DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels saw multiple explosions strike near a vessel traveling through the Red Sea on Tuesday, though no damage was immediately reported by the ship, authorities said.
The attack comes as the rebels continue their monthslong assault targeting shipping through a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it a year over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon.
The Houthis have insisted that the attacks will continue as long as the wars go on, and the assaults already have halved shipping through the region. Meanwhile, a UN panel of experts now allege that the Houthis may be shaking down some shippers for about $180 million a month for safe passage through the area.
A vessel in the southern reaches of the Red Sea, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, reported the attack, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
No one was wounded on board in the blasts, and the ship was continuing on its journey, the UKMTO added.
The Houthis didn’t immediately claim the attack. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days before they acknowledge one of their assaults.
The Houthis have targeted more than 90 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign, which also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
The Houthis have shot down multiple American MQ-9 Reaper drones as well.
The last Houthi maritime attack came Oct. 28 and targeted the Liberian-flagged bulk tanker Motaro. Before that, an Oct. 10 attack targeted the Liberian-flagged chemical tanker Olympic Spirit.
It’s unclear why the Houthis’ attacks have dropped, though they have launched multiple missiles toward Israel as well. On Oct. 17, the US military unleashed B-2 stealth bombers to target underground bunkers used by the rebels. US airstrikes also have been targeting Houthi positions in recent days as well.
Meanwhile, a report by UN experts from October says “the Houthis allegedly collected illegal fees from a few shipping agencies to allow their ships to sail through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden without being attacked.” It put the money generated a month at around $180 million, though it stressed it hadn’t been able to corroborate the information provided by sources to the panel.
The Houthis haven’t directly responded to the allegation. However, the report did include two threatening emails the Houthis sent to shippers, with one of those vessels later coming under attack by the rebels.
A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels sees explosions near ship in Red Sea
https://arab.news/ws62t
A suspected attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels sees explosions near ship in Red Sea
- The attack comes as the rebels continue their monthslong assault targeting shipping
- The Houthis have insisted that the attacks will continue as long as the wars go on
Syrian leader makes first visit to cradle of country’s uprising
Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab visited Daraa’s historic Omari mosque during the trip
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Friday visited the southern city of Daraa, the cradle of the country’s uprising, for the first time since ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad almost six months ago.
State news agency SANA published footage showing a cheering crowd greeting Sharaa, who was seen waving and shaking hands with people during the visit, which came on the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha.
Sharaa and Interior Minister Anas Khattab visited Daraa’s historic Omari mosque during the trip, the presidency said in a statement, releasing images of the visit showing the leader among the crowd.
SANA also said he met with local civil and military officials, as well as a delegation from the Christian minority.
Provincial governor Anwar Al-Zoabi said in a statement that the visit was “an important milestone in the course of national recovery.”
In 2011, young boys who had scrawled graffiti against Assad were detained in Daraa, sparking nationwide protests.
After the war erupted following the brutal repression of protests, rebels seized control of Daraa and hung on until 2018, when the city returned to Assad under a deal mediated by Russia that allowed former fighters to keep their light weapons.
On December 6, as Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) led a lightning offensive on Damascus from the country’s northwest, a coalition of armed groups from Daraa province was formed to help oust Assad, who was toppled two days later.
The province was plagued by unrest in recent years.
Grandmother files war crimes case in Paris over Gaza killings
- The complaint argues the “genocide” allegation is based on the air strike being part of a larger Israeli project to “eliminate the Palestinian population and submit it to living conditions of a nature to entail the destruction of their group”
PARIS: The grandmother of two children with French nationality killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza has filed a legal complaint in Paris, accusing Israel of “genocide” and “murder,” her lawyer said on Friday.
Jacqueline Rivault filed her complaint with the “crimes against humanity” section of the Court of Paris, lawyer Arie Alimi said.
Rivault hopes the fact that her daughter’s children, aged six and nine, were French citizens means the country’s judiciary will decide it has jurisdiction to designate a magistrate to investigate the allegations.
Rights groups, lawyers, and some Israeli historians have described the Gaza war as “genocide.”
