Yemen’s Houthis vows revenge for US, UK airstrikes

Yemen’s Houthis vows revenge for US, UK airstrikes
Houthi movement supporters rally to denounce air strikes launched by the U.S. and Britain on Houthi targets, in Sanaa, Yemen January 12, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 13 January 2024
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Yemen’s Houthis vows revenge for US, UK airstrikes

Yemen’s Houthis vows revenge for US, UK airstrikes
  • US and allies carried out attacks on more than 60 targets in Houthi-controlled regions on Friday

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen's Houthi militias on Friday vowed vengeance against US and UK airstrikes on regions under their control in reaction to their Red Sea raids.

This comes as hundreds of Houthi sympathizers took to the streets of Sanaa and other northern Yemeni provinces to condemn the attacks and show solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the UK and US carried out 73 airstrikes on different locations in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Taiz, Hajjah, and Saada on Friday morning, killing five of their troops and injuring six more.

He vowed to strike back at US and UK targets in the Red Sea or on land.

“The American and British enemies hold full responsibility for their illegal attack on our Yemeni people, and it will not go unanswered or unpunished. Yemen's military forces will not hesitate to attack danger sources and hostile targets on land and at sea in defense of Yemen, its sovereignty, and its independence,” Sarea said in a broadcast statement.

The US Central Command said on Friday that it has carried out attacks on more than 60 targets in Houthi-controlled regions, including command centers, munition depots, launching systems, industrial facilities, and air defense radar systems.

People in Sanaa, Hodeidah, and Taiz reported hearing massive explosions and enormous balls of flames billowing from Houthi military installations when the US and UK started hitting them at about 2.45 a.m. (local time).

The operations were carried out in reprisal for more than 20 Houthi missile and drone assaults on commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis claim to be targeting only Israeli-linked vessels sailing to Israel in order to push Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, head of the group’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, called the airstrikes "barbaric and terrorist," and said that the militia will react against the two nations and continue to block the Red Sea in front of all Israel-bound ships in support of Palestine.

“The American-British attacks are barbaric, terrorist, and unjustifiable action that reveals a cruel psyche,” Al-Houthi said in a post on X.

Mohammed Abdul Sallam, the top Houthi negotiator, reiterated condemnation of the UK and US bombings, reaffirming the militia's assertions that they were solely targeting Israeli ships and not endangering Red Sea security.

“They committed foolishness with this treacherous aggression, and they were mistaken if they believed it would prevent Yemen from backing Palestine and Gaza. Yemen maintains its religious and humanitarian position and will do all possible to support Gaza,” Abdul Sallam said on X.

At the same time, the airstrikes sparked bitter debate in Yemen, primarily among Houthi opponents, with some Yemenis strongly supporting the airstrikes and calling for the Houthi to be expelled from areas under their control in Yemen, while others saw the airstrikes as an aggression that would fuel instability in Yemen.

Kamel Al-Khodani, a Houthi critic, backed the bombings and advocated for more ground military actions to drive the Houthis out of Hodeidah and the other Yemeni provinces under their control.

“In the same way that you seek to eliminate the Houthi threat and its threat to international navigation, we seek to eliminate its dangers and crimes against us, and just as you seek to liberate the sea and protect your interests, we seek to liberate the land and protect our regions,” Al-Khodani said on x, that irritated Houthi sympathizers.

Despite being sentenced to death in absentia by a Houthi court for backing the Yemeni government, Yemeni MP Mohammed Nasser Al-Hazmi condemned the airstrikes, calling them an act of aggression against Yemen.

“Attacking any part of Yemen is deemed a clear and condemnable enmity, and no sensible person would support it,” Al-Hazmi said.

Yemen's government blamed Houthi assaults on ships in the Red Sea for prompting the US and UK to strike Yemen, accusing them of using the Gaza crisis for propaganda purposes.

Yemeni political experts say that the airstrikes were intended to convey a message of deterrence to the Houthis and would not eliminate Houthi threats to Red Sea international navigation traffic.

Maged Al-Madhaji, chairman of the Sanaa Center For Strategic Studies, said on X that airstrikes had already destroyed expectations of attaining peace in Yemen, and the trajectory of the situation in Yemen was dependent on "imminent" Houthi reprisal assaults.

