Vessel Awaits 23 Days to Unload Cargo in Hodeidah

Smoke rises in Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters
Smoke rises in Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters
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Vessel Awaits 23 Days to Unload Cargo in Hodeidah

Smoke rises in Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters
Smoke rises in Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters

The Saudi-led coalition announced Friday that Houthi militias have prevented Bahia Damas vessel, which has been waiting in Hodeidah port for 23 days, to unload its diesel cargo.

The coalition stressed that it has issued seven permits to ships heading to Yemeni ports carrying food and oil derivatives, pointing that four ships docked in the port of Hodeidah on Friday and five others were waiting to enter the port.

Meanwhile, Yemeni forces backed by the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen have made progress on various fronts in Saada at a time when coalition fighter jets eliminated four insurgent commanders east of Sanaa.

The joint forces in the West Coast also sent new military reinforcements to take part in the battle with the Houthi militias.

The Joint Yemeni Resistance Forces also combed all the farms and liberated areas in the vicinity of Tahita directorate and the remaining insurgent pockets south-west of the directorate.

Forces also advanced towards the historic Zabid directorate which the militias have turned into a military barracks.

Saudi-led coalition forces pushed ahead in the operation against the Houthis in their stronghold in Saada governorate and liberated new areas in Kitaf, north of the city, few hours after besieging militias in Baqam district, north of Saada.

Battles continued in the east and southwest fronts in Taiz, and four prominent Houthi leaders were killed in Nahm Front, the eastern gate of Sanaa.

Moreover, Saudi-led coalition jets raided a meeting of field militia commanders in Nahm front, east of Sanaa.

The Yemeni national army said in a statement that the air raid killed Yasser Abdullah Amer and three other Houthi leaders and their associates from Saada governorate, according to Al Arabiya.

The army statement confirmed that Amer is an influential militia figure in Nahm front whereas the other slain commanders have recently arrived from Saada to supervise over the front.



Israel Cuts off Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah, Vows to ‘Vigorously’ Expand in the Territory

 Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Cuts off Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah, Vows to ‘Vigorously’ Expand in the Territory

 Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)

Israel announced Saturday it has completed construction of a new security corridor that cuts off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, as the military said it would soon expand "vigorously" in most of the small coastal territory. Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas of land.

"Soon, (military) activity will expand rapidly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, without saying where Palestinians were meant to go.

The statement urged Palestinians to stand up and remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: "This is the only way to stop the war." There was no immediate Hamas response.

Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation.

Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that.

Netanyahu has said Morag would be "a second Philadelphi corridor," referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May 2024. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off Gaza's northern third from the rest of the territory.

The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory.

Katz said Palestinians interested in "voluntarily" relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by US President Donald Trump. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.

Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to "ethnic cleansing" — the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.

Many Palestinians have been crowding into squalid tent camps or the rubble of their previous homes, often displacing multiple times in response to Israel's evacuation orders since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and sparked the war.

Israel on Saturday ordered the evacuation of areas east of Khan Younis ahead of an attack. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee added that fighters had fired rockets into Israel from these areas.

Israeli strikes across Gaza continued, killing at least 21 people in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says most of the over 50,000 Palestinians killed in the war have been women and children.

The ministry said at least 1,500 people have been killed since Israel's surprise bombardment resumed the war last month.

Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters in the war, without providing evidence.