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Houthi leader claims launching 250 drones, missiles against Israel and Red Sea ships

Special Houthi leader claims launching 250 drones, missiles against Israel and Red Sea ships
A Houthi fighter brandishes an RPG launcher during a rally aimed at exhibiting defiance over US-led strikes and in support of Palestinians in Gaza, near Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 25, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 25 January 2024

Houthi leader claims launching 250 drones, missiles against Israel and Red Sea ships

Houthi leader claims launching 250 drones, missiles against Israel and Red Sea ships
  • Militia leader vows to continue operations until all Gaza inhabitants have access to food and medicine
  • Abdul Malik Al-Houthi: Escalation by the US and the UK will be unproductive and have no bearing on our decisions or positions

AL-MUKALLA: Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthi militia, said on Thursday that they had launched over 200 explosives-rigged drones and 50 ballistic missiles against Israel and ships since the start of their Red Sea strikes, promising to continue despite worldwide anger. 

Al-Houthi said that strikes by US and UK militaries on areas under their control in Yemen would not deter them from continuing their Red Sea operations, claiming that their missile and drone attacks did not influence international maritime trade in the Red Sea since 4,874 ships had passed through the key commerce corridor.

“Our country will continue its operations until all Gaza inhabitants have access to food and medicine, and the Israeli atrocity ceases … The escalation by the United States and the United Kingdom will be unproductive and have no bearing on our decisions or positions,” Al-Houthi said in a broadcast speech.

He has once again urged his followers to demonstrate in large numbers on Friday in the streets of Sanaa and other locations under his control to condemn US and UK attacks and to show solidarity with Gaza residents.

The Houthi leader’s speech came as neither the UK Maritime Trade Operations nor the US Central Command reported any new incidents in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab, or the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, and neither did the Yemeni militia claim credit for any ship assaults.

Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship and launched over 25 drone and missile attacks on commercial and naval ships as they enforce an embargo on all Israel-bound vessels.

The US and UK have replied to the Houthi Red Sea raids by unleashing dozens of strikes on military targets in Houthi-controlled territories. Houthis say they want Israel to end its siege of Gaza.

On Wednesday night, Houthi military spokesperson Yahiya Sarae said that they fired missiles at US Navy destroyers escorting two US commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and Bab Al-Mandab, with one of the missiles directly hitting a US Navy ship and forcing the two commercial ships to turn back and avoid entering the Red Sea.

The US Central Command said that the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the US-flagged, owned, and operated container ship M/V Maersk Detroit in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday afternoon, with two intercepted and one landing in the water.

Meanwhile, family members of Abdul Wahab Qatran, a famous Yemeni judge kidnapped by the Houthis earlier this month in Sanaa, have renewed their request to the Houthis to free him or allow them to phone or see him.

Mohammed, Qatran’s son, appeared in a new video on Wednesday saying that the Houthis continue to hold his father while also denying numerous requests to see him. 

“They did not allow us to visit him or give him his clothes,” he said.

On Jan. 2, the Houthis kidnapped Qatran, a legal activist who had publicly criticized the Houthis’ draconian government as well as their inability to pay public workers, after besieging his home in Sanaa and roughing up and temporarily arresting his family.

The Houthis have not issued an official statement on the kidnapping, but his family says the militia has accused him of using and manufacturing alcohol. 


Uncertainty ahead for UN training center students in West Bank

Uncertainty ahead for UN training center students in West Bank
Updated 23 sec ago

Uncertainty ahead for UN training center students in West Bank

Uncertainty ahead for UN training center students in West Bank
  • Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesman in Jerusalem, warned that if some of the services could not continue, the socioeconomic consequences could be “potentially disastrous”

QALANDIA: In the crowded Qalandia refugee camp, UNRWA’s training center is an island of calm where young people from the occupied West Bank master trades, but a recent Israeli ban on all cooperation with the UN agency has left the center in limbo.
On the spacious campus, a stone’s throw from the wall that separates the West Bank and Israel, plumbers in training assemble pipes, future electricians wire circuits, and carpenters hammer together roof frames.
But how long these scenes will last is an open question after Israel last month banned UNRWA, founded in 1949, from operating on Israeli soil or coordinating with Israeli authorities.

BACKGROUND

Baha Awaad, the school’s principal, says it trains 350 students but cannot provide for more due to the lack of permission to expand buildings.