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Jacqueline Rivault filed her complaint with the ‘crimes against humanity’ section of the Court of Paris, lawyer Arie Alimi said.
The complaint states that “two F16 missiles fired by the Israeli army” killed Janna, six, and Abderrahim Abudaher, nine, in northern Gaza on October 24, 2023.
They and their family had sought refuge in another home “between Faluja and Beit Lahia” after leaving their own two days earlier due to heavy bombardment, the 48-page document stated.
One missile entered “through the roof and the second directly into the room where the family was,” it said.
Abderrahim was killed instantly, while his sister Janna died shortly after being taken to the hospital.
The complaint argues the “genocide” allegation is based on the air strike being part of a larger Israeli project to “eliminate the Palestinian population and submit it to living conditions of a nature to entail the destruction of their group.”
Though formally against unnamed parties, the complaint explicitly targets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government, and the military.
The children’s brother Omar was severely wounded but still lives in Gaza with their mother, identified as Yasmine Z., the complaint said.
A French court in 2019 convicted Yasmine Z. in absentia of having funded a “terrorist” group by distributing money in Gaza to members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry there, figures the UB deems reliable.
No court has so far ruled that the ongoing conflict is a genocide.
But in rulings in January, March, and May 2024, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest judicial organ, told Israel to do everything possible to “prevent” acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
‘No Eid’ for West Bank residents who lost sons in Israeli raids
- An armored car arrived at the site shortly after, unloading soldiers to clear the cemetery of its mourners, who walked away solemnly without protest
JENIN: Abeer Ghazzawi had little time to visit her two sons’ graves for Eid Al-Adha before Israeli soldiers cleared the cemetery near the refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The Israeli army has conducted a months-long operation in the camp, which has forced Ghazzawi, along with thousands of other residents, from her home.
For Ghazzawi, the few precious minutes she spent at her sons’ graves still felt like a small victory.
“On the last Eid — Eid Al-Fitr, celebrating the end of Ramadan in March — they raided us. They even shot at us. But this Eid, there was no shooting, just that they kicked us out of the cemetery twice,” said the 48-year-old.
“We were able to visit our land, clean up around the graves, and pour rosewater and cologne on them,” she added.
As part of the Eid celebrations, families traditionally visit the graves of their loved ones.
In the Jenin camp cemetery, women and men had brought flowers for their deceased relatives, and many sat on the side of their loved ones’ graves as they remembered the dead, clearing away weeds and dust.
An armored car arrived at the site shortly after, unloading soldiers to clear the cemetery of its mourners, who walked away solemnly without protest.
Ghazzawi’s two sons, Mohammed and Basel, were killed in January 2024 in a Jenin hospital by undercover Israeli troops.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group claimed the two brothers as its fighters after their deaths.
Like Ghazzawi, many in Jenin mourned sons killed during one of the numerous Israeli operations that have targeted the city, a known bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting Israel.
In the current months-long military operation in the north of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, Israeli forces looking for militants have cleared three refugee camps and deployed tanks in Jenin.
Mohammed Abu Hjab, 51, went to the cemetery on the other side of the city to visit the grave of his son, killed in January by an Israeli strike that also killed five other people.
“There is no Eid. I lost my son — how can it be Eid for me?” he asked as he stood by the six small gravestones of the dead young men.
16 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Palestinians collecting aid from GHF sites said there was no clear distribution system, describing the process as disorganized and chaotic
JERUSALEM: Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a US- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed.
Health authorities said strikes had killed people in Gaza’s Jabalia, Tuffah, and Khan Younis areas.
Witnesses and medics said that Israeli planes and tanks had intensified strikes on Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun since the early hours.
The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for residents of parts of Gaza City on Friday ahead of an attack, as it presses an intensified campaign in the battered Palestinian territory.
“This is a final and urgent warning ahead of an impending strike,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said.
The army “will strike all areas from which rockets are launched.”
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said by email it had delivered aid on Friday, despite earlier announcing on its official Facebook page that its distribution sites were closed until further notice and that people should stay away from the sites “for their safety” after a series of deadly shootings.
The GHF opened two sites in southern Gaza on Thursday after closing all of its centers the previous day in the wake of shootings in the vicinity of its operations. It has so far operated four distribution centers.
