Houthi leader defies Red Sea de-escalation calls, threatens to fight US-led troops
Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi: What we had hoped for from the beginning was that the fight would be fought directly between us and the Americans and Israelis
Houthi Supreme Political Council also reiterated threats to strike US-led troops in the Red Sea if they impeded them from targeting ships
Updated 20 December 2023
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA: The leader of the Houthi militia in Yemen, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, vowed on Wednesday that his troops would continue to attack any Israel-bound ships traveling in the Red Sea until Israel lifts its blockade of Gaza and to fight US-led coalition forces, disregarding international calls for de-escalation and the release of captured ships.
The Houthis’ leader slammed the UK, France, Germany, and Italy for joining the US-led coalition.
“We will not sit quietly by if the Americans go further and commit folly by targeting or attacking our nation,” the Houthi leader said in a televised speech.
“What we loved most, and what we had hoped for from the beginning, was that the fight would be fought directly between us and the Americans and Israelis,” he said.
The Houthi Supreme Political Council also reiterated threats to strike US-led troops in the Red Sea if they impeded them from targeting ships, branding the move as a “hostile act” intended to defend Israel and militarize the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
“We emphasize that the Republic of Yemen is concerned with protecting itself and that any assault or effort to prevent us from carrying out our religious and humanitarian obligation to help and support our people in Palestine would be faced with a harsh reaction,” the Houthi council said in a statement.
The Houthis have launched ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel, as well as targeted ships in the Red Sea that are alleged to be going to Israel.
The Houthi raids led the US to form a multinational task force to protect the Red Sea against the militia’s attacks.
International shipping companies have announced that they would reroute their ships from the Red Sea to avoid Houthi assaults.
The Houthis hijacked a vehicle cargo ship dubbed Galaxy Leader and its 25-member crew on Nov. 19 and moored it off Yemen’s western city of Hodeidah.
The Houthi vow to continue targeting ships came less than a day after the EU, NATO, and other nations, as well as Yemen, criticized the militia’s threats to Red Sea maritime traffic and asked them to free the crew of the hijacked ship.
“We again call on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader crew and ship immediately and to cease additional attacks on commercial vessels in the region’s vital waterways,” the countries, also including Japan, Liberia, New Zealand, and Singapore, said in their joint statement.
At the same time, neither the UK Marine Trade Operations nor the US Central Command reported any fresh incidents in the Red Sea on Wednesday.
Despite the quiet period, Elisabeth Kendall, Middle East expert and head of Girton College, University of Cambridge, said that Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea will most likely continue despite the presence of international coalition forces and that the Houthis are currently examining the US and its allies’ red lines and will adjust their attacks accordingly.
“The Houthis will probably try to avoid deliberately destroying ships and killing crew because they do not want to provoke direct war. However, they could do so by accident or miscalculation, which is the main danger,” Kendall said.
Kendall thinks that the US, on the other hand, will try to avoid sparking another Middle Eastern crisis and will instead focus on mobilizing forces in the Red Sea and maybe launching “limited” assaults on targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen.
“The US and allies do not want to become embroiled in another Middle East war,” said Kendall.
“Hence, they will likely follow two courses of action: beefing up the US-led international maritime force in the Red Sea and undertaking indirect measures of ‘hybrid’ war.
“There is also the possibility of limited and highly targeted strikes against Houthi military installations and launch sites.”
Sudan women facing ‘epidemic of sexual violence’: UN
Updated 24 sec ago
AFP
PORT SUDAN: The United Nations humanitarian chief raised the alarm on Monday over an “epidemic of sexual violence” against women in war-torn Sudan, saying the world “must do better.”
“I feel ashamed that we have not been able to protect you, and I feel ashamed for my fellow men for what they have done,” Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said on his first visit to Port Sudan.
The Red Sea city has become Sudan’s de facto capital since April 2023, when Khartoum was engulfed by war between the regular military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 11 million people and created what the UN says is the worst humanitarian crisis in recent memory.
Nearly 26 million people — around half the population — face the threat of mass starvation, as both warring sides have been accused of using hunger as a weapon of war.
During his visit, Fletcher met army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and discussed efforts to “increase the delivery of aid across borders and across conflict lines.”
Aid workers and humanitarian agencies say Burhan’s army-aligned government has enforced severe bureaucratic hurdles to their work.
At an event in a Port Sudan school to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Fletcher said the world “must do better” by the women of Sudan, who have been exposed to systematic sexual violence.
