Yemeni Forces Foil Houthi Scheme to Plant Naval Mines off Midi Coast

People walk past a ship docked at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen. Reuters
People walk past a ship docked at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen. Reuters
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Yemeni Forces Foil Houthi Scheme to Plant Naval Mines off Midi Coast

People walk past a ship docked at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen. Reuters
People walk past a ship docked at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen. Reuters

Yemeni naval forces thwarted Houthi militias' attempt to plant naval mines around the coast of Midi District in Hajjah Governorate.

Yemeni military sources said that Yemeni naval forces targeted boats that were used by the militias attempting to plant the naval mines, some 30 nautical miles from the coast of Midi, which resulted in the deaths of several specialists in planting mines.

The sources added that the military operation resulted in a number of casualties in the Houthi ranks, following the clashes and the failure of their plan, and the government forces captured the boat used by the militias to carry out the offensive.

“Houthi rebels usually resort to the use of some fishing boats to disguise after adding military and mechanical modifications to them,” sources added.

The Yemeni army forces, with the support of the Saudi-led coalition, removed dozens of sea mines planted by the Houthis in the Red Sea, off the coasts of Midi, to target various ships and fishing boats and obstruct the navigation route.

On the other hand, the fighting intensified on the battle fronts al-Bayda and al-Jawf coinciding with air strikes carried out by aircraft of the coalition to support legitimacy in Yemen.

The fighting and the air strikes against the Houthi coup caused the militia heavy losses in lives and equipment on various fronts.

The government forces also liberated strategic mountain positions in Nahm front, northeast of Sana’a, following clashes that killed at least 25 members of the pro-Iranian group.

There were also other battles between the Yemeni army forces and the Houthi militias, north of the border province of Jawf in the Aqaba region.

"The battles resulted in deaths and injuries of Houthi militants, in addition to the destruction of a combat vehicle and weapons and ammunition," the army's website said.

Governor of al-Jawf Amin al-Okimi inspected "the front lines of the army and the resistance in the series of mountains that overlook Wadi Khab," official sources said.
"The army is determined to clear Wadi Khab, the last location where the militias are based," Okimi said in a statement.

He also stressed that all individuals need to be ready to fight and complete the liberation of all areas in the province.



Gaza Development Put Back 60 Years by War, Says UNDP Chief

 A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)
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Gaza Development Put Back 60 Years by War, Says UNDP Chief

 A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israel-Hamas war has put back development in Gaza by 60 years and mobilizing the tens of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction will be an uphill task, the United Nations said.

Around two-thirds of all buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, and removing the estimated 42 million tons of rubble will be dangerous and complex, the head of the UN Development Program told AFP.

"Probably between 65 percent to 70 percent of buildings in Gaza have either been entirely destroyed or damaged," Achim Steiner said in an interview at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos.

"But we're also talking about an economy that has been destroyed, where we estimate that roughly 60 years of development have been lost in this conflict over 15 months.

"Two million people who are in the Gaza Strip have lost not only their shelter: they've lost public infrastructure, sewage treatment systems, freshwater supply systems, public waste management. All of these fundamental infrastructure and service elements simply do not exist."

And for all these towering numbers, Steiner stressed: "Human desperation is not just something that you capture in statistics."

- 'Years and years' -

The fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war took effect on Sunday.

Steiner said it was difficult to put a timeframe on reconstruction due to the "volatile" nature of the ceasefire, and because the UN's immediate focus is on life-saving aid.

"When we talk about reconstruction, we are not talking about one or two years here," he said.

"We are talking about years and years, until you even come close to rebuilding, first of all, the physical infrastructure, but it's also an entire economy.

"People had savings. People had loans. People had invested in businesses. And all of this is lost. So we are talking about the physical and economic, and in some ways even the psychosocial phase for reconstruction."

He said the physical reconstruction alone would cost "tens of billions of dollars", and "we do face an enormous uphill struggle on how to mobilize that scale of finance".

- 'Extraordinary' destruction -

The estimated volume of rubble may yet rise and will leave the reconstruction effort with vast challenges.

"This is not a simple undertaking of just loading it and transporting it somewhere. This rubble is dangerous. There are often still bodies that may not have been recovered. There's unexploded ordnance, landmines," Steiner explained.

"One option is recycling. With reconstruction, there is a significant degree to which you can recycle these materials and use them in the reconstruction process," Steiner said.

"The interim solution will be to move the rubble into temporary dumps and deposits from where it could then later be either taken for permanent processing or disposal."

In the meantime, if the ceasefire endures and firms up, Steiner said huge amounts of temporary infrastructure would be needed.

"Virtually every school and every hospital has been either severely damaged or destroyed," he said.

"It's an extraordinary physical destruction that has happened."