“The US-UK strikes will not undermine the Houthis' ability to pose a threat in the Red Sea. Nonetheless, it's a calculated message of deterrence. The scale and scope of any subsequent strikes will expand depending on the Houthi response, which seems imminent,” Al-Madhaji said.


UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
Updated 22 November 2024
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UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013

UNITED NATIONS: The arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza does not bar UN officials from meeting with him in the course of their work, the UN said Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started as a result of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, although there have been contacts with the Israeli leader by UN officials in the region.
Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel, which accuses him of being biased in favor of the Palestinians. So talks between him and Netanyahu are very unlikely.
After the warrants issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013.
“The rule is that there should not be any contacts between UN officials and individuals subject to arrest warrants,” Dujarric said.
But limited contacts are allowed “to address fundamental issues, operational issues, and our ability to carry out our mandates,” he added.
In late October, at a summit of the BRICS countries in Russia, Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICP over the war in Ukraine.
That meeting, during which Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Russian invasion, angered Ukraine.


Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
Updated 22 November 2024
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Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
  • Palestinian Authority calls on UN member states to ensure the warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who are accused of war crimes, are acted upon
  • The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, says decision is ‘binding’ on all members of the International Criminal Court

LONDON: Palestinians welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant.

The Palestinian Authority said the court’s decision comes as Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza in a conflict that has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, and it hopes the ruling will help to restore faith in international law, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Netanyahu and Gallant are the first leading officials from a nation allied with the West against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants since the court was established in July 2002. It also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli authorities said in August he was killed by their forces in an attack the previous month, though Hamas have not confirmed this.

All three men are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their actions during the war in Gaza or the Oct. 7 attacks.

The PA said the decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant was important because Palestinians “are being subjected to genocide and war crimes, represented by starvation as a method of warfare,” as well as mass displacement and collective punishment.

The PA, which signed up to the ICC in 2015, called on all UN member states to ensure the warrants are acted upon and to “cut off contact and meetings with the international wanted men, Netanyahu and Gallant.” Israel is not a member of the ICC.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, posted a message on social media platform X on Thursday in which he described the court’s decisions as “binding” on all those who have signed up to it.

“These decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), which includes all EU member states,” he wrote.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has spent 17 years in office during three spells in charge since 1996, denounced the decision by the ICC to issue the warrant as “antisemitic.”

He said it would “have serious consequences for the court and those who will cooperate with it in this matter.”


Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border
Updated 21 November 2024
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Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

Between bomb craters: Taxis stuck on war-hit Lebanon-Syria border

MASNAA, Lebanon: Stuck in no man’s land on the war-hit Lebanon-Syria border, cab driver Fadi Slika now scrapes a living ferrying passengers between two deep craters left by Israeli air strikes.

The journey is just 2 km, but Slika has no other choice — his taxi is his only source of income.

“My car is stuck between craters: I can’t reach Lebanon or return to Syria. Meanwhile, we’re under threat of (Israeli) bombardment,” said the 56-year-old.

“I work and sleep here between the two holes,” he said.

A dual Lebanese-Syrian national, Slika has been living in his car, refusing to abandon it when it broke down until a mechanic brought a new engine.

His taxi is one of the few that has been operating between the two craters since Israeli strikes in October effectively blocked traffic on the Masnaa crossing.

The bombed area has become a boon for drivers of tuk-tuks, who can navigate the craters easily. 

A makeshift stall, the Al-Joura (pit in Arabic) rest house, and a shop are set up nearby.

Slika went for 12 days without work while waiting for his taxi to be fixed. The car has become his home. A warm blanket covers its rear seats against eastern Lebanon’s cold winters, and a big bag of pita bread sits on the passenger side.

Before being stranded, Slika made about $100 for trips from Beirut to Damascus.

Now, an average fare between the craters is just $5.50 each way, though he said he charged more.

On Sept. 23, Israel intensified its aerial bombing of Lebanon and later sent in ground troops, nearly a year after Hezbollah initiated limited exchanges of fire in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war.