The UN’s independent international fact-finding mission for Sudan last month documented escalating sexual violence, including “rape, sexual exploitation and abduction for sexual purposes as well as allegations of enforced marriages and human trafficking.”
“The sheer scale of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission.
“The situation faced by vulnerable civilians, in particular women and girls of all ages, is deeply alarming and needs urgent address,” he added.
EU offers Morocco €200 million in quake reconstruction aid
Relations between Morocco and the EU are strained after the European Court of Justice annulled fishing and agricultural deals between the two parties over products from disputed Western Sahara
Updated 14 min 14 sec ago
Reuters
RABAT: The European Union plans to offer Morocco 200 million euros ($210 million) to help with post-earthquake reconstruction, EU commissioner for neighborhood and enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said on Monday, as the two parties navigate judicial headwinds.
The 6.8 magnitude quake, Morocco’s deadliest since 1960, struck on Sept. 8, 2023, killing more than 2,900 people and damaging vital infrastructure. Morocco said it would invest In a post-earthquake reconstruction plan that includes the upgrade of infrastructure in five years.
The EU will increase its total quake reconstruction aid to Morocco to 1 billion euros, Varhelyi told a press conference in Rabat following talks with foreign minister Nasser Bourita.
Morocco was a “reliable” partner, receiving 5.2 billion euros in EU investments over the last five years, he said.
Relations between Morocco and the EU are strained after the European Court of Justice annulled fishing and agricultural deals between the two parties over products from disputed Western Sahara.
The long-frozen conflict, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers Western Sahara its own territory, against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front independence movement, which seeks a separate state there.
Following the verdict, the European Council and the Commission said they attached “high value” to relations with Morocco.
The EU’s relationship with Morocco needs to be protected from judicial harassment, Bourita said, adding that “there will be no partnerships at the expense of Morocco’s territorial integrity.”
The challenges facing Morocco-EU relations contrast with the stronger economic and political ties Rabat has forged with Madrid and Paris, after the two former colonial powers backed a Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara. ($1 = 0.9499 euros)
‘Netanyahu is not Dreyfus,’ Palestinian envoy tells UN Security Council
Riyad Mansour rejects Israeli PM’s claim of antisemitism over ICC arrest warrant, says ‘either Gaza becomes the graveyard of international law or land of its resurrection’
US envoy warns annexation of West Bank and settlements in Gaza would create ‘new obstacles for Israel’s integration in the region’
NEW YORK CITY: The warrant issued last week by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has “nothing to do with his faith and everything to do with his crimes,” the Palestinian envoy to the UN told the Security Council on Monday.
Riyad Mansour urged council members to stand up to what he described as Netanyahu’s “diversions and distortions, to his smearing, his threats and his attacks.”
Netanyahu has denounced the ICC decision as “antisemitic,” comparing it to the Dreyfus affair in France more than a century ago. Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer of Jewish descent, was wrongfully convicted in 1894 of treason based on fabricated evidence.
“No, Netanyahu is not Dreyfus,” Mansour told the Security Council. “The ICC, the ICJ (International Court of Justice), this council and the General Assembly, the secretary-general and the United Nations are not antisemitic, and Netanyahu’s efforts to frame efforts to uphold international law as antisemitic must be firmly rebuked.”
The council must “act now to restore primacy to international law, to the humanitarian and human rights laws that Israel is shredding to the detriment of all,” he added.
He warned that the “genocide” in Gaza is transforming the Middle East for generations to come, with “the gravest” repercussions for the region and the wider world.
“This fire will devour everything in its path if it is not urgently stopped,” Mansour said, and so states are faced with a “quite simple” choice: defend the rule of international law or defend “the massacres perpetrated by this Israeli government.”
He called on politicians who have “difficulties making the right choice” to stop “playing political games with our people’s lives,” and added: “Our children should not be sacrificed for the sake of your political calculations and ambitions.”
Palestinians in Gaza are bracing themselves to endure another winter living in makeshift tents, besieged and bombed, without any of the essential infrastructure required to sustain life, while famine continues to loom over the war-ravaged enclave, Mansour warned.
“How much more suffering must they endure?” he asked. “Their agony must be brought to an end and life and hope must be restored. Israel’s war machine must be stopped in Palestine and in Lebanon. It is sowing the conditions of insecurity and hatred for decades.”
He urged council members not to allow “a solvable political conflict to be transformed into an eternal religious conflict. This would have terrible, unimaginable consequences for our region and the world.”
