UNRWA: Israel is Using Advanced Weaponry in Jenin Operation

A group of Palestinians (rear) waits to leave from a hospital on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
A group of Palestinians (rear) waits to leave from a hospital on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
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UNRWA: Israel is Using Advanced Weaponry in Jenin Operation

A group of Palestinians (rear) waits to leave from a hospital on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
A group of Palestinians (rear) waits to leave from a hospital on the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank Roland Friedrich said Wednesday that Israel is “using advanced weaponry and warfare methods including airstrikes” in its “massive operation” in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces launched an operation in Jenin which Palestinian officials said killed 10 people, just days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in the Gaza Strip.

Friedrich said Jenin Camp is “nearly uninhabitable, with some 2,000 families displaced since mid-December.”

“UNRWA has been unable to provide full services to the camp in this time,” he said on X.

“The operation comes merely a week before implementation of Israeli legislation that severely undermines UNRWA’s operations in the West Bank, including coordination of humanitarian access,” he said.

“It also threatens to undermine the fragile ceasefire reached just days ago in Gaza,” Friedrich added.



Trump Designates Yemen's Houthis as Foreign Terrorist Organization

Houthi supporters shout slogans while holding their weapons and pictures of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi during a pro-Palestinian rally following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in Sanaa, Yemen, 17 January 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Houthi supporters shout slogans while holding their weapons and pictures of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi during a pro-Palestinian rally following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in Sanaa, Yemen, 17 January 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Trump Designates Yemen's Houthis as Foreign Terrorist Organization

Houthi supporters shout slogans while holding their weapons and pictures of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi during a pro-Palestinian rally following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in Sanaa, Yemen, 17 January 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
Houthi supporters shout slogans while holding their weapons and pictures of Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi during a pro-Palestinian rally following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in Sanaa, Yemen, 17 January 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday re-designated Yemen's Houthi militias as a "foreign terrorist organization,” the White House said.

The move will impose harsher economic penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the Iran-backed group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against US warships defending the critical maritime chokepoint.

"The Houthis' activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade," the White House said in a statement.

The Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships plying the Red Sea since November 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.

The attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa for more than a year.
The group has targeted the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which are joined by the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.