Yemen Threatens to Punish Shipping Companies Cooperating with Houthis

Shipping vessels in Hodeidah port (Reuters)
Shipping vessels in Hodeidah port (Reuters)
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Yemen Threatens to Punish Shipping Companies Cooperating with Houthis

Shipping vessels in Hodeidah port (Reuters)
Shipping vessels in Hodeidah port (Reuters)

The Yemeni government threatened to revoke the licenses and block any shipping company cooperating with the Houthi militia.

Ports of Aden Corporation sent a letter to two shipping companies, warning against shipping towards Hodeidah port, stressing that the two companies approval to divert their shipping routes to Hodeidah "is a clear and explicit violation of the directives of the legitimate government."

The letter warned it might cancel the permits granted to the companies, stopping their activities in the ports, noting that any navigational activity not approved by the legitimate government is a recognition of the coup militias.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik asserted the need to take all measures that preserve public funds and implement decisions regulating imports, consistent with the government's obligations in combating money laundering and financing terrorism.

Abdulmalik chaired the ministerial committee meeting in Aden to discuss economic developments and develop solutions to secure trade in land and sea ports.

According to the Saba news agency, the committee discussed the measures and decisions to facilitate imports.

The committee also reviewed the plans and procedures to regulate trade movement, which could facilitate and ensure ease of arrival of goods and reduce the cost of transportation and insurance in the ports of the liberated areas.

The committee stressed the need to take all procedures and measures to preserve public funds, implement government decisions regulating imports, and comply with the government's obligations in combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

It emphasized taking the necessary steps to prevent transgressions or violations of local and international laws and mechanisms, including communicating with countries and export destinations.

According to the Yemeni official media, ministers briefed the committee on implementing previous decisions and the required mechanisms and procedures.

The Ministries of Transport and Trade denied any change in the ship's movement heading to Yemeni ports, including Hodeidah port, under the Houthi control.

They confirmed the ongoing coordination with the UN and the coalition supporting legitimacy of imposing the mechanisms.

Earlier, the Houthi militia claimed a change in the navigation movement heading to Hodeidah ports against the UN mechanism used to enter ships.

The Transport Minister, Abdulsalam Hameed, confirmed that the ship's movement to the ports in liberated areas and Aden had stayed the same.

Hameed assured major merchants, importers, and shipping companies there were solutions to the difficulties facing trade activity and organizing transportation of the goods according to the regulatory frameworks.

The government is in full coordination with the UN and the coalition led by Saudi Arabia, asserted the minister, accusing the militias of spreading lies.

He vowed that the government and its competent agencies would take all legal measures against commercial ships, cargo owners, and navigational agencies that violate the law and the mechanisms.



Israel Strikes across Southern Lebanon despite Truce

A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER
A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER
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Israel Strikes across Southern Lebanon despite Truce

A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER
A bulldozer clears the rubble of a partially damaged building targeted by an Israeli strike in the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 07 May 2026. EPA/STRINGER

Israel pummeled southern Lebanon on Thursday, state media and AFP correspondents said, a day after it targeted a Hezbollah commander in its first strike on Beirut's southern suburbs since a truce sought to end weeks of fighting.

The Israeli army said Thursday that the strike on the southern suburbs killed "the Commander of Hezbollah's 'Radwan Force' Unit", an elite unit within the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

A ceasefire in the war between Hezbollah and Israel began on April 17, but combat has largely not stopped in southern Lebanon.

Wednesday's strike near the capital, however, came as a shock in Lebanon.

AFP photographs taken in the southern suburbs showed the top floors of a residential building totally destroyed, and rescuers searching through the rubble on Thursday morning.

Hezbollah has not retaliated for the attack.

Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes across a number of southern towns and villages, and the Israeli army issued fresh evacuation warnings to three villages north of the Litani River, and outside the area occupied by Israeli troops following their ground invasion of the border area.

Some of the Israeli strikes, on the southern city of Nabatieh, targeted a shopping center and residential buildings, state media and an AFP correspondent said.

In the nearby village of Toul, two rescuers from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were wounded in an Israeli strike as they were dispatched following a previous attack, spokesperson Mahmoud Karaki told AFP.

The team's ambulance was heavily damaged, he added.

The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday that an "explosive drone impact" wounded four soldiers -- one severely -- in southern Lebanon the previous day.

Despite the ceasefire, Hezbollah regularly claims attacks against Israeli forces occupying parts of southern Lebanon.

Since the war began on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,700 people in Lebanon.

The Israeli military says it has lost 17 soldiers and a contractor in south Lebanon.


Israeli Attack Kills Son of Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayya

FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
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Israeli Attack Kills Son of Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayya

FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Hamas officials, Khalil Al-Hayya and Osama Hamdan, attend a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo

Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' exiled Gaza chief who had been leading indirect talks with Israel over the Palestinian enclave's future, died on Thursday, a day after he was wounded in a strike in Gaza City, medical sources and others from the Hamas movement told Asharq Al-Awsat.

One source at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital said that Azzam Al-Hayya’s injuries were “severe and critical,” while a Hamas source indicated that the Israeli attacks on Wednesday were large-scale and extensive, resulting in the deaths of at least five people across the Gaza Strip, in addition to the son of the senior Hamas leader.

Khalil Al-Hayya had already lost three sons in previous Israeli attempts on his life - two in Gaza in the 2008 and 2014 rounds of fighting, while the third was killed in an Israeli attempt to kill Hamas leadership in Doha last year.

Several of Al-Hayya’s daughters and grandchildren have also been killed in a series of attacks during the war in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Hayya is in Cairo as part of a Hamas delegation and is holding talks with regional mediators and the Board of Peace’s lead envoy, Nickolay Mladenov.

Al-Hayya on Wednesday accused Israel of trying to undermine mediators' efforts to ⁠push ahead with US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, overseen by his Board of Peace.


South Sudan's President Kiir Sacks Army Chief, Finance Minister in Latest Reshuffle

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)
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South Sudan's President Kiir Sacks Army Chief, Finance Minister in Latest Reshuffle

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (archive - Reuters)

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has dismissed the country's military chief and a finance minister who had been in post for less than three months, state media reported late on Wednesday.

The dismissals were the latest of frequent ‌changes in the top ‌ranks of Kiir's government ‌in ⁠recent years that ⁠analysts say signal an effort to consolidate power amid succession uncertainty.

The fired army chief, General Paul Nang, had occupied his position since October and his tenure had come under increasing scrutiny amid worsening insecurity in ⁠the country while the finance minister, ‌Salvatore Garang Mabiordit, ‌had served in the position since Feb 23, reported Reuters.

Kiir reappointed ‌General Santino Deng Wol as the ‌new army chief, state media South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation said. Wol, from South Sudan's Bahr El Gazal region where Kiir hails from, is ‌a close ally of the President and had served in the same ⁠post between ⁠2020 and 2024.

Kuol Daniel Ayulo, a career technocrat who had previously served at the finance ministry and ministry of trade as an undersecretary, has been appointed as the new finance minister, according to the state media. South Sudan has struggled to fully implement key reforms outlined in the 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war, including the unification of the armed forces and holding of elections.