Houthi fighters march during a rally. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

READ MORE

Zurich:

The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive an air strike on Yemen’s main airport carried out by Israel a day earlier during a series of attacks on the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

Speaking after his ordeal at the Sanaa International Airport on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the explosions that rocked the building were so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later.

Tedros said it quickly became apparent the airport was under attack, describing people “running in disarray” through the site after approximately four blasts, one of them “alarmingly” close to where he was sitting near the departure lounge.

“I was not sure actually I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were,” he told Reuters. “A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.”

Tedros said he and his colleagues were stuck at the airport for the next hour or so as what he thought were drones flew overhead, feeding concern they could open fire again. Among the debris, he and colleagues saw missile fragments, he said.

“There (was) no shelter at all. Nothing. So you’re just exposed, just waiting for anything to happen,” he said.

The Israeli strikes on Yemen came after Houthis repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel was “just getting started” with the Houthis.

The Houthi-controlled Saba News Agency said three people died in the strikes on the airport and three were killed in Hodeidah, with 40 others wounded in the attacks.

Speaking by telephone from Jordan, where he flew on Friday, helping to evacuate a U.N. colleague seriously injured at the airport for further medical treatment, Tedros said he had received no warning Israel could be about to strike the airport.

The injured man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service, was now “OK” and in a stable condition, he said.

Tedros traveled to Yemen over Christmas to try to negotiate the release of UN staff and others held there. He acknowledged that he and colleagues knew the trip was risky in light of high tension between Israel and the Houthis.

But such was the window of opportunity to work for the release of the UN personnel that they believed they had to take it, said Tedros, a former Ethiopian foreign minister.

He said talks with Yemeni authorities had gone well and that he saw a chance that the 16 UN staff as well as employees of diplomatic missions and NGO workers held there could be freed.

He declined to engage in recriminations over the attack but said his itinerary had been shared publicly and expressed surprise that civilian infrastructure should have been targeted.

“So a civilian airport should be protected, whether I am in it or not,” he said, before observing there was “nothing special” about what he had faced in Yemen. “One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. I’m just one human being. So I feel for those who are facing the same thing every single day. But at least it allowed me to feel the way they feel.”

“I’m worried about our world, where it’s heading,” Tedros added, urging world leaders to work together to end global conflicts. “I have never … as far as I can remember, seen the world really being in such a very dangerous state.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

According to Houthi rebels, an air strike hit Yemen’s capital on Friday.

Sanaa:

Yemen’s Huthi rebels said Wednesday that they had fired a ballistic missile and two drones at Israel, days after an attack on Tel Aviv wounded 16 people.

Israel’s military said it intercepted the missile and that one drone “fell in an open area” after sirens sounded in the country’s south, near the Gaza Strip.

“The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out two military operations” targeting Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv and the southern city of Ashkelon, a Huthi military statement said.

The missile was also aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Huthis announced earlier. The Israelis said it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory.

A Huthi military statement said the attack was carried out “using a hypersonic ballistic missile, type Palestine 2”.

The Iran-backed Huthis have repeatedly launched missiles at Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians since the war in Gaza erupted more than a year ago.

Most have been intercepted, but on Saturday an attack that hit Tel Aviv wounded 16 people, prompting a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We will act against the Huthis… with force, determination and sophistication,” he said in a video statement on Sunday.

In the missile attack on Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded over a wide swathe of central Israel as a precaution against falling debris.

“A missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.

No injuries were reported, according to Israel’s emergency medical services.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen.

In July, a Huthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Huthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes by US and sometimes British forces.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday (December 1, 2024) it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into Gaza because of the threat of armed gangs who have looted recent convoys.

The decision could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as the cold, rainy winter sets in, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent camps and reliant on international food aid. Experts were already warning of famine in the territory’s north, which Israeli forces have almost completely isolated since early October.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel is too dangerous on the Gaza side. Armed men looted nearly 100 trucks travelling on the route in mid-November, and he said gangs stole a smaller shipment on Saturday (November 30, 2024).

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least six people overnight, including two young children who died in the tent where their family was sheltering, medical officials said Sunday (December 1, 2024).

The strike in the Muwasi area, a sprawling tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also wounded the children’s mother and their sibling, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital saw the bodies.

A separate strike in the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, killed four men, according to hospital records.

‘Not aware of strikes’

The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in either location. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its daily strikes across Gaza often kill women and children.

In a separate development, a projectile fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen set off air raid sirens in central Israel. The Israeli military said it intercepted the projectile before it entered Israeli territory.

A former top Israeli general and Defence Minister has accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been waging the latest in a series of offensives against Hamas since early October.

The army has sealed off the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and the Jabaliya refugee camp, and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter. Tens of thousands of people have fled, while the United Nations estimates up to 75,000 remain and experts have warned of famine.