He added: “The fate of our region is being determined in Gaza: either Gaza becomes the graveyard of international law or the land of its resurrection.”
Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, told fellow council members that Washington remains opposed to the annexation of the West Bank and the construction of settlements in Gaza.
Such actions would breach international law, he said, “sow the seeds of further instability and create new obstacles to Israel’s full integration into the region.” He also expressed concern about the “increasing extremist-settler violence in the West Bank.”
But Wood reiterated that the US rejects the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and blames Hamas for the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement. He added that the militant group must not be “let off the hook.”
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy permanent representative, said: “The USA only demands, and continues to demand, that we all put pressure on Hamas,” yet it is “clear” that Israel’s plan is “to create yet another irreversible fact on the ground: a scorched, depopulated Gaza that has been emptied of Palestinians.”
He added: “How many more people need to die for Gaza to at last see peace? Or will the USA obstruct this until all the Palestinians have been exterminated and the question of the two-state solution falls away by itself?”
Moscow “will continue to insist on the adoption of the most decisive measures to stop the bloodshed in Gaza,” Polyanskiy said.
Those still in north Gaza ‘scavenging among the rubble’: UNRWA
‘There is no access to food and drinking water in besieged territory,’ spokeswoman says
Updated 41 min 51 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: With an intensive Israeli military operation in Gaza’s besieged north in its 50th day, remaining residents are left “scavenging among the rubble” for food, said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge.
The Israeli army announced it would intensify operations in the ravaged north of the territory on Oct. 6, with troops encircling the northern city of Jabalia and adjacent areas at the time.
Speaking from Gaza City, where many of the north’s residents have fled since the operation began, Wateridge gave insights gleaned from talking to displaced Palestinians and colleagues from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
She said UNRWA estimates that between 100,000 and 130,000 people have fled north Gaza since the beginning of the operation, which Israel said aims to keep militants from regrouping in the area.
“There is no access to food, no access to drinking water. Eight of the UNRWA water wells in Jabalia stopped functioning weeks ago. They’ve been damaged and destroyed. They’ve run out of fuel.
“There were very horrific reports of continued strikes on hospitals, on shelters where people are.
“Here in Gaza City, I’m meeting people who have fled for their lives, and they’re showing me these appalling videos where they’re running through the streets, they’re navigating, you know, the rubble.
“There are bodies of children around them. There are bodies of people who have been killed everywhere that they have to walk and step over
to get out.
“Fifty days of siege, it’s unfathomable, the destruction, the death, the pain, the suffering that that will cause.
“I met some children just in the last few days; you can hear the planes going over, you can hear the drones, and they freeze, they completely freeze, they don’t have anything to say, their teeth start chattering, they’re absolutely paralyzed by fear from these experiences that they’ve had over the last few weeks.”
“(There are) around 65,000 people in these besieged areas. We hear that they are scavenging from residential buildings, scavenging among the rubble, trying to find any old tins of canned food, any kind of source of food already in these residential buildings or among the rubble.”
“It was around this time last year that there were reports from northern Gaza that was cut off, and people were going around. Our colleagues were going around eating animal food to stay alive. So, people are just eating anything that they can find at this point, and it really is complete survival.
“Hearing these stories of people’s families under the rubble and fleeing and having to leave them behind, people are traumatized, people who haven’t managed to escape, they’re absolutely traumatized.”
“(There are) around 100,000 to 130,000 more people forcibly displaced from Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and these besieged areas. And... they’re arriving (in Gaza City) to charcoal buildings, blown out buildings, it’s raining, cold, and freezing.
“They don’t have mattresses, they don’t have tarps, they don’t have tents, they don’t have blankets, families are crying, begging because their children don’t have clothes, they don’t have warm clothes, babies don’t have anything to keep them warm.
“It’s beyond appalling, the conditions people are forced to live in here. So they’re among the rubble in these facilities that should be protected by international law.
“Horrific stories of tanks arriving, of strikes on the schools, and then people being forced to go back and shelter there because they simply don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Can Lebanon’s ancient cultural heritage be protected from war damage?
Countless historical landmarks face existential threat amid escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah
Preserving heritage fosters resilience, identity, and post-conflict recovery, say UNESCO and heritage advocates
Updated 33 min 51 sec ago
Robert Edwards
LONDON: Towering above the fertile Bekaa Valley, the Temple of Jupiter and Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek stand as monumental symbols of Roman power, while the ruins of Tyre echo the splendor of the Phoenician civilization.
