AL-MUKALLA: A ship in the Red Sea was damaged after being hit by missiles suspected to have been launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia on Tuesday, two British maritime agencies said.
A shipmaster reported to the UK Maritime Trade Operations that the ship was damaged after being struck by missiles at 9:30 a.m. (UTC) 31 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Hodeidah and that the ship’s crew members were safe.
“At 1040UTC the Master of the MV reports an impact in the water in close proximity to the vessel. The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” UKMTO said in its notice about the incident.
Ambrey, another UK marine security agency, said three ballistic missiles hit a ship in the Red Sea, forcing it to tilt to one side roughly 54 nautical miles southwest of Hodeidah Port.
The incident occurred less than a day after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed to have fired a volley of drones and ballistic missiles against warships and commercial ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said on Monday night that their military forces carried out two “successful” drone attacks against two US warships in the Red Sea, as well as fired missiles at Largo Desert and MSC Michela in the Indian Ocean, and Minerva Lisa in the Red Sea.
Sarea said that the first ship was targeted because it was American, the second because it was owned by Israel, and the third for violating the ban on ships going to Israel through the Red Sea. He did not provide an exact date for the attacks.
According to www.marinetraffic.com, which monitors ships, Largo Desert is an oil and chemical ship that was flying the Marshall Islands flag and that arrived at the Omani Duqm port on the Arabian Sea four days ago. The Liberian-flagged Minerva Lisa is a crude oil tanker that stopped at the Egyptian Ain Sokhna on the Suez Canal on Tuesday, according to the same source, while the container ship MSC Michela is operating under the Portuguese flag and left Valencia Port in Spain on Saturday for Brazil.
At the same time, the US Central Command said that its forces shot down a drone over the Red Sea launched by the Houthis from regions under their control in Yemen on Monday morning.
The Houthis claimed to have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at over 100 commercial and navy ships in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean, and, most recently, the Mediterranean since November. They say that they only target Israel-linked ships and those traveling to Israel to push the latter to cease its assault in Gaza, and that they attacked US and UK ships after the two countries began attacks on Yemeni territory under their control.
On Monday, the UK Royal Navy announced that its HMS Duncan destroyer had been sent to the Red Sea to engage in international naval operations to defend ships from Houthi attacks, replacing sister ship HMS Diamond.
“HMS Duncan will be ready to deliver on operations around the clock as we join efforts to protect trade routes from Houthi attacks, continuing the excellent work of HMS Diamond and HMS Richmond in the region.”
UK Navy Commanding Officer Cmdr. Dan Lee said in a statement that the HMS Diamond had destroyed nine drones and one missile that the Houthis in Yemen had launched at ships since the commencement of its Red Sea mission before Christmas.
Meanwhile, the national carrier of Yemen, Yemenia, resumed direct flights between the Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport and Jeddah airport on Tuesday to facilitate the transportation of thousands of Yemeni pilgrims.
Four Yemeni planes carrying 600 pilgrims left Sanaa on Tuesday, the first of 44 identical flights that would transport 8,200 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. Yemenia has been flying from Sanaa to Amman since April 2022, when the UN-brokered ceasefire was implemented.
Possible Houthi missiles damage ship in Red Sea
https://arab.news/zftq6
Possible Houthi missiles damage ship in Red Sea
- “The crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” UKMTO said in its notice about the incident
- Ambrey, another UK marine security agency, said three ballistic missiles hit a ship in the Red Sea
Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions
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.
