Yemeni Government Awaits UN Special Envoy’s Response on Hodeidah Plan

Yemeni Government Spokesman Rajeh Badi. Reuters
Yemeni Government Spokesman Rajeh Badi. Reuters
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Yemeni Government Awaits UN Special Envoy’s Response on Hodeidah Plan

Yemeni Government Spokesman Rajeh Badi. Reuters
Yemeni Government Spokesman Rajeh Badi. Reuters

The Yemeni government is still waiting for the response of UN Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed to the proposals it has made concerning Hodeidah, mechanism of supplying its port revenues to the Central Bank and the payment of salaries.

A Yemeni government official said that Ould Cheikh did not provide any response to the plan to hand over the port of Hodeidah to a third party, under international supervision.

Yemeni Government Spokesman Rajeh Badi told Asharq Al-Awsat Tuesday that the initiative has many benefits for ensuring that port revenues reach the state treasury, consequently paying salaries of public sector employees.

The initiative would also stop weapons smuggling to coup militias in Yemen as well as end financing of arms dealers, who are still active in the black market and are dragging the country to conflicts among the Yemeni parties.

Badi referred to the tension and differences between the coup parties in Yemen, saying that what recently took place in the capital Sana’a is normal for an alliance that has been founded on the destruction of the country and lacks the right bases for the establishment of legal alliances. The skirmishes also indicate their fake intentions towards the Yemeni people.

Houthi and Saleh militias have more differences than similarities, the Yemeni government spokesman stressed, noting that observers and government officials have bet on the failure of this alliance because it is based on making personal gains and destroying Yemen.

The conflict in the capital Sana'a is prone to escalate and cause deaths among the ranks of coup leaders, Badi said, pointing out that they have never fulfilled their obligations and are not committed to any international agreements or peace treaties to avoid further conflict.

Notably, Houthi militias have carried out attacks and violations on UN and relief organizations in the period from 2015 to 2017 in the cities of Sana’a, Taiz, Hajja, Hodeidah, Ibb and Aden. They killed, kidnapped, closed outlets and offices and looted them, which confirms their efforts to block the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need.



Palestinians Say Israeli Strikes Kill 45 in Gaza

Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP
Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP
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Palestinians Say Israeli Strikes Kill 45 in Gaza

Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP
Mourners at the funeral of Al-Quds Today journalists killed in a strike in central Gaza, which Israel says targeted militants - AFP

Palestinian sources said that Israeli strikes in Gaza on Thursday killed at least 45 people including hospital workers and journalists.

Five staff at one of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals were among those killed, the facility's director said, more than two months into an Israeli operation in the area.

Hossam Abu Safiya, head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, said "an Israeli strike resulted in five martyrs among the hospital staff" -- a pediatrician, a lab technician, two ambulance workers and a member of maintenance staff. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has been pressing a major offensive in northern Gaza since October 6, saying it aims to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping, according to AFP.

At the other end of the Palestinian territory, the chief paediatric doctor at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis said three babies had died from a "severe temperature drop" this week as winter cold set in.

Doctor Ahmed al-Farra said the most recent case was a three-week-old girl who was "brought to the emergency room with a severe temperature drop, which led to her death".

A three-day-old baby and another "less than a month old" died on Tuesday, he said.

Meanwhile, in central Gaza, a Palestinian TV channel affiliated with a militant group said five of its journalists were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in Gaza, with Israel's military saying it had targeted a "terrorist cell".

Witnesses said a missile struck the van while it was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.

- 'Extremely cold' -

The three-week-old girl, Sila al-Faseeh, was living in a tent in Al-Mawasi, an area designated a humanitarian safe zone by the Israeli military that is home to huge numbers of displaced Palestinians.

"The tents do not protect from the cold, and it gets very cold at night, with no way to keep warm," said Farra.

He said many mothers were suffering from malnutrition which affected the quality of their breast milk and compounded the risks to newborns.

Sila's father Mahmoud al-Faseeh said it was "extremely cold, and the tent is not suitable for living. The children are always sick."

The United Nations and other organizations have repeatedly decried the worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, particularly in the north, since Israel began its latest military offensive in early October.

Also on Thursday, Gaza's civil defense agency said tens of other people were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, including 13 in a house that was home to "numerous displaced families" in the west of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said two soldiers aged 27 and 35 were killed in the Gaza Strip. That brought to 391 the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of ground operations in the Palestinian territory.

- 'Journalists are civilians' -

The journalists' employer Al-Quds Today said in a statement that a missile hit their broadcast van while it was parked in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The channel is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, whose militants have fought alongside Hamas in the Gaza Strip and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

The station identified the five staffers as Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Ladaa.

They were killed "while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty", the statement said.

The Israeli military said it had conducted a "precise strike" and that those killed "were Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists".

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East arm said in a statement it was "devastated by the reports".

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it added.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,399 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.