Yemen’s Alimi Calls for Int’l Efforts to Stop Arms Smuggling to Houthis

The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, met Monday with the US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, in Riyadh. SABA
The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, met Monday with the US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, in Riyadh. SABA
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Yemen’s Alimi Calls for Int’l Efforts to Stop Arms Smuggling to Houthis

The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, met Monday with the US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, in Riyadh. SABA
The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, met Monday with the US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, in Riyadh. SABA

The head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, has said it was important for the international community to counter Iranian attempts so smuggle weapons to the Houthi militias.

Alimi met Monday with the US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, in Riyadh.

They discussed bilateral relations, the situation in Yemen and developments in the region and the world.

Alimi’s warning came as the Iran-backed Houthis have said they will continue to strike merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in what they call solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

State news agency SABA quoted Alimi as saying that Houthi attacks on vessels had severe repercussions on the living conditions of Yemenis, the people in the region and their national economies.

Meanwhile, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg has returned to Muscat as part of his efforts to support the pace process that is set to end the conflict in Yemen.

Grundberg’s office said on “X” that the envoy met in Muscat with the spokesman of the Houthi militias, Mohammed Abdulsalam.

It said that Grundberg also held talks with senior Omani officials. “They discussed ways to make progress on a UN roadmap for Yemen and the need for broader de-escalation in the Middle East,” said the statement.

In his latest briefing to the UN Security Council last week, the envoy called “on the parties to refrain from unilateral escalatory measures and engage in good faith dialogue under the auspices of the UN to find common solutions through collaboration, and to turn disputes into opportunities to take the path towards common prosperity.”

He also called for separating the Yemeni crisis from other crises in the region, including the Israeli war on Gaza.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.