Captured gang members chart Iran arms supplies to Houthi militias in Yemen
Captured gang tells of route to Yemen through base in Somalia
Updated 01 October 2020
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: A captured gang of arms smugglers has revealed how Iran supplies weapons to Houthi militias in Yemen through a base in Somalia.
The Houthis exploit poverty in Yemen to recruit fishermen as weapons smugglers, and send fighters to Iran for military training under cover of “humanitarian” flights from Yemen to Oman, the gang said.
The four smugglers have been interrogated since May, when they were arrested with a cache of weapons in Bab Al-Mandab, the strategic strait joining the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
In video footage broadcast on Yemeni TV, gang leader Alwan Fotaini, a fisherman from Hodeidah, admits he was recruited by the Houthis in 2015. His recruiter, a smuggler called Ahmed Halas, told him he and other fishermen would be based in the Somali coastal city of Berbera, from where they would transport weapons and fuel to the Houthis.
In late 2015, Fotaini traveled to Sanaa and met a Houthi smuggler called Ibrahim Hassam Halwan, known as Abu Khalel, who would be his contact in Iran.
This is a complex network that requires constant monitoring, hence the focus on maritime security.
Dr. Theodore Karasik, Security analyst
Pretending to be relatives of wounded fighters, Fotaini, Abu Khalel, and another smuggler called Najeeb Suleiman boarded a humanitarian flight to Oman, and then flew to Iran. They were taken to the port city of Bandar Abbas, where they received training on using GPS, camouflage, steering vessels and maintaining engines.
“We stayed in Bandar Abbas for a month as they were preparing an arms shipment that we would be transporting to Yemen,” Fotaini said.
On Fotaini’s first smuggling mission, his job was to act as a decoy for another boat carrying Iranian weapons to the Houthis. “The plan was for us to call the other boat to change course if anyone intercepted our boat,” he said.
He was then sent to Mahra in Yemen to await new arms shipments. The Houthis sent him data for a location at sea, where he and other smugglers met Abu Khalel with a boat laden with weapons from Iran, which were delivered to the Houthis.
Security analyst Dr. Theodore Karasik said long-standing trade ties between Yemen and Somalia made arms smuggling difficult to stop. “This is a complex network that requires constant monitoring, hence the focus on maritime security,” Karasik, a senior adviser to Gulf State Analytics in Washington, DC, told Arab News.
“The smuggling routes are along traditional lines of communication that intermix with other maritime commerce. The temptation to look the other way is sometimes strong, so sharp attention is required to break these chains.”
Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Hamas was claiming flexibility in public while making “entirely impractical” demands
The agreement reached in January, under pressure from the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump one, called for a phased ceasefire aimed at freeing all the hostages abducted in Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack and ending the war it caused
Updated 13 sec ago
AP
JERUSALEM: The wave of Israeli strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday was the culmination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to get out of the ceasefire with Hamas that he agreed to in January.
Since the start of the war, Netanyahu has faced dueling, possibly incompatible pressures: Families of the hostages want him to cut a deal with Hamas to free them, while his far-right coalition partners want to continue the war with the aim of annihilating the militant group.
On Tuesday, he appeared to cast his lot with the latter — and US President Donald Trump’s administration has backed Netanyahu’s decision to unilaterally walk away from the ceasefire it took credit for brokering.
Both Israel and the United States blame the renewed hostilities on Hamas’ refusal to release more hostages before negotiations on ending the war proceed — which was not part of the ceasefire agreement. Israel has accused Hamas of preparing for new attacks, without providing evidence. The militant group has denied those allegations.
Hamas — which has yet to respond militarily to the Israeli strikes — has spent weeks calling for serious talks on the ceasefire agreement’s second phase, which calls for the release of the remaining living hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire.
Those talks were supposed to begin in early February. Now they may never happen. What did the ceasefire agreement say?
The agreement reached in January, under pressure from the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump one, called for a phased ceasefire aimed at freeing all the hostages abducted in Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack and ending the war it caused.
Under the first phase, which ran from Jan. 19 to March 1, Hamas released 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in return for nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences for deadly attacks. Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to what remained of their homes, and there was a surge of humanitarian aid.
Each side accused the other of violations, and Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians the military accused of engaging in militant activities or entering no-go zones. But the truce held.
Still, the second phase was always seen as far more difficult.
