Houthis Intensify Campaign of Arrests in Sanaa

Protesters demonstrate in Taiz (Reuters)
Protesters demonstrate in Taiz (Reuters)
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Houthis Intensify Campaign of Arrests in Sanaa

Protesters demonstrate in Taiz (Reuters)
Protesters demonstrate in Taiz (Reuters)

In an unprecedented security deployment, Houthi security forces have spread throughout Sanaa, intensifying a campaign of arrests against individuals suspected of participating in celebrations marking the anniversary of the September 26 Revolution.

The group threatened opposition figures while its supporters continued their campaign against Yemeni women, accusing them of being agents.

Local sources and residents in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis had closed the Sabeen Square, which is one of Sanaa's largest squares and a significant place for youth and military displays.

The Houthi forces have deployed armed units throughout various districts of the capital and pursued young individuals accused of participating in the September 26 Revolution anniversary celebrations. They arrested numerous individuals, including teenagers.

According to sources, Houthis promised to release detainees under fourteen years of age after detaining them for several days. However, the rest of the prisoners will be referred to intelligence agencies for investigation, sparking fears of torture.

Houthi media continues its campaign against celebration participants, particularly in Sanaa and Ibb.

Local sources reported that opposition figures received death threats for calling for the release of detainees.

- The government denounces

Yemen's Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism Moammar al-Eryani condemned the Houthi smear campaign against Yemeni women who took to Sanaa streets, raising flags and chanting national slogans, in celebration of the 61st anniversary of the September 26 Revolution.

Eryani said the campaign revealed the "true and ugly face of the militia and its disavowal of all values ​​and customs."

The Minister noted that Yemeni women suffered unprecedented pains since the Houthi militia's coup in 2015, as thousands of women were abducted from their homes, workplaces, public streets, and checkpoints.

The Yemeni Minister warned of Houthi "brainwashing" attempts through media, platforms, and cultural policies implemented in schools and universities.

The attempts aim to "limit the role of women to be a reproductive role driven by the idea of ​​jihad and providing child soldiers who use them as fuel for their endless wars, and pushes women to retreat to home."

The Minister characterized Houthi group policies as "destructive policies for the society that extend to future generations, and with which they lead Yemen in the footsteps of the Taliban and other terrorist groups to threaten not only the peace of Yemen but the security and peace of the entire world."

Eryani criticized restricting women's movement and freedom by preventing their movement between governorates and their travel through Sanaa airport without a mahram, a male relative escort.

He stated that the Houthis prohibited them from working with organizations, using telephones and cosmetics, and going to restaurants without showing the marriage contract, and sitting in public places.

- Diverse violations

The Minister highlighted Houthi practices against women, stating that they mobilized and recruited hundreds of women, blackmailed them for their livelihoods, and integrated them into their security apparatus known as al-Zainabiyat.

He called on the international community, the UN, its special envoy to Yemen, and human and women's rights organizations to assume their part in stopping ongoing Houthi violations against Yemeni women.

According to him, they constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and a flagrant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination against Women.

Eryani emphasized the need to work immediately to release all abducted and forcibly disappeared women, prosecute those involved in crimes and violations against Yemeni women, and include the militia and its leaders on terrorist lists.



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.