Today, these UNESCO World Heritage sites, along with countless other historical landmarks, face a grave threat as the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters encroaches on Lebanon’s unique and ancient heritage.
After nearly a year of cross-border exchanges that began on Oct. 8, 2023, Israel suddenly escalated its campaign of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbeck on November 3, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
In recent weeks, Baalbek’s famed Roman temples, celebrated for their architectural sophistication and cultural fusion of East and West, have come dangerously close to being hit.
Although these structures have so far been spared direct strikes, adjacent areas have suffered, including a nearby Ottoman-era building. The city’s ruins, which have survived the test of time and the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, are now at significant risk.
The ancient city has suffered multiple airstrikes since evacuation orders were issued on Oct. 30 by Israel, which has designated the area a Hezbollah stronghold.
FASTFACTS
• UNESCO World Heritage sites in Baalbek and Tyre are at risk of direct hit or secondary damage under Israeli strikes.
• ALIPH has allocated $100,000 to shelter museum collections and support displaced heritage workers in Lebanon.
• Preserving heritage fosters resilience, identity, and post-conflict recovery, say UNESCO and heritage advocates.
The proximity of these airstrikes has left archaeologists and local authorities fearing that damage, whether intentional or collateral, could be irreversible. Even indirect blasts pose a serious risk, as reverberations shake these ancient stones.
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (L) and Director of the UNESCO Office in Beirut Costanza Farina (C) visit the Roman citadel of Baalbeck, in the Bekaa valley, on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
“The threats come from direct bombing and indirect bombing,” Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, a Lebanese archaeologist and founder of the non-governmental organization Biladi, told Arab News. “In both ways, cultural heritage is at huge risk.”
Reports indicate that hundreds of other Lebanese cultural and religious sites have been less fortunate. Several Muslim and Christian heritage buildings have been reduced to rubble in southern towns and villages under shelling and air attacks.
“Some of them are known and already registered in the inventory list and some of them unfortunately we know about them when they are destroyed and inhabitants share the photos of them,” said Farchakh Bajjaly.
The six columns of the Temple of Jupiter at the Roman citadel of Baalbeck, in the Lebanese Bekaa valley, on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
Many of these sites carry irreplaceable historical value, representing not only Lebanon’s heritage but also that of the broader Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions.
Baalbek’s origins stretch back to a Phoenician settlement dedicated to Baal, the god of fertility. Later known as Heliopolis under Hellenistic influence, the city reached its zenith under the Roman Empire.
The Temple of Jupiter, once adorned by 54 massive Corinthian columns, and the intricately decorated Temple of Bacchus, have attracted pilgrims and admirers across millennia.
Cultural heritage is a key reason people visit Lebanon. The cultural heritage of Lebanon is the cultural heritage of all humanity.
Valery Freland, ALIPH executive director
Tyre, equally revered, was a bustling Phoenician port where the rare purple dye from Murex sea snails was once crafted for royalty. The city is home to ancient necropolises and a Roman hippodrome, all of which have helped shape Lebanon’s historical identity.
Valery Freland, ALIPH executive director
Israel’s war against Hezbollah, once the most powerful non-state group in the Middle East, has thus far killed more than 3,200 people and displaced about a million more in Lebanon, according to local officials.
The Israeli military has pledged to end Hezbollah’s ability to launch rocket and other attacks into northern Israel, which has forced around 60,000 people to flee their homes near the Lebanon border.
On Oct. 23, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders near Tyre’s ancient ruins, and began striking targets in the vicinity.
Children displaced by conflict from south Lebanon play in the courtyard of the Azariyeh building complex where they are sheltering in central Beirut on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
The cultural devastation in southern Lebanon and Bekaa is not limited to UNESCO sites. Across these regions, many cultural heritage sites of local and national significance have been reduced to rubble.
“Cultural heritage sites that are located in the south or in the Bekaa and that are scattered all over the place … were razed and wiped out,” said Farchakh Bajjaly.
“When you can see the demolition of the villages in the south of Lebanon … the destruction of the cultural heritage is coming as collateral damage. The historical sites, the shrines or the castles, aren’t being spared at all.”
Tebnin/Toron castle in southern Lebanon (Shutterstock)
As a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention, Lebanon’s heritage should, in theory, be protected from harm during armed conflict. However, as Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada has appealed to UNESCO, these symbolic protections, like the Blue Shield emblem, have shown limited effectiveness.
In response to the escalation, the Geneva-based International Alliance for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Conflict Areas, known as ALIPH, has provided emergency funding to Lebanon, working alongside Biladi and the Directorate General of Antiquities.