Through months of negotiations, Netanyahu had repeatedly cast doubt on it, insisting Israel was committed to returning all the hostages and destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities — two war goals that many believe are irreconcilable.
In a TV interview last June, Netanyahu cast doubt on the possibility of a lasting ceasefire before Hamas is destroyed. “We are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas. I’m not willing to give up on that,” he said.
On Jan. 18, the eve of the ceasefire, he said “we reserve the right to return to war if necessary with the backing of the United States.” Why did Netanyahu back out of the ceasefire?
Agreeing to a permanent ceasefire would almost certainly plunge Netanyahu into a political crisis that could end his nearly uninterrupted 15-year rule.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had threatened to leave the coalition if Netanyahu progressed to Phase 2 instead of restarting the offensive. Opposition parties have promised to support him in any agreement that brings back hostages, but his coalition would still be severely weakened, making early elections likely.
By resuming the fighting, Netanyahu ensured Smotrich’s continued support. After the strikes, the Israeli leader regained another far-right partner, Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose party had bolted in January over the ceasefire but returned to the coalition Tuesday.
Beyond the political jockeying, Netanyahu’s stated goal of annihilating Hamas would have almost certainly eluded him had he stuck with the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas survived 15 months of Israeli bombardment and ground operations that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and destroyed much of Gaza. When the truce took hold, the militant group immediately reasserted its rule.
There’s no agreement on who should govern Gaza after the war, and even if the Western-backed Palestinian Authority were granted nominal control, Hamas would have strong influence on the ground and could rebuild its military capabilities.
For many Israelis, especially Netanyahu’s hawkish base and far-right allies, that would look like defeat. It would add to the criticism he already faces over security failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. How did Netanyahu end the truce?
After the first phase ended, Netanyahu said Israel had agreed to what he described as a new US proposal in which Hamas would release half the remaining hostages in return for a seven-week extension of the truce and a vague promise to launch negotiations over a lasting ceasefire.
Hamas refused, pointing out that the new proposal was different from the one they had agreed to in January and again called for the immediate launch of talks on Phase 2.
It even offered to return an America-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages to get the talks back on track, an offer dismissed as “psychological warfare” by Israel. Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Hamas was claiming flexibility in public while making “entirely impractical” demands.
In an attempt to impose the new arrangement on Hamas, Israel halted the import of all food, fuel and other humanitarian aid to Gaza. It later cut off electricity, affecting a vital desalination plant. Israel also said it would not withdraw from a strategic corridor on Gaza’s border with Egypt, as stipulated in the agreement.
In recent days, Israel stepped up strikes across Gaza, targeting people it said were planting explosives or engaging in other militant activities. On Tuesday, at around 2 a.m., it launched one of the deadliest waves of strikes since the start of the war. What has Trump said about the ceasefire?
Trump took credit for brokering the ceasefire in January, but since then has appeared to sour on it. He has warned that “all hell” will break loose if Hamas does not immediately release the hostages, while saying that’s a decision for Israel to make.
Trump has also proposed that Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians be permanently relocated so the US can take ownership of Gaza and develop it as a tourist destination. Netanyahu has embraced the plan, which has been universally condemned by Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights experts, who say it would violate international law.
The White House said it was consulted ahead of Tuesday’s strikes and supported Israel’s decision.
CAIRO: At least 10 US strikes targeted areas in Yemen, including Sanaa, the capital, and Hodeidah, Yemen’s Houthi media reported early on Wednesday.
The US launched a wave of strikes in areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthis, who said last week they were resuming attacks on Red Sea shipping to support Palestinians in Gaza.
West Bank livestock theft symbol of tensions and settler ‘impunity’
Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably from Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
Updated 19 March 2025
AFP
JERICHO, Palestinian Territories: A community of Palestinian Bedouins has decried a major theft of their livestock in the occupied West Bank, where the UN says violence from Israeli settlers is taking place in a climate of impunity.
On March 7, dozens of Israeli settlers, some of them armed, attacked Palestinian residents in Ras Ein al Auja while under the protection of Israeli forces, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Resident Haitham Suleiman Zayed described how around 40 vehicles arrived in the pastoral area in the Jordan Valley, accompanied by “army forces and armored Israeli vehicles.” More than 1,500 livestock were stolen, he said.