UNRWA’s ban in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem has raised fears that its West Bank employees could face problems not only accessing those areas but also moving around more generally because they would lose the ability to coordinate with the Israeli authorities manning checkpoints.
The same fears apply to visas and permits delivered by Israeli authorities.
Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Naseef, a refugee from the Jalazone camp north of nearby Ramallah, said he did not know what he and his classmates would do should the Qalandia training center close as a result of the law.
“It would disrupt my fellow students. Many don’t have the financial means to study at another institute. Here, it’s almost free,” he said during a class where he was learning how to install lights in a room.
“We imagine that we’re setting up a bedroom and a bathroom, installing lights, outlets, and power points,” said the student, who has been a trainee for two months after graduating high school.
“If it closes, I might consider going to university,” he said, adding that this had been his original intention, but his current circumstances “don’t allow for that.”
Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesman in Jerusalem, warned that if some of the services could not continue, the socioeconomic consequences could be “potentially disastrous.”
“If these services are not able to operate ... who is going to provide education for the children and the adolescents in this camp?“
Baha Awaad, the school’s principal, said it trains 350 students but cannot provide for more due to the lack of permission to expand buildings.
Asked whether the students could finish their school year, Awaad admitted: “Frankly, we don’t know.”
“We’re operating as usual, not wanting to spread fear. We reassure students that we’re doing our best to continue teaching here,” he said, adding that worried students had already approached him.
As for what would happen should the school close, Awaad said: “That depends. They’ll be left without options if it’s a permanent closure.”
Fowler said there was no sustainable alternative to his agency’s varied work on such a large scale.
“You can’t just flick a switch, and UNRWA disappears and someone else steps in,” he said.
“The law is very unclear on many fronts,” he continued, so “what the intention is, how that would be operationalized is extremely uncertain.”
Tensions between UNRWA and Israel began after Israel accused about a dozen of the agency’s staff of taking part in Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
A series of probes found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA.
They determined that nine employees “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 attack but found no evidence for Israel’s central allegations.
A quarter of the West Bank’s 912,000 refugees live in 19 camps, according to UNRWA, and many rely on various services provided by the agency’s 3,800 West Bank staff.
One such recipient, teenager Naseef, graduated from a UNRWA school and received health care from one of its clinics.
In his camp, he said: “The situation is especially hard for the clinic, which many people rely on for medications and treatments. If it shuts down, they’ll be cut off.”
Back in Qalandia camp’s narrow alleys, among murals of deceased Palestinian fighters, a nurse at the crowded UNRWA clinic said there was no viable alternative for residents should her facility close.
At the nearby UNRWA primary school for girls, headmaster Rana Nabhan said she “doesn’t know” whether her students will finish the school year.
Unaware of the challenges, a crowd of giggling schoolgirls run around in bright-colored bibs during gym class, bringing the courtyard to life.
Just over their shoulders is another mural in Arabic: “I love my beautiful school,” it reads.

 


Israel says synagogue hit in ‘rocket barrage’ on Haifa

Israel says synagogue hit in ‘rocket barrage’ on Haifa
Updated 3 min 6 sec ago

Israel says synagogue hit in ‘rocket barrage’ on Haifa

Israel says synagogue hit in ‘rocket barrage’ on Haifa
  • The army said it had intercepted some of “approximately 10 projectiles”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s army said two people were injured when a synagogue was hit Saturday in the northern coastal city of Haifa following a “heavy rocket barrage” by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
“This is yet another clear example of Hezbollah’s deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians,” the military said in a statement. Separately, the army said it had intercepted some of “approximately 10 projectiles” that crossed from Lebanon into Israel.


