Hodeidah Operation Reveals Names of Foreign Houthi Trainers

Yemeni pro-government forces advance towards the port city of Hodeidah. (AFP)
Yemeni pro-government forces advance towards the port city of Hodeidah. (AFP)
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Hodeidah Operation Reveals Names of Foreign Houthi Trainers

Yemeni pro-government forces advance towards the port city of Hodeidah. (AFP)
Yemeni pro-government forces advance towards the port city of Hodeidah. (AFP)

The Yemeni national army captured on Monday a naval base that the Iranian-backed Houthis were using as a headquarters in the port city of Hodeidah.

The forces also seized plans, documents, Iranian-made equipment and the names of foreign Houthi trainers during the operation.

Lebanese and Iranian names were included in the list.

The operation came at a time when the militias were continuing their violation of the humanitarian truce that was announced in mid-November by the joint forces and Arab coalition.

Spokesman for the Amaleeqa Brigades Waddah al-Dbeish said that the operation was in retaliation to the militias’ violation of the ceasefire and their shelling of liberated residential neighborhoods.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the operation secured a number of buildings and villas in the Khamseen road.

The army also discovered maps of naval mines that the Houthis had planted at sea.

Moreover, they found modern Iranian equipment that are used for naval purposes.

Dbeish vowed that the joint forces will not suffice with simple self-defense, but they will retaliate to any Houthi attack with an operation that will lead to the liberation of positions in Hodeidah.

One such operation, he said, led to the recapture of vast areas of an air base in Hodeidah.

The forces seized planes and equipment and dismantled mines that were planted by the Houthis, including explosives that were placed inside three MiG planes.



Palestinian TV Says Israeli Strike Kills 5 Journalists in Gaza

A destroyed press vehicle near Al Awda hospital following an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 26 December 2024. (EPA)
A destroyed press vehicle near Al Awda hospital following an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 26 December 2024. (EPA)
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Palestinian TV Says Israeli Strike Kills 5 Journalists in Gaza

A destroyed press vehicle near Al Awda hospital following an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 26 December 2024. (EPA)
A destroyed press vehicle near Al Awda hospital following an Israeli airstrike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 26 December 2024. (EPA)

A Palestinian TV channel affiliated with an armed group said five of its journalists were killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their vehicle in Gaza, with Israel's military saying it had targeted a "terrorist cell".

A missile hit the journalists' broadcast truck as it was parked in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a statement from their employer, Al-Quds Today.

It is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, whose fighters have fought alongside Hamas in the Gaza Strip and took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

The channel identified the five staffers as Faisal Abu Al-Qumsan, Ayman Al-Jadi, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed Al-Lada'a.

They were killed "while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty", the statement said.

"We affirm our commitment to continue our resistant media message," it added.

The Israeli military said in its own statement that it had conducted "a precise strike on a vehicle with an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell inside in the area of Nuseirat".

It added that "prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians".

According to witnesses in Nuseirat, a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit the broadcast vehicle, which was parked outside Al-Awda Hospital, setting the vehicle on fire and killing those inside.

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East arm said the organization was "devastated by the reports that five journalists and media workers were killed inside their broadcasting vehicle by an Israeli strike".

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it added in a statement on social media.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said last week that more than 190 journalists had been killed and at least 400 injured since the start of the war in Gaza.

It was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,361 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.