Kidnapping of Yemeni UN employees by Houthis widely condemned

A United Nations vehicle in Yemen's third city of Taiz, in February. (AFP)
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Updated 08 June 2024
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Kidnapping of Yemeni UN employees by Houthis widely condemned

  • Houthis also reportedly abducted Yemeni workers in other Yemeni provinces under their control

AL-MUKALLA: Human rights groups on Saturday strongly denounced the Houthis’ abduction of scores of Yemenis working for the UN and for US organizations in Yemen.

Yemeni Human Rights Minister Ahmed Arman said on Friday that the Iran-backed militia had kidnapped around 50 Yemeni personnel from various UN agencies, the US Embassy, US-funded NGOs, and other foreign organizations in Sanaa after storming their residences.

The Houthis also reportedly abducted Yemeni workers in other Yemeni provinces under their control.

On Saturday, Arman told Arab News that the Houthis had resumed their raids on residences in Sanaa and abducted more Yemenis working for foreign organizations, but did not provide the names of those people or the organizations they work for.

In a joint statement, 118 Yemeni human rights organizations said the Houthi intelligence and security services had conducted simultaneous raids on the homes of Yemenis working for the UN and other international organizations in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Saada, and Amran, abducting them and taking their mobile phones and laptops.

“The Houthi militia’s continued crimes constitute a blatant breach of national and international laws and standards, as well as a manifest disrespect for all international and regional attempts aimed at restoring peace in the country,” the Yemeni groups said in their statement.

The Houthis have not provided an official explanation for their campaign, but they have previously accused Yemeni workers employed by foreign embassies or organizations of collaborating with their enemies.

When asked by Arab News to comment on reports that the Houthis were continuing to target Yemeni UN agencies’ personnel, Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said: “We have nothing new to report.”

The Houthi raids occurred as the US military said it had intercepted a fresh barrage of Houthi drones and missiles over the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait.

The US Central Command said on Friday night that the Houthis had fired four ballistic missiles from regions under their control over the Red Sea in the previous 24 hours, none of which hit any navy or commercial ships.

CENTCOM forces destroyed four drones and two ballistic missiles in Yemeni areas controlled by the Houthis before they reached their targets on international shipping routes.

The US military also destroyed one Houthi drone launched into the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and a Houthi boat in the Red Sea.

Houthi media said on Friday that US and UK planes had carried out four airstrikes on the airport in the western province of Hodeidah, and another on the province’s Al-Salif port.

Four more US and US airstrikes hit a military base north of Sanaa on Friday, according to the Houthis.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea announced on Friday that their forces had launched drones and missiles at two ships in the Red Sea for allegedly breaching their ban on sailing to Israel.

According to ship-monitoring apps, one of the ships, the Elbella, is a Malta-flagged container ship heading from Jeddah to Egypt, while the other, the Aal Genoa, is a Cyprus-flagged general cargo ship sailing from Poland to the UAE.

Since November, the Houthis have sunk one ship, seized another, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones at international naval and commercial ships in what the Yemeni militia claims are actions in support of the Palestinian people intended to force Israel to end its assault on Gaza.


Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Updated 25 November 2024
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Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.


2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 25 November 2024
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night

Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 25 November 2024
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.


HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

Updated 25 November 2024
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HRW says Israel strike that killed 3 Lebanon journalists ‘apparent war crime’

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch said on Monday an Israeli air strike that killed three journalists in Lebanon last month was an “apparent war crime” and used a bomb equipped with a US-made guidance kit.
The October 25 strike hit a tourism complex in the Druze-majority south Lebanon town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists working for Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
The Israeli army has said it targeted Hezbollah militants and that the strike was “under review.”
HRW said the strike, relatively far from the Israel-Hezbollah war’s main flashpoints, “was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime.”
“Information Human Rights Watch reviewed indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building,” the watchdog said in a statement.
HRW “found no evidence of fighting, military forces, or military activity in the immediate area at the time of the attack,” it added.
The strike killed cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from pro-Iran, Beirut-based broadcaster Al-Mayadeen and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.
The watchdog said it verified images of Najjar’s casket wrapped in a Hezbollah flag and buried in a cemetery alongside fighters from the militant group.
But a spokesperson for the militant group said he “had no involvement whatsoever in any military activities.”
HRW said the bomb dropped by Israeli forces was equipped with a United States-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit.
The JDAM is “affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates,” the statement said.
It said remnants from the site were consistent with a JDAM kit “assembled and sold by the US company Boeing.”
One remnant “bore a numerical code identifying it as having been manufactured by Woodard, a US company that makes components for guidance systems on munitions,” it added.
The watchdog said it contacted Boeing and Woodard but received no response.
In October last year, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while he was covering southern Lebanon, and six other journalists were wounded, including AFP’s Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.
In November last year, Israeli bombardment killed Al-Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari, the channel said.
Lebanese rights groups have said five more journalists and photographers working for local media have been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and Beirut’s southern suburbs.


Officials in Egypt say over a dozen people are missing after a tourist vessel sank in the Red Sea

Updated 38 min 36 sec ago
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Officials in Egypt say over a dozen people are missing after a tourist vessel sank in the Red Sea

CAIRO: Egypt's governor of the Red Sea region said Monday afternoon that authorities are searching for 17 people who went missing from a sinking vessel off Marsa Alam city.
Amr Hanafy said in a statement that rescuers saved 28 people from the boat, Sea Story, which was carrying 45 people, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 14 crew.

The tourists were on a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam, according to a statement by the Red Sea Governorate. 
Hanafi said some survivors were rescued using a helicopter and have been taken to medical care. Efforts to locate more survivors were ongoing in coordination with the Egyptian navy and army.
The governorate said a distress call was received at 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) and that the boat had departed from Porto Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday, with plans to return to Hurghada Marina on Nov. 29.
The Red Sea is a popular diving destination renowned for its coral reefs and marine life, key to Egypt’s vital tourism industry.