Civilians killed, neighborhoods destroyed in fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut, Tyre

Civilians killed, neighborhoods destroyed in fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut, Tyre
Updated 16 November 2024

Civilians killed, neighborhoods destroyed in fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut, Tyre

Civilians killed, neighborhoods destroyed in fresh Israeli strikes on Beirut, Tyre
  • Israeli warplanes launched more than 10 intermittent airstrikes on Saturday on buildings, whose residents had been warned half an hour before by the Israeli army to evacuate
  • The number of strikes targeting the area in recent days has exceeded 30, reducing neighborhoods in Chiyah to rubble

BEIRUT: Toxic white dust hangs over the skies of Chiyah, the only area in Beirut’s southern suburbs where residents, until three days ago, clung to their homes, believing it was relatively safe from Israeli airstrikes.
Israeli warplanes launched more than 10 intermittent airstrikes on Saturday on buildings, whose residents had been warned half an hour before by the Israeli army to evacuate.
The number of strikes targeting the area in recent days has exceeded 30, reducing neighborhoods in Chiyah to rubble. Fires have consumed buildings that remain standing, despite the intense destruction caused by missile explosions.
Kamel, a lawyer and a resident of the area, initially hesitated to return to the neighborhood that he had fled less than an hour earlier.
He intended to check on his home after a strike hit a building adjacent to his own.
As Kamel tried to enter the area, all he could see were “piles of rubble that have changed the landmarks of the neighborhood where I was born and lived, a place where I knew the placement and color of every stone.”
Kamel, his eyes reddened by the pervasive smoke and his voice choked from the dust, said: “I do not understand why this neighborhood is being targeted. There is no Hezbollah presence here, only families who migrated from the countryside to the capital’s outskirts to live at the lowest possible cost.
“Who will compensate us? We do not belong to any party. Why all this destruction? How long will this go on? I am at retirement age; how can I rebuild what I lost today?”
Israeli raids on Saturday covered a significant number of targets, including a building near the headquarters of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council in Ghobeiri, as well as Burj Al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik, Ghobeiri and Bir Abed.
A raid destroyed four buildings on Abbas Al-Moussawi Street, and a building adjacent to the Haret Hreik municipality.
Safia, an 18-year-old resident, sustained a head injury from missile shrapnel. This was despite abiding by the Israeli evacuation warnings and remaining 500 meters from the targeted area. Safia was taking pictures on her phone at the time of the strike.
The increased hostilities that escalated in southern Lebanon have apparently halted the settlement talks that have taken place over the past two days, especially with the draft diplomatic solution received by Hezbollah.
Two paramedics were killed and four others were injured in a raid that targeted Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization in Kfar Tebnit.
Israeli warplanes carried out violent strikes against Tyre and its suburbs, where raids targeted the monuments area, Al-Hosh area and the industrial zone, injuring three people.
The raids destroyed houses in dozens of villages in Nabatieh, Tyre and Iklim Al-Teffah, and injured six people in Arnoun. Lebanon’s Civil Defense Forces pulled two victims from the rubble in Al-Ramadieh. Paramedics said that they had recovered five bodies.
An Israeli raid on a house in Qana in Iklim Al-Teffah Friday night killed citizen Nehmatallah Hussein Mallah, his wife and his three children.
Israeli forces continued their incursion into Lebanese territory in the town of Chamaa, 6 km from the southern border, under extensive fire cover.
Hezbollah reported that it engaged in confrontations with the Israeli army to the east of the Lebanese town of Markaba.
The Israeli army carried out the demolition of the Shimon Shrine in the town of Chamaa on Friday night.
Additionally, the headquarters of UNIFIL in the town was struck by an artillery shell.
Israeli army units made additional attempts to infiltrate the town of Ad-Dahira, as well as the axis of Tyre Harfa and Al-Jabeen.
This led to intense confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli forces, resulting in heavy Israeli artillery bombardment of these towns.
Hezbollah reported targeting of several Israeli sites, including the command center of the infantry battalion of the Eastern Brigade 769, located at the Ramim barracks, the Stella Maris naval base (a strategic site for maritime surveillance along the northern coast), the Shraga base (the administrative headquarters of the Golani Brigade) north of the city of Acre, and a gathering of soldiers at the newly established command center of the Western Brigade in the Yara barracks and the settlement of Kiryat Shmona.
Hezbollah launched an “aerial offensive using a swarm of attack drones targeting the headquarters of the special naval unit Shayetet 13 at the Atlit base, located south of Haifa. Additionally, an aerial assault was carried out with a group of attack drones on a gathering of soldiers in the settlement of Yeroam.”
Israeli media reported that there was a “power outage in several areas of Nahariya following the sound of sirens. This occurred after drone attacks and missile launches targeted Nahariya and the Galilee region from southern Lebanon. Additionally, a missile landed near a building in one of the towns in western Galilee.”
The Israeli military reported that it “detected the launch of 20 missiles from Lebanon, with some being intercepted, as well as four drones that were launched from Lebanon toward western Galilee in the morning.”


