Yemen Underlines Need for 'All Good Forces' to Confront Militias

Yemen’s President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi delivers a speech in the southern port city of Aden March 21, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
Yemen’s President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi delivers a speech in the southern port city of Aden March 21, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
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Yemen Underlines Need for 'All Good Forces' to Confront Militias

Yemen’s President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi delivers a speech in the southern port city of Aden March 21, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
Yemen’s President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi delivers a speech in the southern port city of Aden March 21, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer

Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi underlined the need to defeat militias in the country, while the legitimate government called for the “participation of all good forces” to confront the insurgents.

Hadi said that Houthi militias were determined to be used as an Iranian tool in the killing, displacement and destruction of the country.

“We have no choice but to triumph over the forces of darkness in the interest of the new federal Yemen, as we have two paths: the victory of legitimacy and the new federal Yemen, or dependence on the forces of darkness represented by the Iranian Houthi militias,” Hadi said, during his meeting with the European Union Ambassador to Yemen, Antonia Calvo.

The Yemeni official news agency (Saba) said that Hadi reviewed with the EU ambassador “recent developments in Yemen and the exclusion of the Houthis of those who were their partners.”

The Yemeni president also stressed the importance of the role assumed by the European Union in “standing up to the violations committed by Houthi militias against innocent people in Sanaa, including children and women.”

The EU ambassador, for her part, expressed her satisfaction with the meeting, as it provided additional information on the latest developments in the Yemeni arena. She also emphasized “the EU’s position in support of peace, security and stability in Yemen.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi said, during a separate meeting with the EU ambassador, that the government was keen to “preserve all good Yemeni political forces in the face of Houthi militias” and strengthen efforts to regain control over the state.

He also underlined the commitment of the Yemeni government to harness all land and maritime ports to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and provide safe corridors to citizens.



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)
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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.