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Deadliest US Strike in Yemen Kills 74 at Oil Terminal

A handout screen grab taken from a video released by Houthis-run al-Masirah TV shows flames and smoke rising from the fuel port of Ras Isa following US airstrikes, in the port province of Hodeidah, Yemen, 18 April 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS AL-MASIRSAH TV / HANDOUT
A handout screen grab taken from a video released by Houthis-run al-Masirah TV shows flames and smoke rising from the fuel port of Ras Isa following US airstrikes, in the port province of Hodeidah, Yemen, 18 April 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS AL-MASIRSAH TV / HANDOUT
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Deadliest US Strike in Yemen Kills 74 at Oil Terminal

A handout screen grab taken from a video released by Houthis-run al-Masirah TV shows flames and smoke rising from the fuel port of Ras Isa following US airstrikes, in the port province of Hodeidah, Yemen, 18 April 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS AL-MASIRSAH TV / HANDOUT
A handout screen grab taken from a video released by Houthis-run al-Masirah TV shows flames and smoke rising from the fuel port of Ras Isa following US airstrikes, in the port province of Hodeidah, Yemen, 18 April 2025. EPA/HOUTHIS AL-MASIRSAH TV / HANDOUT

US strikes on Yemen's Ras Isa fuel terminal on the Red Sea coast have killed at least 74 people in the deadliest attack since the US started its bombing campaign against the Houthis last year, according to the Houthi-run health ministry.

US President Donald Trump ordered the intensification of strikes last month in the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he took office in January. Washington has vowed to keep attacking the Iran-aligned Houthis until the group halts attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Health ministry spokesperson Anees al-Asbahi said 171 people were injured in Thursday's strikes, according to preliminary figures, with rescue teams continuing efforts to search for victims.

The US military said the strikes aimed to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group. The port has a heavy military presence in addition to being a primary hub for fuel imports, Yemeni sources said.

Among the dead were employees of Safer Oil Company, which operates the port, and the Yemen Petroleum Company, responsible for overseeing imported fuel shipments and their distribution, the sources added.

US Central Command did not comment on the health ministry's casualty figure.

"The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen," it had said in a post on X.

The US and Israel have previously targeted the port, viewing it as a hub for launching drones, missiles, and attacks on ships.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.

Ras Isa terminal, about which is about 55 km (35 miles) north of the port city of Hodeidah, has a storage capacity of 3 million barrels.

Fuel import taxes bring in hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the Houthi administration, sources said.

The Houthis halted attacks on shipping lanes during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza. Although they vowed to resume strikes after Israel renewed its assault on the enclave last month, they have not struck targets in the Red Sea since then.

In March, two days of US attacks killed more than 50 people, Houthi officials said.

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Arab World

Palestinian Legislative Vote Set for Nov 28: Presidential Decree

A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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Palestinian Legislative Vote Set for Nov 28: Presidential Decree

A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Thursday setting legislative elections for November 28, which if they take place, would mark the first such vote in two decades.

The last legislative elections in the Palestinian territories were held in 2006, when Hamas won, defeating Abbas's Fatah party, which had previously dominated Palestinian politics.

As a result, the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the parliament of Abbas's Palestinian Authority, has not met since 2007.

"The presidential decree calls on the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to participate in free and direct legislative elections to elect members of the Palestinian Legislative Council on the date specified," the official Wafa news agency reported, citing the decree, AFP reported.

Holding elections is part of the reforms demanded by the international community, including the European Union, which supports the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority financially.

Abbas, 90, won the last Palestinian presidential election in 2005 with a mandate of four years, meaning his term should have expired in 2009.

However his term was extended and no presidential election has been held since, with Abbas ruling by presidential decree, facing criticism at home and abroad.

Ghassan Khatib, a political science professor at Birzeit University, said he believed Abbas was now serious about holding elections for both domestic and international reasons.

"There is a feeling among everyone that Palestinian legitimacy has eroded because of how long it has been since elections were held," Khatib told AFP, describing a "gap between the public and the leadership and a need to 'renew the blood'" at the top.

"The absence of a legislative council for such a long time has caused significant damage to the political system," he added.

The PA has faced widespread criticism over corruption, stagnation and declining legitimacy, with donors increasingly tying their financial and diplomatic support to reform, particularly of local governance.

In 2021, Abbas announced legislative and presidential elections to be held in May and July of that year respectively.

They were then postponed indefinitely due to the absence of guarantees that voting could take place in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem.

