UN Envoy Warns Resumption of War Remains Threat in Yemen Unless Parties Reach New Ceasefire Deal 

Hans Grundberg, the UN special representative for Yemen, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (AP)
Hans Grundberg, the UN special representative for Yemen, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (AP)
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UN Envoy Warns Resumption of War Remains Threat in Yemen Unless Parties Reach New Ceasefire Deal 

Hans Grundberg, the UN special representative for Yemen, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (AP)
Hans Grundberg, the UN special representative for Yemen, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (AP)

The United Nations' top official in Yemen warned Monday that the country will remain a powder keg for renewed war unless its rival factions work out a new cease-fire deal.

Hans Grundberg, the UN special representative for Yemen, told The Associated Press the situation in the conflict-stricken country is fragile nearly a year after the legitimate government and the Iranian-backed Houthi militias failed to renew a UN-brokered ceasefire.

The conflict has been restrained since then, with only sporadic clashes, but Grundberg said a resumption of all-out fighting is a threat.

“The risk of a flare-up is always there,” he said. “The situation remains fragile and will remain fragile until we have reached an agreement that offers a ceasefire agreement.”

The end to the ceasefire arrangement was a blow to UN efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the conflict, which has devastated the country and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

Yemen’s war began when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa in 2014, forcing the government to flee to the south and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, Grundberg noted Yemen's warring parties have separately been involved in peace efforts in recent months, but he said more effort is needed to establish a firm nationwide ceasefire and restart political talks on ending the conflict.

The envoy welcomed international and regional efforts to end the conflict. He said such efforts would help the UN to craft a proposal for a nationwide ceasefire and the start of political talks between Yemeni factions to end the war.

“There is a unity among the international actors on the need for the Yemeni conflict to be resolved, and also about the fact that the United Nations is the main the mediator,” Grundberg said.



Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Air Strike Kills 10, Including 7 Children

Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
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Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Air Strike Kills 10, Including 7 Children

Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
Relatives of victims from the Palestinian Al-Farra family pray near their covered bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, 11 April 2025. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD

Gaza's civil defense agency said a pre-dawn Israeli air strike on Friday killed 10 members of the same family, including seven children, in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the attack, adding in a separate statement that it had struck approximately 40 "terror targets" across Gaza over the past day, AFP reported.

Israel resumed intense strikes on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.

"Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis," agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Medics and rescuers transported the dead and injured to hospital in multiple ambulances, with several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, AFP footage of the aftermath showed.

Footage of the house showed a heavily destroyed structure, with mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal strewn across the site.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in Khan Yunis.

The civil defense agency also reported two people killed in an Israeli strike in the Al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

Early on Friday, the Israeli military issued an "urgent and serious" evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City.

The Israeli army “is operating with great force in your areas to destroy terrorist infrastructure. For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the known shelters in western Gaza City," Avichay Adraee, the military's Arabic-language spokesman, said on X.

"Overnight, the troops deepened ground activity in the Morag Corridor, while continuing operational activity in the area," a military statement said, referring to a new buffer zone between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Thursday that at least 1,522 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,886.