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Israel Attacks Yemen's Hodeidah after Evacuation Warnings, Houthis Say

File photo: Smoke billows over buildings following Israeli airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 06 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
File photo: Smoke billows over buildings following Israeli airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 06 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
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Israel Attacks Yemen's Hodeidah after Evacuation Warnings, Houthis Say

File photo: Smoke billows over buildings following Israeli airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 06 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB
File photo: Smoke billows over buildings following Israeli airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 06 May 2025. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

Israel attacked Hodeidah in Yemen after the Israeli army said it had warned residents of three ports under Houthi control to evacuate, the Houthi interior ministry said on Sunday.

The strikes came shortly after Israel warned residents of Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif to leave, saying the ports were being used by the Iranian-backed Houthis, reported Reuters.

But the head of the Houthi-run state news agency Saba, Nasruddin Amer, denied any Israeli attacks on Yemeni ports.

There was no immediate comment on the attack from Israel.

The strikes came a few days after a missile launched towards Israel by the Houthis was intercepted.

It also came ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East this week.

Trump, who started an intensified military campaign against Houthi strongholds in Yemen on March 15, agreed to an Oman-mediated ceasefire deal with the group, which said the accord did not include Israel.

The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at Israel, as well as attacking vessels in global shipping lanes, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Trump on Tuesday also said that the Houthis had agreed to stop interrupting important shipping lanes in the Middle East.

Israel has carried out numerous retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.