With $100,000 in initial funding, ALIPH is sheltering museum collections across Lebanon and providing safe accommodation for displaced heritage professionals.
Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, a Lebanese archaeologist and founder of the non-governmental organization Biladi.
“We are ready to stand by our partners in Lebanon, just as we did after the 2020 Beirut explosion,” Valery Freland, ALIPH’s executive director, told Arab News.
“Our mission is to work in crisis areas… If we protect the cultural heritage now, it will be a way (to stop this becoming) another difficulty of the peacebuilding process.”
Documentation has also become a critical tool for preservation efforts, particularly for sites at risk of destruction. Biladi’s role has been to document what remains and, where possible, secure smaller objects.
A man checks the destruction at a factory targeted in an overnight Israeli airstrike in the town of Chouaifet south of Beirut on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
“Unfortunately we are not able to do any kind of preventive measures for the monuments for several reasons,” said Farchakh Bajjaly.
“One of the most obvious ones is due to the weapons that are being used. If the hit is a direct hit then there’s no purpose of taking any action. Nothing is surviving a direct hit.
“The only measures that we can do, as preventative measures … (are) to secure the storage of museums and to find ways to save the small items and shelter them from any vibrations and make sure storages are safe and secure.”
Map of Lebanon showing the number of people who have fled their homes by district as of October 13, according to the International Organization for Migration. (AFP)
Farchakh Bajjaly describes a “dilemma of horror” arising from the conflict. When the IDF issued its evacuation order for Baalbek, around 80,000 residents fled, with some seeking refuge within the temples themselves.
“The guards closed the gates and didn’t let anyone get in,” she said, explaining that, under the 1954 Hague Convention, using protected sites as shelters nullifies their protected status. “If people will take refuge in the temples, then it might be used by the Israeli army to target temples. Thereby killing the people and destroying the temples.”
The displacement of Baalbek’s residents has added to Lebanon’s swelling humanitarian crisis. With more than 1.2 million people displaced across the country due to the conflict, the city’s evacuation order has compounded local instability.
Historic ancient Roman Bacchus temple in Baalbek, Lebanon. (Shutterstock)
Despite the harrowing reality, Farchakh Bajjaly insists that preserving cultural heritage is not at odds with humanitarian goals. “Asking to save world heritage is in no way contradictory to saving people’s lives. They are complementary,” she said.
“It’s giving people a place to find their memories, giving them a sense of continuity when in war, usually, nothing remains the same.”
UNESCO has been actively monitoring the conflict’s impact on Lebanon’s heritage sites, using satellite imagery and remote sensing to assess visible damage.
Arch of Hadrian at the Al-Bass Tyre necropolis. UNESCO world heritage in Lebanon. (Shutterstock)
“UNESCO liaised with all state parties concerned, reminding (them of their) obligations under the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,” Nisrine Kammourieh, a spokesperson for UNESCO, told Arab News.
The organization is preparing for an emergency session of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property to potentially place Lebanon’s heritage sites on its International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection.
The importance of cultural preservation extends beyond mere aesthetics or academic interest. “It’s part of the resilience of the population, of the communities and it’s part of a solution afterward,” said ALIPH’s Freland.
Elke Selter, ALIPH’s director of programs, believes “protecting heritage is essential for what comes after. You cannot totally erase the traces of the past.”
Indeed, the preservation of Lebanon’s cultural heritage is as much about safeguarding identity and memory as it is about recovery.
“Imagine that your town is fully destroyed and you have to go back to something that was built two weeks ago; that is very unsettling in a way,” Selter told Arab News, noting that studies have shown how preserving familiar landmarks fosters a sense of belonging after displacement.
In the broader context of Lebanon’s recovery, cultural heritage can play a key role in economic revitalization, particularly through tourism.
“For Lebanon’s economy, that’s an important element and I think an important one for the recovery of the country afterwards,” said Selter. “Cultural heritage in Lebanon was one of the key reasons why people would visit Lebanon.”
The tragedy facing Lebanon’s heritage is also a global concern. “The cultural heritage of Lebanon is the cultural heritage of all humanity,” said Freland.
For Biladi and other heritage organizations, Lebanon’s current crisis offers a test of international conventions that aim to protect heritage in times of conflict.
“If the conventions are being applied, then cultural heritage will be saved,” said Farchakh Bajjaly. “Lebanon has become in this war a sort of a field where it’s possible to test if these conventions work.”
