Yemeni Military Court Sentences 174 Houthi Leaders to Death, Including Abdul-Malik al-Houthihttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3153231/yemeni-military-court-sentences-174-houthi-leaders-death-including-abdul-malik
Yemeni Military Court Sentences 174 Houthi Leaders to Death, Including Abdul-Malik al-Houthi
Armed members of the Houthi movement visit the grave of Houthi senior official Saleh al-Sammad at al-Sabeen Square in Sanaa, Yemen, on January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Yemeni Military Court Sentences 174 Houthi Leaders to Death, Including Abdul-Malik al-Houthi
Armed members of the Houthi movement visit the grave of Houthi senior official Saleh al-Sammad at al-Sabeen Square in Sanaa, Yemen, on January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A military court affiliated with the internationally recognized Yemeni government on Wednesday sentenced the leader of the Houthi group, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and 173 other Houthi leaders to death.
The sentence, issued by a martial court in the northeastern governorate of Marib, also included Iran’s Revolutionary Guards leader Hassan Eyrlou, who is currently serving as Tehran’s ambassador to the Houthi self-proclaimed government in Sanaa.
The court also decided to classify the “Houthi group” as a criminal terrorist organization, ban its activities, disband and confiscate all its property, and remove all weapons, ammunition, and military equipment from it and hand it over to the Ministry of Defense.”
According to the court ruling, those sentenced to death would be executed by a firing squad.
The court also confiscated their money for involvement in the military coup against the regime and the legitimate and constitutional authorities, collaborating with Iran, and committing military and war crimes.
More so, the court called on the official government to develop a national strategy to eliminate all discrimination between Yemenis on the grounds of race, sect, color, or origin.
The court further decided that Iran would be prosecuted before the International Criminal Justice for its involvement in the militia’s crimes.
In July, a court in Marib held the initial session of the trial of Houthi leaders accused of masterminding the coup against the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in 2015 and the subsequent military campaign.
At the moment, Houthis are spearheading a new recruitment campaign among Sanaa tribes to replenish their ranks after having incurring heavy losses in battles in Marib.
During the past week, informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group’s leaders in the tribal and rural districts surrounding the Houthi-run capital, Sanaa, held several meetings with tribal leaders to urge additional recruitment.
UN Seeks $325 Million for Lebanon as War Displaces 800,000 Peoplehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5250900-un-seeks-325-million-lebanon-war-displaces-800000-people
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
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UN Seeks $325 Million for Lebanon as War Displaces 800,000 People
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
The United Nations launched a $325 million flash appeal on Friday to help Lebanon cope with the fallout of a war that has forced more than a seventh of its population from their homes.
"Solidarity in words must be matched by solidarity in action," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said as he announced the campaign from Beirut.
Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah last week after the Iran-backed Lebanese group opened fire on it on March 2, saying it was avenging the killing of Iran's supreme leader.
Hezbollah has kept up daily rocket and drone attacks, while Israel has expanded its ground operations and air strikes, bombing the capital on Thursday along with other parts of the country on Friday.
Nearly 700 people have been killed in the attacks and more than 800,000 displaced by Israel's orders for people to leave ever larger swathes of Lebanon.
But aid organizations say funding constraints have already forced them to ration supplies and that substantial new contributions are essential.
"We're only targeting those who are really on the verge of starvation or in starvation," said Carl Skau, the World Food Program's deputy executive director.
"There isn't any more margin, so with needs going up, resources will have to come up - and they can certainly not drop," Skau told Reuters.
'TIGHT FUNDING LANDSCAPE'
Humanitarian organizations say global crises have restricted their response in Lebanon, a country already hit hard by a 2019 economic collapse, the 2020 Beirut port explosion and the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Skau said the WFP fears donor governments will face new budget constraints following the spike in global energy prices triggered by the Iran war.
The UN's refugee agency UNHCR last September said it had only received 25% of the resources required for Lebanon in 2025, forcing it to slash cash assistance programs.
"The current spike or the current escalation of hostilities compounds an already tight funding landscape," said Kirollos Fares, Lebanon country director at humanitarian organization Medair.
Aid group Solidarités International had already seen a drop in both the number and size of grants, said Lebanon country director Daniele Regazzi.
“...Unless fresh money comes out, what we are deploying now as emergency response...will be gone in the next roughly couple of weeks," he said.
Israel Threatens ‘Increasing Price’ for Lebanon as UN Urges Ceasefirehttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5250895-israel-threatens-%E2%80%98increasing-price%E2%80%99-lebanon-un-urges-ceasefire
Israeli soldiers work on the belts for their tanks at a staging area in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on March 13, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Threatens ‘Increasing Price’ for Lebanon as UN Urges Ceasefire
Israeli soldiers work on the belts for their tanks at a staging area in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on March 13, 2026. (AFP)
The Israeli defense minister vowed on Friday that Lebanon would pay an "increasing price" in damage to infrastructure in the war with Hezbollah, while the UN urged Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when the Tehran-backed militant group attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel on Friday destroyed a bridge over the Litani River between the towns of Zrariyeh and Tayr Falsay, according to state media. The river bisects southern Lebanon, from east to west.
