Yemen: Houthis Openly Plant Naval Mines

Port of Hodeidah (File Photo: Reuters)
Port of Hodeidah (File Photo: Reuters)
TT
20

Yemen: Houthis Openly Plant Naval Mines

Port of Hodeidah (File Photo: Reuters)
Port of Hodeidah (File Photo: Reuters)

Yemeni politicians and observers consider Houthis' admission to manufacturing naval mines a direct challenge to the international community, a flagrant threat to the Red Sea shipping routes, and further proof of the Iranian involvement in providing military-technical support to the militias as well as smuggling weapons to them.

Houthi media recently broadcast clear footage of alleged militia-made naval mines to confirm the group's explicit recognition of its capabilities to plant mines, despite previous denials.

Observers believe Houthis are unlikely to have the ability to manufacture any quality weapons without Iranian expertise or the help of Lebanon's Hezbollah. However, others consider that the militias’ behavior is the result of their recent defeats on the west coast.

"Iran wants to show its maritime terrorist capabilities through Houthis on the west coast amid US insistence on its next economic war on Iran," according to Head of al-Jazeera Centre for Studies Najib Gallab.

The Yemeni researcher pointed out that the group has already threatened more than once that it will transfer its battle to the Red Sea and carry out attacks on international shipping routes. This was met with strict reactions from the international and regional communities, as well as the Arab Coalition and Yemen's legitimacy.

Gallab noted that Iran may be directing Houthis "to carry out terrorist acts through booby-trapped boats and missiles to target the international trade corridor in the Red Sea."

He believes that the Houthi sea mines will not affect the battle on the west coast.

Gallab asserted that the militias will not be able to affect the Yemeni trade or influx of humanitarian aid “because any reckless action will be against them, given that mining will not affect the battle, but will be a foolish retaliation to serve Iran.”

Media adviser at the Yemeni embassy in Cairo Baligh al-Mekhlafi said that Houthis are trying to send clear messages to the international community that they have the ability to threaten navigation in the Red Sea.

Mekhlafi believes that the militias are unable to manufacture any weapons, whether marine mines or missiles, otherwise they would have used them earlier in the war.

He stressed that weapons are smuggled to militias through fishing boats that first reach Iranian ships at the sea before being transported to them.

Author and human rights activist Hamdan al-Ali is not surprised that the militias continue to violate the international and humanitarian law, including the group’s recent stunt of producing sea mines.

"The Houthi militia knows that before the world it is just a militia and has no legal status,” indicated Ali, adding that the world and the international organizations, especially the UN, deal only with the recognized political regimes and entities.

“(The militias) are reassured the international community will not hold them accountable," indicated the activist, noting that had the violations been committed by the legitimacy or the coalition countries, they would have been held accountable and perhaps subjected to sanctions.

Ali stresses that the only way to stop the Houthi violations and put an end to their threats is through military decisiveness as the most effective way to deal with this group that doesn’t fear any legal accountability.



Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
TT
20

Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza's civil defense agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.

The army said in a statement that it struck the militants "inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity", and separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA building housing a medical clinic".

The army said that "the compound was used by Hamas's Jabalia Battalion to plan terror attacks", and accused Hamas of "exploiting the civilian population as a human shield".

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the "massacre at the UNRWA clinic in Jabalia", calling for "serious international pressure" to halt Israel's widening offensive.

The Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hamas ally, called the bombing a "blatant war crime".

Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after UNRWA said six of its staff were among the 18 people reported killed.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.

Israel resumed major airstrikes on the Palestinian territory on March 18, after talks on next steps in a six-week truce broke down.

It also conducted airstrikes on southern and central Gaza on Wednesday that the civil defense agency said killed at least 15 people, including children, in the city of Khan Yunis and Nuseirat refugee camp.

Since then, at least 1,042 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures last updated by Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday.

In total, 50,399 people have been killed since the start of the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack, according to the ministry's figures, which the United Nations views as reliable.