Houthis Honor Coup Anniversary, Overlook National ‘September 26 Revolution’

Houthis
Houthis
TT

Houthis Honor Coup Anniversary, Overlook National ‘September 26 Revolution’

Houthis
Houthis

Insurgency militias in Yemen overlooked celebrations commemorating the 55th anniversary of the ‘September 26 Revolution,’ which laid the foundations to the unified Yemen.

Celebrated first in 1962, Yemenis have over the decades dedicated a great deal of festivity and adoration for the day which resonates with their national identity. Iran-aligned Houthi militias scrapped away at the occasion, choosing that Yemenis living under their control would celebrate the ‘September 21 Revolution,’ the day marking militias storming in and taking over the capital Sana’a in 2014.

Yemenis celebrated "September 26 Revolution" amid tight restrictions imposed by coup militias, who have abolished all support to the republic system and turned it into a Tehran-inspired regime, the main supporter of the Houthi insurgents.

Yemeni Culture Minister Marwan Damaj says that post-coup events add up to “an extension to the counterrevolution going against the Republic and the (September 26 Revolution).”

“The Yemeni revolution has been subjected to multiple rising conspiracies since the sixties until this very moment, and the 2014 coup is only an expanded and clear model of this counter-revolution aimed at making the Yemenis’ struggles for decades to establish the state of law and order futile,” Damaj told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Yemenis will not give up their republic, which is a peaceful and tolerating regime, despite the different tools and method of governance available in the region-- it is the most appropriate for Yemen and the most suitable for its neighbors and poses no danger of any kind, contrary to what the coupists are eyeing,” said Damaj.

“Houthis are dangerous to Yemen and the region because they are supported by dangerous regional forces going against social peace in the region and the world,” explained Dammaj.

“The “26 September Revolution” in 1962 was targeted by wars, plots and inner treachery from day one— but the revolution did not stop at attempts to blur, distort and falsify its spirit,” he added.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
TT

With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.