud-built buildings that held at least 18 people.
Amateur videos show neighbors removing the bodies of victims while others use bare hands and stones to rescue trapped people begging for help from under the wreckage.
Nasser Ali Al-Sanae, a Yemeni activist from Radaa who now lives in Marib city after fleeing Houthi repression, told Arab News that at least nine people have been confirmed dead and that people are desperately trying to rescue the trapped people, adding that outraged residents blocked roads and staged a rare protest in the town against the Houthis to condemn the deaths of civilians.
“This is one among many Houthi crimes committed against Yemenis in general and the Radaa people in particular. They blew up the home, even though there are old buildings in the vicinity that are in danger of collapse,” Al-Sanae said.
A video, corroborated by Al-Sanae, became popular on the Internet. It showed a man calling to a woman trapped under the debris.
“Aisha! Are you OK?” the man said, clearing a way out to free the trapped woman.
The deaths of civilians have generated an outcry in Yemen, with activists and government officials blaming the Houthis for blowing up their opponents’ homes and oppressing people in regions that they control.
“This is the truth of the terrorist Houthi militia associated with Iran, which falsely claims its concern, humanity, and movement to help “Gaza,” while demolishing Yemeni houses in cold blood while families, women and children, are inside,” Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani, said in a post on X.
Houthis claim firing missile toward Israel and attacking Red Sea ship
https://arab.news/6z5sh
Houthis claim firing missile toward Israel and attacking Red Sea ship
- At least 9 killed after militia blew up house in Al-Bayda
- Militia reject UN Security Council statement ordering them to cease assaults
Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions
- In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security
DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.
Israeli airstrikes kill at least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say
- Airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 30, Palestinian medics and media say
- Israeli military says it ‘eliminated terrorists’ in latest operations
CAIRO: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since Monday night, Palestinian media and medics said on Tuesday, as the Israeli army tightened its siege on northern areas of the enclave.
An airstrike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since Oct. 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.
The Gaza health ministry did not immediately confirm the toll. Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.
Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.
The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had “eliminated terrorists” in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where “terrorist infrastructure sites” had been eliminated, it said.
Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for people to evacuate were aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones.
Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.
More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza say, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists
PORT SUDAN: Ten civilians were killed in the central Sudanese state of Al-Jazira, pro-democracy activists said on Tuesday, in an attack they blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The Madani Resistance Committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the country, said the RSF carried out the killings on Monday night in the village of Barborab, about 85 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the state capital Wad Madani.
Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms
- Washington told Israel on Oct. 13 it had 30 days to take steps to address humanitarian crisis in Gaza
- Israel on Monday announced cancelling agreement with UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)
WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.
Israel issues 7,000 new draft orders for ultra-Orthodox members
JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued 7,000 additional army draft orders Monday for individuals from the country’s ultra-Orthodox community, historically exempted from mandatory service until a June Supreme Court decision.
Gallant approved the Israeli army’s “recommendation to issue an additional 7,000 orders for screening and evaluation processes for ultra-Orthodox draft-eligible individuals in the upcoming phase, which is expected to begin in the coming days,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
The order comes after a first round of 3,000 draft orders were sent out in July, sparking protests from the ultra-Orthodox community.
Monday’s orders come at a time when Israel is struggling to bolster troop numbers as it fights a multi-front war, with ground forces deployed to fight Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The defense minister concluded that the war and the challenges we face underscore the (Israeli army’s) need for additional soldiers. This is a tangible operational need that requires broad national mobilization from all parts of society,” the ministry said.
In Israel, military service is mandatory for Jewish men for 32 months, and for 24 months for Jewish women.
The ultra-Orthodox account for 14 percent of Israel’s Jewish population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), representing about 1.3 million people.
About 66,000 of those of conscription age are exempted, according to the army.
Under a rule adopted at Israel’s creation in 1948, when it applied to only 400 people, the ultra-Orthodox have historically been exempted from military service if they dedicate themselves to the study of sacred Jewish texts.
In June, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the draft of yeshiva (seminary) students after deciding the government could not keep up the exemption “without an adequate legal framework.”
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,374 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to Gaza health ministry figures which the United Nations considers to be reliable.
Since late September, Israel has broadened the focus of its war to Lebanon, where it intensified air strikes and later sent in ground troops, following nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire with Hezbollah.
