Houthi Explosives, Attacks Squander Griffiths’ Peace Efforts

United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths speaks during an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Tarek Fahmy/File Photo
United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths speaks during an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Tarek Fahmy/File Photo
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Houthi Explosives, Attacks Squander Griffiths’ Peace Efforts

United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths speaks during an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Tarek Fahmy/File Photo
United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths speaks during an interview with Reuters in Abu Dhabi, UAE, October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Tarek Fahmy/File Photo

At a time when the UN Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths is discussing details of the entry of fuel and oil byproducts to Yemen through the port of Hodeidah, Houthis sent out an explosive boat into Red Sea waters, threatening international trade and navigation.

Despite almost two years passing since the Yemeni government and Houthis signed the UN-sponsored Stockholm Agreement, many of its stipulations remain unmet.

The deal involves the Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and Salif ports, includes a prisoner swap mechanism and covers an understanding about Taiz governorate.

Houthi militias have locked their control of Hodeidah city and its port for over five years now, and also have blocked UN experts from inspecting the rundown Safer oil tanker which is anchored off Ras Issa port.

Any explosion at Safer, which is carrying around 1.1 million barrels of oil, will cause a catastrophic oil spill with irreversible environmental damage.

The official Yemeni news agency, Saba, said Parliament Speaker Sultan al-Burkani informed Griffiths that the government has grown impatient towards the Houthi militia’s persistent breach of the Stockholm Agreement and their escalated attacks on various fronts.

Burkani also told Griffiths that the government is considering to “freeze the Stockholm Agreement and possibly cancel it completely.”

The Saudi-led Arab Coalition, allied with Yemen's government, said Monday it foiled two attacks launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including an explosives-laden boat dispatched into the Red Sea near international shipping lanes.

Arab Coalition spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki said in a statement that the remotely controlled boat was spotted late Sunday.

Malki described the attempted boat attack as a “terrorist attack” that threatens commercial shipping routes in the vital Bab al-Mandeb strait, used for oil shipments from the Gulf to Europe, as well as goods from Asia to Europe.

He also confirmed that Houthis have taken Hodeidah as a launchpad for their ballistic missiles, drones and explosive boats.



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.