The organization bypasses traditional relief agencies and has been criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the UN, for alleged lack of neutrality, which it denies.
Palestinians collecting aid from GHF sites said there was no clear distribution system, describing the process as disorganized and chaotic.
Footage released this week by the organization has shown similar scenes at one of its sites.
GHF halted distributions on Wednesday and said it was pressing Israeli forces to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations after dozens of Palestinians were shot dead near the Rafah site over three consecutive days.
The Israeli military said on Sunday and Monday that its soldiers had fired warning shots.
On Tuesday, it said, forces also fired warning shots before firing toward Palestinians that it said were advancing toward troops. GHF has said that aid was safely handed out from its sites without any incident.
Israel army announces 4 soldiers killed in Gaza, thousands more troops needed
- News of the soldiers’ deaths came as Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 38 killed Friday in Israeli attacks across the territory
- The conscription issue has threatened to sink Netanyahu’s government
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military announced Friday the deaths of four soldiers in Gaza, saying it needed thousands more troops to press its offensive, just as the premier’s coalition faces the prospect of collapse over ultra-Orthodox conscription.
News of the soldiers’ deaths came as Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 38 killed Friday in Israeli attacks across the territory, where Palestinians observed the Eid Al-Adha holiday under the shadow of war for a second consecutive year.
Military spokesman Effie Defrin said the four soldiers were killed as they “were operating in the Khan Yunis area, in a compound belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization.”
“Around six in the morning, an explosive device detonated, causing part of the structure to collapse,” he said, adding that five other soldiers were wounded, one of them severely.
The deaths bring to 429 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive in late October 2023.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences to the soldiers’ families, saying they “sacrificed their lives for the safety of all of us.”
Israel recently stepped up its Gaza campaign in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack sparked the war.
Asked by a reporter about the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription, which has emerged as a thorn in the side of Netanyahu’s government, Defrin said “this is the need of the moment, an operational necessity.”
The army was short around 10,000 soldiers, he added, including about 6,000 in combat roles, adding that “tens of thousands more notices will be issued in the upcoming draft cycle.”
The conscription issue has threatened to sink Netanyahu’s government, with ultra-Orthodox religious parties warning they will pull out of his coalition if Netanyahu fails to make good on a promise to codify the military exemption for their community in law.
At the same time, much of the public has turned against the exemption amid the increasing strain put on reservists’ families by repeated call-up orders during the war.
In April, a military representative told a parliamentary committee that of 18,000 draft notices sent to ultra-Orthodox individuals, only 232 received a positive response.
Netanyahu’s office announced shortly after 1:00 am on Friday that he had met with a lawmaker from his Likud party who has recently pushed for a bill aimed at increasing the ultra-Orthodox enlistment and toughening sanctions on those who refuse.
The premier’s office said “significant progress was made,” with “unresolved issues” to be ironed out later.
Netanyahu also faced scrutiny after he admitted to supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes Hamas.
Knesset member and ex-defense minister Avigdor Liberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu’s direction, was “giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons.”
The European Council on Foreign Relations think tank describes the group a “criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks.”
The humanitarian situation in Gaza, meanwhile, has reached dire lows, with residents enduring severe shortages of food and other essentials, even after a more than two-month Israeli blockade on aid was recently eased.
The shortages have made it all but impossible for many Gazans to celebrate Eid Al-Adha, which fell on Friday and is traditionally marked with huge family meals and gifts of new clothes.
Suad Al-Qarra told AFP from Nasser Hospital on Friday that her son never got a chance to wear his new clothes.
“He went to get dressed and there was an explosion,” she said, her soft voice breaking. “I took him to the hospital and (they) found him dead.”
“They took the children from us,” she continued. “I bought him Eid clothes yesterday and he didn’t wear them, instead he wears a white shroud.”
In the Muslim faith, Eid commemorates the sacrifice Ibrahim — known to Christians and Jews as Abraham — was about to make by killing his son, before the angel Gabriel intervened and offered him a sheep to sacrifice instead.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s strikes.
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 4,402 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 after a brief truce, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,677, mostly civilians.
