UN Secretary General Meets Alimi, Pledges Efforts to Renew Truce in Yemen

 Chairman of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 21, 2023. (AFP)
Chairman of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 21, 2023. (AFP)
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UN Secretary General Meets Alimi, Pledges Efforts to Renew Truce in Yemen

 Chairman of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 21, 2023. (AFP)
Chairman of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, addresses the 78th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 21, 2023. (AFP)

UN Secretary-General António Guterres pledged ‏to exert all efforts to renew the truce in Yemen, ‏restart the political process, and enable Yemenis to build ‏a state based on partnership and respect for human rights

During a meeting in New York with Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) President Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, Guterres renewed the ‏international organization's commitment to supporting the ‏ PLC and government, the official Yemeni news agency SABA reported.‏

Alimi said‏ that the ‏government is open to initiatives that could lead to a comprehensive ‏solution agreed upon at national, regional and international levels, ‏particularly to those respecting UN resolutions.

He praised the mediation efforts ‏led by Saudi Arabia and Oman to ‏renew the truce and launch a political process under UN auspices.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.