Moshe Yaalon, who served as Defense Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu before quitting in 2016 and emerging as a fierce critic of the prime minister, said the current far-right government is determined to “occupy, to annex, to ethnically cleanse.”

Pressed by an interviewer with a local news outlet on Saturday (November 30, 2024), he said: “There is no Beit Lahiya. No Beit Hanoun. (They are) operating now in Jabaliya, and (they) are actually cleaning the territory of Arabs.”

Yaalon doubled down on the remarks Sunday (December 1, 2024) in an interview with Israeli radio, saying “war crimes are being committed here.”

Netanyahu’s Likud party criticized his earlier remarks, accusing him of making “false statements” that are “a prize for the International Criminal Court and the camp of Israel haters.”

The ICC has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, another former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander, accusing them of crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations of genocide against Israel.

Israel rejects the allegations and says both courts are biased against it.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around people 250 hostages. Some 100 captives are still being held inside Gaza, around two-thirds of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands have crammed into squalid tent camps, where conditions have worsened as the cold, wet winter sets in.

Ceasefire

Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants last week that has largely held, but that agreement, brokered by the United States and France, did not address the ongoing war in Gaza. Iran — which supports Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and armed groups in Syria and Iraq — has exchanged fire with Israel twice this year.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent much of the past year trying to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages, but those efforts stalled as Israel rejected Hamas’ demand for a complete withdrawal from the territory. The Biden administration has said it will make another push for a deal in its final weeks in office.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the wars in the Middle East, without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians during his previous term.

Washington:

US forces on Friday hit 15 targets in Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen, the US military said.

Four provinces were struck, the Iran-backed rebels’ Al Masirah television network reported.

The United States and Britain have repeatedly carried out strikes aimed at curbing the Huthis’ ability to target shipping, but the rebels’ attacks on merchant vessels transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have persisted.

“US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted strikes on 15 Huthi targets in Iranian-backed Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen today,” the military command responsible for US forces in the Middle East said on social media.

“These targets included Huthi offensive military capabilities,” CENTCOM said, adding that the strikes were carried out “to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  merchant vessels.”

Al Masirah — which said both the United States and Britain struck Yemen on Friday — had earlier reported four strikes on Sanaa and seven on Hodeida. AFP correspondents heard loud explosions in both cities.

At least one strike each hit Dhamar, south of the capital, and Mukayras, southeast of Sanaa, Al Masirah said.

The Huthis have been hitting shipping since November, saying that attacks, which have disrupted maritime traffic in a globally important waterway, target vessels linked to Israel and are intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war.

– Huthi attacks on Israel –

Israel has also struck Yemen in response to Huthi attacks. Israeli strikes on Hodeida last month killed at least five people after the rebels said they had targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a missile.

The US strikes took place a day after the rebels said they carried out a drone attack on Tel Aviv. The Israeli military said it had intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” overnight off central Israel, without giving further details.

On Wednesday, the Huthis said they had fired cruise missiles at Israel, following Iran’s massive bombardment of the country.

The day before, the Huthis damaged two ships in separate attacks off Yemen’s coast.

One ship was hit by a marine drone, puncturing a ballast tank, while a second vessel was damaged by a missile less than three hours later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

The Huthis, who have controlled large swaths of war-torn Yemen for a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran-linked groups arrayed against Israel and the United States.

The latest strikes came as thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Sanaa to express solidarity with Palestinians and Lebanese amid attacks by Israel.

“The aggression on the capital and Yemeni governorates after the…solidarity marches with Lebanon and Gaza is a desperate attempt to terrorize our people,” Huthi official Hashem Sharaf al-Din told Al Masirah.

“Yemen will not be deterred by these attacks and will continue its steadfastness in confronting the enemies with all its strength,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

The Israeli military said on Sunday it was striking several Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, including power stations and a seaport, using dozens of aircraft.

The strikes came a day after the Iran-backed rebel group said it targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a missile.

“In a large-scale air operation today, dozens of Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelling planes, and reconnaissance aircraft, attacked military-use targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Ras Issa and Hodeida areas of Yemen,” military spokesman Captain David Avraham said in a statement to AFP.

“The IDF (military) targeted power stations and a seaport used for oil imports,” a military statement said.

In July Israel also hit Hodeida port, causing what a port official said was at least $20 million in damage, after a Houthi drone strike penetrated Israel’s air defences and killed a civilian in Tel Aviv.

The sites targeted Sunday were used by the Houthis, who seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, to “transfer Iranian weaponry to the region and supplies for military needs”, the statement said.

“The strike was carried out in response to recent attacks by the Huthi regime against the state of Israel,” it added, after the rebels said they tried to hit Ben Gurion as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived back from New York.

The Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah station reported Sunday that Israeli strikes targeted “the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa” as well as two power stations after previously announcing “Israeli aggression on Hodeida”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)