Since then, Israel has bombed several land crossings with Syria out of service. 

It accuses Hezbollah of using what are key routes for people fleeing the war in Lebanon to transfer weapons from Syria.

Amid the hardship of the conflict, more than 610,000 people have fled from Lebanon to Syria, mostly Syrians, according to Lebanese authorities.

Undeterred by attacks, travelers still trickle through Masnaa, traversing the two craters that measure about 10 meters deep and 30 meters wide.

On the other side of the road, Khaled Khatib, 46, was fixing his taxi, its tires splattered with mud and hood coated in dust.

“After the first strike, I drove from Syria and parked my car before the crater. When the second strike hit, I got stuck between the two holes,” he said, sweat beading as he looked under the hood.

“We used to drive people from Damascus to Beirut. Now, we take them from one crater to another.”

Khatib doesn’t charge passengers facing tough times, he said, adding he had been displaced from southern Beirut, hammered by Israeli raids since September. He moved back to his hometown near the Masnaa crossing.

Despite harsh times, a sense of camaraderie reigns.

The drivers “became like brothers. We eat together at the small stall every day ... and we help each other fix our cars,” he said.

Mohamed Yassin moved his coffee stall from the Masnaa crossing closer to the pit after the strike, offering breakfast, lunch, and coffee. “We try to help people as much as possible,” he said.

Farther from the Lebanese border, travelers crossed the largest of the two crevasses, wearing plastic coverings on their shoes to avoid slipping in the mud.

A cab driver on a mound called out, “Taxi to Damascus!” while tuk-tuks and trucks ferried passengers, bags, and mattresses across.

Nearby, Aida Awda Mubarak, a Syrian mother of six, haggled with a tuk-tuk driver over the $1 fare.

The 52-year-old said she was out of work and needed to see her son after the east Lebanon town where he lives was hit by Israeli strikes.

“Sometimes we just can’t afford to pay for a tuk-tuk or a cab,” she said.


Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself

Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself
Updated 21 November 2024
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Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself

Netanyahu says ICC warrant won’t stop Israel defending itself
  • “No outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us — and it will not prevent me — from continuing to defend our country in every way,” Netanyahu said
  • The premier is accused alongside his former defense minister Yoav Gallant of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity“

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court over his conduct of the Gaza war would not stop him defending Israel.
“No outrageous anti-Israel decision will prevent us — and it will not prevent me — from continuing to defend our country in every way,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “We will not yield to pressure,” he vowed.
The premier is accused alongside his former defense minister Yoav Gallant of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
He described Thursday’s decision as a “dark day in the history of nations.”
“The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was established to protect humanity, has today become the enemy of humanity,” he said, adding that the accusations were “utterly baseless.”
Israel has been fighting in Gaza since October 2023, when a cross-border attack by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Its retaliatory campaign has led to the deaths of 44,056 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
UN agencies have warned of a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including possible famine, due to a lack of food and medicines.
The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Netanyahu said the court was accusing Israel of “fictitious crimes,” while ignoring “the real war crimes, horrific war crimes being committed against us and against many others around the world.”
In addition to Netanyahu and Gallant, the court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military wing chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel said was killed in an air strike last July.
Hamas has never confirmed his death.
Netanyahu mocked the court’s decision to issue a warrant for “the body of Mohammed Deif.”


Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant

Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant
Updated 21 November 2024
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Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant

Italy says would have to arrest Netanyahu after ICC warrant
  • Crosetto believed the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas
  • It was not a political choice but Italy was bound as a member of the ICC to act on the court’s warrants

ROME: Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Thursday his country would be obliged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant.
The ICC earlier also issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
Crosetto — whose country holds the G7 rotating presidency this year — told RAI television’s Porta a Porta program that he believed the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas.
But he said that if Netanyahu or Gallant “were to come to Italy, we would have to arrest them.”
It was not a political choice but Italy was bound as a member of the ICC to act on the court’s warrants, Crosetto said.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had earlier been more cautious, saying: “We support the ICC, while always remembering that the court must play a legal role and not a political role.
“We will evaluate together with our allies what to do and how to interpret this decision.”