An Israeli settler herds a flock near the bedouin community of al-Auja west of Jericho in the Israel-occupied West Bank on March 16, 2025, which was attacked the previous week by Israeli settlers who reportedly stole sheep. (AFP)
“We tried to confront them by throwing stones at them to make them move away from this enclosure, but we could not do that,” Zayed, 25, told AFP, adding that Israeli forces had intervened to protect the thieves, whom he referred to as settlers.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military referred to a police statement issued the day after the incident.
The statement said police had intervened after receiving a report regarding the theft of 50 sheep from Zohar’s farm — a settler outpost run by Zohar Sabah, an Israeli targeted in November by United States sanctions against settlers involved in acts of violence.
This picture shows a view of the Bedouin community of al-Auja west of Jericho in the Israel-occupied West Bank on March 16, 2025, which was attacked the previous week by Israeli settlers who reportedly stole sheep. (AFP)
The sanctions introduced by the administration of former president Joe Biden were canceled by President Donald Trump on his return to power.
“Police and (Israeli) forces began searching for the flock and arrived at a Bedouin encampment near the Palestinian village of Auja, where they located the (settler’s) stolen flock,” the Israeli police statement said.
“The Palestinian suspect was arrested and taken for interrogation, where he admitted to the act,” it added.
A boy from the bedouin community of al-Auja looks at an empty sheepfold after sheep were reportedly stolen by Israeli settlers in an attack the previous week, west of Jericho in the Israel-occupied West Bank on March 16, 2025. (AFP)
OCHA said that according to eyewitnesses, “settlers physically assaulted and injured a Palestinian man, stole approximately 1,400 livestock, killed 12 goats, and damaged at least three houses and several solar panels.”
The Palestinian man injured during the confrontation was “restrained by Israeli police while settlers beat him,” the UN office added.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.
“The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers,” he added.
His comments came as his office released a new report on the situation in the West Bank between October 2023 and last November.
“The line between settler and state violence (has) blurred to a vanishing point, further enabling an increase in violence and impunity,” the report said.
OCHA said that Israeli settlers in February bulldozed an area of Ras Ein al Auja to build a road connecting two settlement outposts.
“From Masafer Yatta in the south to the northern Jordan Valley in the north, there is not a single square meter safe from settler attacks,” said Zayed.
“The main goal is to displace people,” he added.
Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably from Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Since early last year, the territory has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 911 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 32 Israelis over the same period, according to official figures.
Will the deal between Damascus and Syria’s Kurds help achieve national reconciliation?
In a step toward national unity, the Syrian interim government and Kurdish-led SDF signed a landmark integration deal on March 10
Outbreak of violence against Alawites has raised concerns among Kurds about Syrian militias’ commitment to minority rights
Updated 19 March 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: In a bid to unify the Syrian Arab Republic, the interim government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces signed a landmark deal on March 10. The enactment remains uncertain, though, particularly after the recent constitutional declaration.
Aimed at integrating all military and civilian institutions into the Syrian state, the deal comes at a critical time as President Ahmad Al-Sharaa seeks legitimacy amid growing international scrutiny over the killings of minority Alawites by allied militias.
If enacted, the agreement “could significantly reshape Syria’s post-war landscape,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Arab News.
“The timing is key,” he said. “The deal comes as Syria faces major security challenges, including recent massacres on the coast and Israeli interventions in the south. These pressures likely pushed Damascus to sign the agreement.”
Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst, says signing the deal with SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi allows Al-Sharaa “to present himself as a leader committed to ensuring all identities are represented in Syria’s future.”
According to Civiroglu, Abdi is “a highly respected figure not only among Kurds but also across other communities, such as the Alawites, Druze, and Christians.”
Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa signed an integration deal with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi on March 10. (SANA)
Kurdish groups, united under the umbrella of the SDF and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), have condemned the recent attacks on Alawites — the ethno-religious group from which the Assad family traces its roots.
Abdi described the attacks as part of a “systematic campaign against Syria’s minorities.” He told Reuters news agency that Al-Sharaa must “intervene to halt the massacres.”
On March 6, the deadliest bloodshed since Bashar Assad’s fall in December began when Assad loyalists ambushed security forces in Jableh, Latakia province, killing 13. The attack set off a wave of reprisals, with revenge killings targeting Alawite civilians.
Violence escalated further on March 9 as clashes reignited in Banias, also in Latakia, when security forces came under attack at a power plant. Within days, at least 1,300 people, including 973 civilians, were killed, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Against this backdrop, Rami Abdulrahman, head of the SOHR, told a Kurdish news channel that tens of thousands of Alawites who had fled the violence on the coast for the safety of the mountains believe an SDF presence in their areas could provide a “safe haven.”
Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attending a funeral ceremony. (AFP/File)
The Damascus-SDF deal, set for implementation by the end of the year, recognizes that “the Kurdish community is indigenous to the Syrian state,” guaranteeing “its right to citizenship and all of its constitutional rights,” according to a presidential statement.
It also mandates a complete cessation of hostilities in SDF-controlled areas, which have been under attack by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army since Dec. 8, when a Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham-led coalition ousted the Assad regime.
“For Syrian Kurds in Rojava — Kurdish Syria — the agreement guarantees recognition of their rights, something they lacked under Assad before the war,” said Hawach of the International Crisis Group.
The deal also includes economic benefits for both sides.
Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says oil is a key part of the agreement and “will be key to raising revenue for the new Syria.”
The interim government “will gain full control over the oil fields, which is a triumph, but the Kurds will get half the proceeds, which was a win for them,” he told Arab News.
“This will allow the government to hire foreign oil companies to repair Syria’s dilapidated industry and energy infrastructure. Syria needs major foreign investment in its energy sector, which was impossible so long as control over the oil region was contested.”
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration chats with a woman on the street in the Al-Shalaan area in central Damascus. (AFP)
Syria’s oil industry is in a dire state, with production plummeting from pre-war levels of up to 400,000 barrels per day to as little as 80,000, according to S&P Global, a financial intelligence and analytics firm.
Years of conflict, sanctions, and damaged infrastructure have crippled the sector, leaving Syria heavily reliant on imports. Reviving oil production is seen as critical to funding the country’s reconstruction, which could cost up to $400 billion.
Reinforcing Landis’ argument, Hawach said the deal’s implementation could “provide economic benefits — as the northeast is Syria’s most resource-rich region — and open the door for joint efforts with Damascus against (Daesh).”
He added: “For Syrians under the HTS-led administration, the deal marks a major step toward national reintegration. The return of 30 percent of Syria under Damascus’ control, after over a decade of fragmentation, could improve governance, service delivery, and economic stability.”
The move, seen as a step toward national reconciliation after 14 years of conflict, has been welcomed by the UN and regional and Western countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, France, Germany, and Canada.
However, Hawach stressed that the agreement’s success hinges on how the parties resolve the still undecided practical aspects of reintegration.
Landis agrees that while the deal “gives a degree of autonomy to northeastern Syria” and sets out key principles, it is “not a fully worked-out plan,” he said.
“Many of the thorny details will have to be worked out in the future,” he added.
Landis pointed out that “a key element is the military,” explaining that “the Kurds insisted on having their own force, resident in the northeast.”
People walk on a busy street of the Druze-majority Jaramana city in the Damascus countrysid (AFP)
Under the accord, the SDF must integrate into the Syrian Defense Ministry and cede control of all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeastern semi-autonomous region it has controlled since 2015.
“There has been a compromise in that the SDF will be placed under the Ministry of Defense, but only regional forces will be placed in the northeast,” said Landis. “How this will all work out is not clear.
“The Kurds are clearly hoping for something similar to the arrangement in Iraq, where in essence they have their own mini ministry of defense,” he added.
In Iraq, the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs oversees the Kurdistan Region’s own armed forces, which are responsible for protecting the semi-autonomous territory’s borders, land and sovereignty.
Landis said Syria’s interim president “does not want to accord the minorities autonomy,” adding that “he has stated that Syria will have a centralized state.”
People walk on a street in the town of Douma, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. (AFP)
Furthermore, “the new constitution makes no mention of a special arrangement for the Kurds,” he added.
On March 13, Al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitution establishing Islamist rule in Syria for a five-year transitional period. The following day, the SDF’s political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council, rejected the constitutional declaration and called for it to be redrafted.
The council argued that the temporary constitution “reintroduces authoritarianism” by centralizing power and granting unchecked authority to the executive.
“The SDC strongly rejects any attempt to recreate dictatorship under the guise of a ‘transitional phase.’ Any constitutional declaration must be the result of genuine national consensus, not a project imposed by one party.”
The council called for “a complete reformulation of the declaration” to “ensure a fair distribution of power, guarantee freedom of political activity, and recognize the rights of all Syrian components.”
