Yemeni Government Prepares to Confront Houthi Intransigence

Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)
Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)
TT

Yemeni Government Prepares to Confront Houthi Intransigence

Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)
Yemeni cabinet meeting (Saba)

The Yemeni government is preparing for all possibilities to confront Houthi intransigence, Prime Minister Maeen Abdul-Malik said, calling for increasing its level of readiness.

Abdul-Malik said that using the truce to serve Iran's agenda is unacceptable.

He was speaking at the cabinet meeting in Aden, which discussed several political, military, economic, and service issues and government reform.

According to Saba news agency, the Prime Minister briefed the cabinet on the most recent developments, including the UN and international moves to extend the humanitarian ceasefire.

The cabinet asserted its firm position on compelling the Houthi militias to open Taiz roads, pay employees' salaries from the revenues of Hodeidah ports, and release all abductees and prisoners.

The government stressed the need to boost its preparedness for all possibilities until the state is restored and the Houthis end their coup.

The militias continue to defy the international community and the Yemeni people's will through their failure to implement the terms of the UN armistice and continue their military mobilization, said the cabinet.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, along with the US, EU, and regional countries, seek to extend the Yemeni truce, which expires on Oct. 2.

Yemeni sources said the Houthis will likely continue their intransigence in closing Taiz crossings and the roads between the provinces, seeking to prepare for another round of fighting.

The head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, hopes that his participation in the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly will lead to mobilizing political and economic support from world leaders.

Alimi is expected to deliver a speech on Thursday, according to official sources.

Meanwhile, the Houthi militia continues to obstruct all international efforts on the issue of prisoners and abductees while continuing its military parades and imposing levies and royalties to finance its war efforts.

The Yemeni army confirmed Wednesday that two soldiers were injured in a Houthi bombing on its positions in Taiz after a soldier was killed in a drone attack west of the city.

The media center of the Taiz military axis stated that it had monitored 17 violations of the UN truce, including repelling an attempt to infiltrate its positions on the al-Aqroud front, southeast of the city.

During the truce that began on Apr. 2, the Houthi militia recruited thousands of militants, redeployed them, and continued smuggling Iranian weapons into the country.

According to the Yemeni army, the Iranian-backed Houthis committed on Sunday 127 violations of the UN truce on various fronts.



Israeli Troops Battle Palestinian Fighters in Gaza City of Khan Younis

 Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Israeli Troops Battle Palestinian Fighters in Gaza City of Khan Younis

 Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli troops battled Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure, as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire, the military said on Friday.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said troops had killed around 100 Palestinian fighters since Israeli troops began their latest operation in Khan Younis on Monday, which continued as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the fighting.

It said seven small units that had been firing mortars at the troops were hit in an air strike, while further south, in Rafah, four fighters were also killed in air strikes.

The Islamic Jihad armed wing said it fired rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and other Israeli towns near Gaza. No casualties were reported, the Israeli ambulance service said.

The continued fighting, more than nine months since the start of Israel's invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack, underlined the difficulty the IDF has had in eliminating fighters who have reverted to a form of guerrilla warfare in the ruins of the coastal strip.

A Telegram channel operated by the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main militant groups in Gaza, said fighters had been waging fierce battles with Israeli troops east of Khan Younis with machine guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons.

Medics said at least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Khan Younis.

US PRESSURE

US President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, both urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a proposed ceasefire deal as soon as possible.

However there has been no clear sign of movement in talks to end the fighting and bring home some 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still being held in Gaza. Public statements from Israel and Hamas appear to indicate that serious differences remain between the two sides.

Local residents contacted by messenger app, said Israeli tanks had pushed into three towns to the east of Khan Younis, Bani Suhaila, Al-Zanna and Al-Karara and blew up several houses in some residential districts.

The military said air force jets hit around 45 targets, including tunnels and two launch pads from which rockets were fired into Beersheba in southern Israel.

Even while the fighting continued around Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, in the northern part of the enclave, Israeli tanks pushed into the Tel Al-Hawa suburb west of Gaza city, residents said.

A Hamas Telegram channel said fighters targeted an Israeli tank in Tal Al-Hawa and shot an Israeli soldier.

Medics said two Palestinians were also killed in an air strike in western Gaza city.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.

Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from armed groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killed or taken prisoner, out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.