Young Libyans gear up for their first ever election

Young Libyans gear up for their first ever election
Updated 50 min 36 sec ago

Young Libyans gear up for their first ever election

Young Libyans gear up for their first ever election
  • Nearly 190,000 people are registered to vote in the areas where polling will take place
  • In Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, walls are covered with campaign posters of the candidates hoping to be elected

MISRATA, Libya: Young Libyans have mobilized for Saturday’s municipal elections, the first time many will vote in the fractured North African country where polls have been rare since Muammar Qaddafi’s 2011 overthrow.
“Elections are a new concept here,” said Radouane Erfida, 21, from Misrata, as he and other volunteers eagerly gave out leaflets and engaged with potential voters ahead of polling day.
“To help people accept and understand the process, we need awareness campaigns,” he told AFP.
The vast, oil-rich country of seven million people has struggled to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that put an end to four decades of rule under dictator Qaddafi.
Libya remains divided between a UN-recognized government based in the capital Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Although being held in fewer than half of the country’s municipalities — 58 out of 142 — it is the first election in a decade to be held simultaneously in both eastern and western Libya.
Nearly 190,000 people are registered to vote in the areas where polling will take place.
In Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, walls are covered with campaign posters of the candidates hoping to be elected.
“Your voice builds your municipality,” reads one placard put up by the High National Election Commission, which staged its own campaign to encourage a high turnout.
For Mohammed Al-Moher, a 25-year-old volunteer, restoring hope in Libya’s democratic process is essential.
“We are trying, through these elections and those to come, to revive people’s dreams... and to ensure that they go to the polls again and choose candidates whose vision matches theirs,” he told AFP.
Libya held its first free and fair elections in 2012 following an uprising inspired by the Arab Spring, which saw the end of more than 40 years under Qaddafi.
After two elections considered to have been successful, parliamentary elections in June 2014 were marred by a very low turnout because of ongoing violence.
There have been several municipal elections between 2019 and 2021 in a handful of cities, including the western city of Tripoli.
Presidential and parliamentary elections that had aimed to unify the fractured country were scheduled for late 2021 but then postponed indefinitely.
The Tripoli-based administration is headed by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, while in the east, parliament under the Haftar administration is based in Tobruk.
“We are tired of seeing old people monopolize politics. It’s time young people became involved in something other than the battlefield,” said Nouh Zagout, 29, a candidate in Misrata.
The country’s youth “have both the knowledge and the necessary ability to make a significant contribution to political life,” the pharmacist said.
But young Libyans who aspired to a seat at the table “are subject to a lot of criticism, particularly from their elders who judge them incapable of leading these institutions.”
Such attitudes, he said, are precisely what motivated him to stand for election.


Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders killed in Israel strike on Syria: source

Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders killed in Israel strike on Syria: source
Updated 16 November 2024

Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders killed in Israel strike on Syria: source

Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders killed in Israel strike on Syria: source
  • Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya
  • Israeli authorities, who rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, claimed responsibility for the one on Thursday, saying they targeted Islamic JihaD

GAZA STRIP: Two senior Islamic Jihad figures were killed in an Israeli strike on Syria on Thursday, said a source from the Palestinian group which has fought against Israel in Gaza alongside Hamas.
The source told AFP on Saturday that Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.
The same source said the strike, targeting a building housing one of the group’s offices in Syria, also killed another Islamic Jihad member.
Israeli authorities, who rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, claimed responsibility for the one on Thursday, saying they targeted Islamic Jihad.
Contacted by AFP on Saturday, Israel’s army however declined to comment on the two leaders’ deaths.
Israeli strikes on Thursday in and around Damascus killed 23 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
Thirteen people, including civilians and Iran-backed fighters, were killed in a strike on the upscale Damascus district of Mazzeh, the Observatory said, adding that an attack on the capital’s outskirts killed 10 Islamic Jihad militants.
Syrian state media said Israel struck the Mazzeh district again on Friday.
Attacks blamed on or claimed by Israel have intensified in Syria, including in areas near the Lebanese border, mainly targeting bastions of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. Earlier this week, the group released two video clips of Sasha Trupanov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli hostage.