Houthis Step up Assaults Despite Int’l Condemnation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks during a virtual meeting at the State Department in Washington, February 26, 2021. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks during a virtual meeting at the State Department in Washington, February 26, 2021. (AP)
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Houthis Step up Assaults Despite Int’l Condemnation

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks during a virtual meeting at the State Department in Washington, February 26, 2021. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks during a virtual meeting at the State Department in Washington, February 26, 2021. (AP)

Worldwide condemnation and the US Biden administration revoking the Houthis terrorist label have failed in curbing the Iran-backed group’s persistent violence against civilians in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Houthis continue to violate international norms and laws.

Recent days have witnessed an increase in the frequency of Houthi assaults against civilian targets in Saudi Arabia.

Despite the Saudi-led Arab Coalition forces maintaining vigilance in confronting Houthi missiles and drones, shrapnel from some intercepted projectiles have hit civilian homes in Riyadh and villages in the Jazan region.

The attacks injured a number of civilians and damaged public and private property.

Over the course of the last weeks, Houthi militias launched daily attacks against Saudi Arabia. The group fired cross-border drones and missiles, disregarding international laws and covenants.

States and organizations from all over the world have urged swift and decisive action to end repeated terrorist attacks targeting vital and civilian facilities and threatening the stability of Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Iran-aligned Houthi coupists to cease hostilities and assaults against Yemen’s oil rich Marib governorate and cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia.

Blinken confirmed that Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognized Yemeni government are “committed and eager” to find a way to end the war in Yemen and called on the Houthi group to do the same.

“The necessary first step is to stop their offensive against Marib, a city where a million internally displaced people live, and to join the Saudis and the government in Yemen in making constructive moves towards peace,” he said.

Despite international and UN efforts to broker peace in war-torn Yemen, Houthis have continued to block any serious attempts for achieving a ceasefire and rebooting political talks, Information Ministry Undersecretary Naguib Ghallab told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The group has also disregarded concessions made by the Yemeni government and used negotiations to buy time and advance their war agenda, he added.

According to Ghallab, Houthis have shown no commitment to finding a political solution for conflict in Yemen.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”