Jordan’s King Abdullah, Yemen’s Al-Alimi Discuss Regional Security

Jordanian King Abdullah II receives the head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, in Amman yesterday (Saba News Agency)
Jordanian King Abdullah II receives the head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, in Amman yesterday (Saba News Agency)
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Jordan’s King Abdullah, Yemen’s Al-Alimi Discuss Regional Security

Jordanian King Abdullah II receives the head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, in Amman yesterday (Saba News Agency)
Jordanian King Abdullah II receives the head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, in Amman yesterday (Saba News Agency)

Jordan's King Abdullah II met the head of Yemen's presidential council, Rashad Al-Alimi, in Amman on Monday and discussed with him regional developments following Houthis escalating their terrorist attacks on Yemeni oil terminals.

Yemeni sources stated that Al-Alimi arrived in Amman on an official visit, accompanied by two members of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), Tariq Saleh and Abdullah Al-Alimi.

According to Saba news agency, talks between Al-Alimi and the Jordanian monarch touched on “developments in Yemeni affairs and regional security, in light of the increase in terrorist activities by the Houthi militia backed by the Iranian regime.”

The two sides also reviewed areas of cooperation between Jordan and Yemen, including bilateral coordination to face common security challenges.

Al-Alimi commended Jordan’s efforts to end the Yemeni crisis, expressing appreciation for the Kingdom’s support at the international stage for a political solution that restores security and stability to Yemen.

King Abdullah “reaffirmed Jordan’s keenness to support Yemen, its people, the unity and integrity of its territory and its legitimate national institutions.”

He also affirmed “Jordan's openness to all available forms of support to alleviate the human suffering of the Yemeni people and restore peace and stability in Yemen according to the relevant national, regional and international references.”

Yemen’s PLC had also stressed the implementation of deterrent punitive measures against Houthi militias in response to their terrorist actions. The PLC held the Iran-backed militias fully responsible for the repercussions of their attacks on the humanitarian level and the arrival of life-saving goods.

PLC measures include punishing Houthi leaders, affiliated entities, and individuals involved in financing the terrorist group.

The PLC also held Houthi militias responsible for what it described as “the dire consequences of devastating terrorist escalation, including the repercussions on life-saving humanitarian supplies, as well as the repercussions of employing a hostile approach to efforts to establish peace and stability in Yemen.”



‘Grave-Like’ Shelter to Tackle Winter, War in Gaza

Palestinian father Tayseer Obaid, who was displaced with his family from the northern Gaza Strip, sits with his children in a trench he dug at a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah, southern Gaza, Palestine, Jan. 8, 2025 (AFP)
Palestinian father Tayseer Obaid, who was displaced with his family from the northern Gaza Strip, sits with his children in a trench he dug at a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah, southern Gaza, Palestine, Jan. 8, 2025 (AFP)
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‘Grave-Like’ Shelter to Tackle Winter, War in Gaza

Palestinian father Tayseer Obaid, who was displaced with his family from the northern Gaza Strip, sits with his children in a trench he dug at a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah, southern Gaza, Palestine, Jan. 8, 2025 (AFP)
Palestinian father Tayseer Obaid, who was displaced with his family from the northern Gaza Strip, sits with his children in a trench he dug at a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah, southern Gaza, Palestine, Jan. 8, 2025 (AFP)

Amid freezing temperatures and heavy rain in war-torn central Gaza's Deir al-Balah, displaced Palestinian father Tayseer Obaid resorted to digging for a semblance of comfort.
In the clay soil of the encampment area where his family had been displaced by the war, Obaid dug a square hole nearly 2 meters deep and capped it with a tarpaulin stretched over an improvised wooden A-frame to keep out the rain.
“I had an idea to dig into the ground to expand the space as it was very limited,” Obaid said.
“So I dug 90 centimeters, it was okay and I felt the space get a little bigger,” he said from the shelter while his children played in a small swing he attached to the plank that serves as a beam for the tarpaulin.
In time, Obaid managed to dig 180 centimeters deep and then lined the bottom with mattresses, at which point, he said, “it felt comfortable, sort of.”
With old flour sacks that he filled with sand, he paved the entry to the shelter to keep it from getting muddy, while he carved steps into the side of the pit, AFP reported.
The clay soil is both soft enough to be dug without power tools and strong enough to stand on its own.
'Freezing to death'
For warmth, Obaid dug a chimney-like structure and fireplace in which he burns discarded paper and cardboard.
In front of the fireplace, his children rub their hands together, trying to find some warmth.
The pit provides some protection from Israeli air strikes, but Obaid said he feared the clay soil could collapse should a strike land close enough.
“If an explosion happened around us and the soil collapsed, this shelter would become our grave,” he said.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war that has ravaged the Palestinian territory for over 14 months.
The UN’s satellite center (UNOSAT) determined in September 2024 that 66% of Gaza’s buildings had been damaged or completely destroyed by the war, in which Israel has made extensive use of air strikes as it fights Hamas.
For Palestinian civilians fleeing the fighting, the lack of safe buildings means many have had to gather in makeshift camps, mostly in central and southern Gaza.
Shortages caused by the complete blockade of the coastal territory mean that construction materials are scarce, and the displaced must make do with what is at hand.
On top of the hygiene problems created by the lack of proper water and sanitation for the thousands of people crammed into the camps, winter weather has brought its own set of hardships.
On Thursday, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, warned that eight newborns died of hypothermia and 74 children died “amid the brutal conditions of winter” in 2025.
“We enter this New Year carrying the same horrors as the last — there’s been no progress and no solace. Children are now freezing to death,” UNRWA’s spokeswoman Louise Wateridge said.
More than 45,000 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.