Israel’s surprise bombardment plunged Palestinians back into ‘hell’
Israel not only blocked all supplies from entering Gaza two weeks ago but also cut off electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant last week
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan had even provided moments of joy as families held communal sunset meals ending each day’s fast without the fear of bombardment
Updated 19 March 2025
AP
DEIR EL BALAH, Gaza Strip: The Israeli bombs began falling before dawn, lighting the sky with orange flares and shattering the stillness.
The surprise wave of airstrikes plunged Palestinians back into a nightmare they had hoped might be behind them.
The bombs crashed across Gaza early Tuesday, setting fire to a sprawling tent camp in the southern city of Khan Younis and flattening a Hamas-run prison. They hit the Al-Tabaeen shelter in Gaza City, where Majid Nasser was sleeping with his family.
“I went out to see where the bombing was. Suddenly the second strike happened in the room next to us,” he said. “I heard screaming, my mother and sister screaming, calling for help. I came and entered the room and found the children under the rubble.” Everyone was injured, but alive.
Palestinians tried to claw bodies from the wreckage with their bare hands. Parents arrived at hospitals, barefoot, carrying children who were limp and covered in ash. Streets and hospitals filled with bodies.
By midday, over 400 people had been killed. It was one of the deadliest days of the 17-month war, following two months of ceasefire.
During the truce that began on Jan. 19, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza had returned to their homes, many of them destroyed. A surge of aid brought food and medicines — until Israel cut off aid two weeks ago to pressure the Hamas militant group into accepting a new proposal instead of continuing with the truce.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan had even provided moments of joy as families held communal sunset meals ending each day’s fast without the fear of bombardment.
Instead, the war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused widespread destruction was back with full force.
“What is happening to us is hell. Hell in every sense of the word,” said Zeyad Abed, as he stood among the blackened remains of tents in Khan Younis.
Fedaa Heriz, a displaced woman in Gaza City, said victims were killed in their sleep just before the predawn meal ahead of the daily Ramadan fast.
“They set the alarm to wake up for suhoor, and they wake up to death? They don’t wake up?” she screamed.
Fedaa Hamdan lost her husband and their two children in the strikes in Khan Younis.
“My children died while they were hungry,” she said, as funeral prayers were held over their bodies.
Hospitals ‘felt like Armageddon’
Scenes at hospitals recalled the early days of the war, when Israel launched a massive bombardment of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Survivors on Tuesday held rushed funeral rites over dozens of body bags lining the yard of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Mothers sobbed over the bloodied bodies of children, as warplanes hummed overhead. Doctors struggled to treat the flow of wounded.
“A level of horror and evil that is really hard to articulate. It felt like Armageddon,” said Dr. Tanya-Hajj Hassan, a volunteer with the Medical Aid for Palestinians aid group.
She described the Nasser Hospital emergency room in Khan Younis as chaos, with patients, including children, spread across the floor. Some were still wrapped in the blankets they had slept in.
Dr. Ismail Awad with the Doctors Without Borders aid group said the clinic received about 26 wounded people, including a woman seven months pregnant with shrapnel in her neck. She later died.
“It was overwhelming, the number of patients,” Awad said.
At the Al-Attar clinic in Muwasi in southern Gaza, medical staff said they were forced to operate without light bulbs and emergency ventilation devices.
Israel not only blocked all supplies from entering Gaza two weeks ago but also cut off electricity to the territory’s main desalination plant last week. That has again created scarcities in medicine, food, fuel and fresh water for Gaza’s over 2 million people.
Palestinians flee once more
New Israeli evacuation orders covering Gaza’s eastern flank next to Israel and stretching into a key corridor dividing Gaza’s north and south sent Palestinians fleeing again.
Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, published a map on X telling Palestinians in those areas, including highly populated neighborhoods, to leave immediately and head for shelters.
“Continuing to remain in the designated areas puts your life and the lives of your family members at risk,” he said.
The evacuation zone appeared to include parts of Gaza’s main north-south road, raising questions about how people might travel. Palestinians nevertheless gathered their belongings and set out, hardly knowing where to go.
UNICEF spokesperson Rosalia Bollen recalled that the days before the bombardment felt uneasy. She could sense fear. Children would ask if she believed the war would start again.
“This nightmare scenario has been on everyone’s mind,” she said. “It’s just heartbreaking that it is materializing right now and that it is shattering the last piece of hope that people had.”