In April, Palestinians went to the polls to elect municipal council heads in the occupied West Bank, in the first vote since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Khatib said the main obstacle for elections would be logistical challenges arising from Israeli measures in the Gaza Strip, as well as in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Under the October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire, a technocratic committee has been formed to govern Gaza, but it has yet to enter the Palestinian territory.

Khatib added that the international community had a responsibility to "pressure Israel to provide an appropriate environment, or at least to refrain from measures that would hinder these elections".

"Israel seeks to rid itself of the Palestinian Authority, and since elections would restore strength and legitimacy to the Authority, this runs counter to what Israel is aiming for," he said.

He added that he expected Israel "to obstruct the holding of these elections in various ways".

In June, Abbas announced that presidential elections would be held in early 2027, without saying if he would run.

Khatib said he doubted the legislative elections would produce major political change, and considered it unlikely that Fatah's rival Hamas would achieve significant gains.

Arab World

Chemical Weapons Watchdog Reinstates Syria’s Voting Rights

The logo of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
The logo of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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Chemical Weapons Watchdog Reinstates Syria’s Voting Rights

The logo of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
The logo of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is seen during a special session in the Hague, Netherlands June 26, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

The global chemical weapons watchdog on Thursday reinstated Syria's voting rights at the body, rewarding Damascus for “constructive engagement” with the organization and a willingness to destroy previously hidden stockpiles of toxic munitions.

The decision by the executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons underscores a new era of cooperation since the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in 2024, and comes five years after Syria’s voting rights were suspended as a punishment for the repeated use of toxic gas by Damascus. It was the first time a member state had been hit with such a sanction, The AP news reported.

The new openness has already produced results. In May, the OPCW announced that dozens of chemical bombs and rockets left over from Assad's rule had been found in the country as previously undeclared weapons sites were opened to inspectors.

The OPCW’s executive council also approved plans for destroying some of that recently declared stockpile at a site in Al Qutayfah, 37 kilometers (23 miles) north of the capital, including materials used to make a nerve agent.

The decisions “reflect the tangible progress achieved through continued cooperation and constructive engagement between the Technical Secretariat and the Syrian Arab Republic,” supported by other member states, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias said in a statement.

The move comes a day after US authorities announced that Washington will remove Syria from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former insurgent who led the offensive that unseated Assad, seeks to rebuild Syria and restore its long-shattered ties with the West. He also has pledged to destroy any remaining chemical weapons from the Assad era.

When Syria joined the OPCW in 2013, under pressure from the West over alleged poison gas attacks, Assad's administration claimed chemical weapons were present at 26 locations in the country, but the watchdog has said it has reason to believe Syria had an additional 100 sites.

Arab World

Lebanon Says US Delegation will Oversee Israeli Withdrawal from 'Pilot Zones'

Members of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) drive through the southern Lebanese area of Al-Mansouri on July 2, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Members of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) drive through the southern Lebanese area of Al-Mansouri on July 2, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
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Lebanon Says US Delegation will Oversee Israeli Withdrawal from 'Pilot Zones'

Members of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) drive through the southern Lebanese area of Al-Mansouri on July 2, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Members of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) drive through the southern Lebanese area of Al-Mansouri on July 2, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

A US delegation was expected to arrive in Lebanon soon to oversee the implementation of Israel's withdrawal from "pilot zones" in the south, the Lebanese presidency reported on Thursday, citing the American ambassador.

Lebanon is demanding that Israel withdraw from these zones before taking part in a new round of negotiations scheduled for July 15 and 16 in Rome, a diplomatic source familiar with the talks told AFP on Wednesday.

The two countries reached a framework agreement on June 26 that calls for Hezbollah's disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territory while Lebanon's army deploys into "pilot zones".

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, told President Joseph Aoun that "an American military delegation will arrive in Beirut in the coming days to... determine the mechanism for implementation on the ground," according to the Lebanese presidency.

The agreement -- rejected by Hezbollah -- does not set a timetable for Israel's withdrawal, and Israeli officials have also vowed that their forces will remain in a "security zone" 10 kilometres (six miles) deep as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

"It is essential to avoid any vacuum when Israeli forces withdraw from the designated area," Issa added, according to a statement from the presidency.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, for his part, once again called on the United States to "exert pressure on Israel to halt military operations and comply with the provisions of the framework".

Aoun is expected to visit Washington later this month at the invitation of his American counterpart Donald Trump.