In a statement, the Israeli army described the bridge as a "key crossing" for Hezbollah "from northern to southern Lebanon, to build up its power and prepare for combat".
The attack was the first on Lebanese public infrastructure to be acknowledged by Israel since the start of the Middle East war.
"This is just the beginning and the Lebanese government and the state of Lebanon will pay an increasing price in damage to Lebanese national infrastructure used by Hezbollah terrorists," the Israeli defense minister said on Friday.
He said Lebanon would suffer "loss of territory -- until it fulfills its central commitment of disarming Hezbollah".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he told the Lebanese government that "you are playing with fire if you continue allowing Hezbollah to operate, in violation of your commitment to disarm it".
Warning leaflets are dropped by the Israeli military over Beirut, Lebanon, 13 March 2026. (EPA)
- 'Stop the war' -
UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah to "stop the war" at the start of a visit to Beirut on Friday, as Israel expanded its strikes across the country.
"My strong appeal to those parties, to Hezbollah and to Israel, is for a ceasefire to stop the war," Guterres said.
Guterres launched a $325 million humanitarian appeal to support Lebanon as it responds to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people by the war.
Israeli strikes continued on Friday, including an attack that killed eight people in the south Lebanese village of Mieh w Mieh near the port city of Sidon, according to the health ministry.
In the nearby village of Irkey, Mohammad Taqi buried his four daughters, aged six to 13, who were killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday along with five relatives.
"The Israeli enemy says every day that it is targeting infrastructure," he told AFP at the funeral, his head wrapped in a white bandage and his face covered in wounds.
"Is this the infrastructure? Have you seen it?" he asked, gesturing to his daughters' bodies.
"I've lost four daughters. I don't have any others. Zainab, Zahra, Malika and Yasmina," he said, adding that he had also lost his parents, brother, nephew and brother-in-law in the same strike.
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office on March 13, 2026, shows Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (R) receiving United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the government palace in Beirut. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
- Propaganda leaflets -
Hezbollah also launched attacks against Israeli forces on Friday, as part of what it said was a Quds Day operation.
Quds Day is an annual demonstration in support of the Palestinian cause in Iran, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.
Overnight Thursday into Friday, the Israeli army carried out new air raids, targeting an apartment near Bourj Hammoud in Beirut's northern suburbs, an area that had remained untouched by the war.
An AFP photographer saw an upper floor of the building with its facade shattered and walls blackened by the strike.
In the eastern town of Bar Elias, an air strike targeted a local official from the Jamaa Islamiya group, killing his two sons, state media said.
Israel's army also renewed its evacuation warnings, including for Beirut's southern suburbs.
On Thursday, it had issued a similar order to residents across a large area about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Litani River.
The order enlarges the zone in southern Lebanon in which residents have been told to leave to cover more than 40 kilometers from the Lebanon-Israel border.
Israeli planes dropped propaganda leaflets over Beirut on Friday, causing loud booms.
One of the leaflets, addressed to the Lebanese people, said: "You must disarm Hezbollah, Iran's shield" and "Lebanon is your decision, not someone else's".
Israeli Evacuation Orders Affect 14% of Lebanon, NGO Sayshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5250810-israeli-evacuation-orders-affect-14-lebanon-ngo-says
Emergency personnel at the scene after an Israeli airstrike had targeted a neighborhood in the town of Mieh Mieh near Sidon, southern Lebanon, 13 March 2026. (EPA)
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Israeli Evacuation Orders Affect 14% of Lebanon, NGO Says
Emergency personnel at the scene after an Israeli airstrike had targeted a neighborhood in the town of Mieh Mieh near Sidon, southern Lebanon, 13 March 2026. (EPA)
Over an eighth of Lebanon's territory is under Israeli orders for people to leave their homes, an aid group said on Friday, while the United Nations peacekeeping mission said Israeli ground troops were making incursions and erecting roadblocks.
Israel has been carrying out daily strikes on Lebanon since March 2 when the Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in Tehran on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Almost 700 people in Lebanon have died in Israeli attacks and over 800,000 have been displaced. Israel's military says it has targeted Hezbollah militants and Iranian forces.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said Israel's evacuation orders for southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut now covered about 1,470 square kilometers or about 14% of the country.
"Israel’s mass evacuation orders have expanded to broad geographic directives, often demanding immediate movement, creating panic and fear across communities that strikes are imminent – even when they are not," said Maureen Philippon, NRC Country Director in Lebanon.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk has said the blanket Israeli evacuation orders raise serious international law concerns.
NRC's office in Tyre, south Lebanon, was badly damaged, it said, with no injuries. The Israeli military has carried out several strikes on Tyre since March 2, including a Tuesday strike on what it described as a Hezbollah command center in the area.
The International Organization for Migration's Mathieu Luciano told a Geneva press briefing that around 600 shelters had been set up across the country, with many of them almost full. Hospitals are increasingly overstretched due to surging trauma cases, a World Health Organization official added.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon told the same briefing its operations had been limited by the ongoing hostilities which injured two soldiers a week ago. Still, its troops had observed Israeli troop incursions, saying they had travelled up to 7 kilometers inside Lebanon and erected roadblocks restricting access.
“We are deeply concerned that the situation will deteriorate further," UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said by video link from Lebanon.
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