Yemeni PM Accuses Houthis, Iran of Deadly Aden Airport Blast

A security personnel member reacts during an attack on Aden airport moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed cabinet, in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A security personnel member reacts during an attack on Aden airport moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed cabinet, in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Yemeni PM Accuses Houthis, Iran of Deadly Aden Airport Blast

A security personnel member reacts during an attack on Aden airport moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed cabinet, in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020. (Reuters)
A security personnel member reacts during an attack on Aden airport moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed cabinet, in Aden, Yemen December 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Yemen’s prime minister renewed accusations on Thursday that the Houthi militias and Iran were responsible for the deadly explosion at the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden the previous day that killed at least 25 people and wounded 110.

The explosion took place as Cabinet members were disembarking from a plane that had landed in Aden just minutes earlier on Wednesday. AP footage from the scene showed many ministers rushing back inside the plane or running down the stairs, seeking shelter. None of the Cabinet members were hurt.

Hours after the blast, the country's legitimate government said the Iran-backed Houthis had fired four ballistic missiles at the airport.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that Houthi militias stand behind this crime,” Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed said as the newly reshuffled Cabinet convened for the first time in Aden.

“Intelligence also indicates that some Iranian experts were prepping for such an operation over the last few months,” Saeed said Thursday.

Officials later on Wednesday reported a second explosion, close to a palace in the city where the Cabinet members were taken to following the airport attack. The Saudi-led coalition later shot down a bomb-laden drone that attempted to target the palace, according to Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV channel.

The newly formed Cabinet was set to meet for the first time since its formation in line with the Riyadh Agreement.

“We were supposed to begin by discussing the government program but this is an extraordinary meeting due to yesterday's cowardly and treacherous attack,” Saeed said, and asked his ministers to stand up silently for a moment to mourn the victims of the explosion.

Saeed also urged Western powers not to remain content with just condemning the attack but also to hold the perpetrators accountable.

“The international community is still debating whether to designate Houthis as a terrorist group," he said. “However, things are clear for us in Yemen. The actions of these militias prove they are a terrorist group.”



In Gaza, Summer Heat Amplifies the Daily Struggle to Survive

Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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In Gaza, Summer Heat Amplifies the Daily Struggle to Survive

Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry bags containing food and humanitarian aid packages delivered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

For Rida Abu Hadayed, summer adds a new layer of misery to a daily struggle to survive in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

With temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), daybreak begins with the cries of Hadayed’s seven children sweltering inside the displaced family’s cramped nylon tent. Outside, the humidity is unbearable.

The only way the 32-year-old mother can offer her children relief is by fanning them with a tray or bits of paper — whatever she can find. If she has water, she pours it over them, but that is an increasingly scarce resource, The Associated Press said.

“There is no electricity. There is nothing,” she said, her face beaded with sweat. “They cannot sleep. They keep crying all day until the sun sets.”

The heat in Gaza has intensified hardships for its 2 million residents. Reduced water availability, crippled sanitation networks, and shrinking living spaces threaten to cause illnesses to cascade through communities, aid groups have long warned.

The scorching summer coincides with a lack of clean water for the majority of Gaza’s population, most of whom are displaced in tented communities. Many Palestinians in the enclave must walk long distances to fetch water and ration each drop, limiting their ability to wash and keep cool.

“We are only at the beginning of summer,“ Hadayed’s husband, Yousef, said. “And our situation is dire.”

Israel had blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for nearly three months. It began allowing limited aid in May, but fuel needed to pump water from wells or operate desalination plants is still not getting into the territory.

With fuel supplies short, only 40% of drinking water production facilities are functioning in the Gaza Strip, according to a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. All face imminent collapse. Up to 93% of households face water shortages, the June report said.

The Hadayeds were displaced after evacuation orders forced them to leave eastern Khan Younis.

“Our lives in the tent are miserable. We spend our days pouring water over their heads and their skin,” Yousef Hadayed said. “Water itself is scarce. It is very difficult to get that water.”

UNICEF’s spokesperson recently said that if fuel supplies are not allowed to enter the enclave, children will die of thirst.

“Me and my children spend our days sweating,” said Reham Abu Hadayed, a 30-year-old relative of Rida Abu Hadayed who was also displaced from eastern Khan Younis. She worries about the health of her four children.

“I don’t have enough money to buy them medicine,” she said.

For Mohammed al-Awini, 23, the heat is not the worst part. It's the flies and mosquitoes that bombard his tent, especially at night.

Without adequate sewage networks, garbage piles up on streets, attracting insects and illness. The stench of decomposing trash wafts in the air.

“We are awake all night, dying from mosquito bites,” he said. “We are the most tired people in the world.”