AL-MUKALLA: Hans Grundberg, the UN envoy to Yemen, has reiterated his call on the Houthis to release abducted UN agency employees, alongside members of international human rights and aid organizations, and members of Yemeni civil society.
Grundberg’s office announced on Tuesday that he had returned from a visit to Egypt, where he discussed peace efforts in Yemen, the Houthis’ abduction of Yemeni workers with UN agencies, international organizations, and diplomatic missions, as well as their decision to prosecute them, and the militia’s attacks on ships with Egyptian officials and Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
“He voiced serious concern regarding the recent referrals of certain detainees to 'criminal prosecution’ and renewed his urgent call for their immediate and unconditional release, stressing that such actions erode trust and jeopardize the broader peace process,” Grundberg’s office said in a statement.
The Houthis have abducted at least 70 Yemeni employees from US agencies in Yemen, foreign diplomatic missions, and international development and aid organizations in Sanaa and other militia-controlled Yemeni cities, sparking international outrage and condemnation.
The Houthis ignored calls for the release of the abducted workers, accusing them of using their work with aid organizations to spy for the US and Israel.
Yemeni human rights activists and lawyers said last week that the Houthis would begin prosecuting six former and current Yemeni employees of the US Embassy in Sanaa, the US-funded USAID, and an American English Language Institute who were abducted in 2021.
The Yemeni Journalists’ Syndicate said on Monday that the Houthis have forcibly disappeared Mohammed Al-Mayahi, who was abducted from his home in September, and have refused to provide information about his health or allow people to see or contact him.
The syndicate said that the Houthis subjected Al-Mayahi to “retaliatory measures” for criticizing them, and demanded that they release him and other journalists in their custody.
“The syndicate expresses its deep concern about journalist Al-Mayahi’s disappearance and other forcibly disappeared journalists, and calls for an end to the ongoing disappearances and their immediate release,” it said in a statement.
In another development, the militia claimed on Tuesday to have launched a “hypersonic” ballistic missile at Israel’s capital, an attack that the Israeli military has not confirmed.
Yahya Sarea, a Houthi military spokesperson, said in a televised statement that their missile forces fired a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile at a military base in Tel Aviv, claiming that the missile reached its targets after “evading” US and Israeli air defenses.
He said that the missile attacks on Tel Aviv are in support of the people of Lebanon and Palestine against Israel, and vowed to continue attacking Israeli cities until Israel ceases military operations in the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
Israel’s military reported no new attacks on Israeli cities by the Houthis on Tuesday.
Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship and its crew, sunk two others, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at commercial and military vessels in international shipping lanes off Yemen, as well as missiles and drones at Israeli cities, in what the militia claims is a campaign to put pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza.
Two missile and drone attacks on Israeli cities prompted the Israeli military to launch retaliatory airstrikes on power stations, ports, and fuel storage tankers in the Houthi-held city of Hodeidah in July and September.
Despite repeated threats to escalate their attacks on ships, UK marine security agencies that document Houthi attacks have not reported any new attacks in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden since Oct. 10, indicating another lull in Houthi attacks.
