Yemeni Official: Houthi Mines Disaster Will Last Decades

Houthi mines removed by the Masam project in Yemen. (Saba)
Houthi mines removed by the Masam project in Yemen. (Saba)
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Yemeni Official: Houthi Mines Disaster Will Last Decades

Houthi mines removed by the Masam project in Yemen. (Saba)
Houthi mines removed by the Masam project in Yemen. (Saba)

Director of Yemen's National Mine Action Program, Brigadier General Amin Al-Aqili accused the Iran-backed Houthi militias of continuing to plant mines in the war-torn country, saying the disaster they have created will take decades to resolve.

The Houthis have continued to plant the explosives in spite of the ongoing nationwide truce, he added, while noting that government estimates that the militias have planted over a million mines in Yemen.

He reiterated the call on the international community to pressure the Houthis to stop this malicious activity and hand over maps of where they planted the mines.

He stressed that the Houthis are systematically planting the mines and have accurate maps of their locations.

Moreover, the militias are still locally manufacturing the explosives, the parts of which are being smuggled from Iran, Aqili remarked.

Furthermore, he warned that the recent flooding in Yemen had displaced mines, urging citizens to exercise caution and inform authorities if they come across any suspicious object.

The floods have displaced mines in several regions in the Marib, Jawf, Shabwah, Taiz and Dhale provinces.

Aqili said efforts are ongoing to rid Yemen of the mines. Such work does not get suspended during a truce or peace, he added.

The threat of the mines will remain for dozens of years, even if the war were to end and the Houthis were to stop planting them, he lamented.

He hailed the efforts of Saudi Arabia’s Masam project that is dedicated to removing the mines.

Masam dismantled, during the third week of August, a total of 921 mines planted by the Houthis across Yemen, including 51 anti-personnel mines, 276 anti-tank mines, 590 unexploded ordnance and four explosive devices.

It has dismantled a total of 354,857 mines that have been arbitrarily planted by the militias.



Israeli Fire Kills 41 People in Gaza, Medics Say

 A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Fire Kills 41 People in Gaza, Medics Say

 A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)
A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 13, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 41 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, local health authorities said, at least five of them near two aid sites operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). 

Medics at Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza Strip said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire as they tried to approach a GHF site near the Netzarim corridor. Two others were killed en route to another aid site in Rafah in the south. 

An airstrike killed seven other people in Beit Lahia town north of the enclave, medics said. In Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 11 people in a house. The rest were killed in separate airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip, they added. 

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. 

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May after Israel partially lifted a near three-month total blockade. Scores of Palestinians have been killed in near-daily mass shootings trying to reach the food. 

The United Nations rejects the Israeli-backed new distribution system as inadequate, dangerous, and a violation of humanitarian impartiality principles. 

Later on Sunday, COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, said that this week it had facilitated the entry of 292 trucks with humanitarian aid from the United Nations and the international community, including food and flour, into Gaza. 

It said the Israeli military would continue to permit the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave while ensuring it did not reach Hamas. Hamas denies Israeli accusations that it steals aid and says Israel is using hunger as a weapon against the Gaza population. 

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday that at least 300 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,600 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza. 

"These are not humanitarian aid, these are traps for the poor and the hungry under the watch of occupation planes," said Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the health ministry. 

"Aid distributed under fire isn't aid, it is humiliation," Bursh posted on X on Sunday. 

The war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led fighters raided Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, on October 7, 2023, Israel's single deadliest day. 

Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the densely populated strip, which is home to more than two million people. Most of the population is displaced, and malnutrition is widespread.