DUBAI: Yemen’s government condemned the Houthi militia’s repeated attacks in camps for the displaced in Marib, state news agency Saba New reported.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that the Houthi militia has targeted displaced persons camps north of Marib with artillery and missile shells.
The attacks have caused dozens of casualties, most of which are women and children, the ministry said, adding that attacks have so far displaced 576 families.
Yemen’s government condemns Houthi attacks on refugee camps
https://arab.news/2knqs
Yemen’s government condemns Houthi attacks on refugee camps

Norwegian NGO decries Israel plan to take over Gaza aid

- Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south”
OSLO: An Israeli plan to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza at hubs controlled by the military is “fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) told AFP on Monday.
Israel’s security cabinet said there was “currently enough food” in the territory which has been under full Israeli blockade since March 2, and approved overnight the “possibility of humanitarian distribution” in Gaza.
“We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” Jan Egeland told AFP.
He said “the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.”
Israel has accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian aid — which Hamas denies — and said its blockade was necessary to pressure the militant group to release Israeli hostages.
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened, where it’s a completely inoperable system.”
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he said, adding: “We will have no part in that.”
“If one side in a bitter armed conflict tries to control, manipulate, ration aid among the civilians on the other side, it is against everything we stand for,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli scheme “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies.”
International aid organizations as well as Palestinians in Gaza have for weeks warned of a dire humanitarian situation on the ground.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has depleted its food stocks and that the 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza have closed due to a lack of flour and fuel.
Iraq’s justice minister says prisons are at double capacity as amnesty law takes effect

- Justice Minister Khaled Shwani acknowledged the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison health care and human rights standards
BAGHDAD: As a general amnesty law takes effect in Iraq, the country’s prisons are facing a crisis of overcrowding, housing more than double their intended capacity, the country’s justice minister said in an interview.
Justice Minister Khaled Shwani told The Associated Press on Saturday that Iraq’s 31 prisons currently hold approximately 65,000 inmates, despite the system being built to accommodate only half that number.
He acknowledged that the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison health care and human rights standards.
“When we took office, overcrowding stood at 300 percent,” he said. “After two years of reform, we’ve reduced it to 200 percent. Our goal is to bring that down to 100 percent by next year in line with international standards.”
Thousands more detainees remain in the custody of security agencies but have not yet been transferred to the Ministry of Justice due to lack of prison capacity. Four new prisons are under construction, Shwani said, while three have been closed in recent years. Two others have been opened and six existing prisons expanded.
The general amnesty law passed in January had strong support from Sunni lawmakers who argue that their community has been disproportionately targeted by terrorism charges, with confessions sometimes extracted under torture.
But opponents say the law would allow the release of people involved in public corruption and embezzlement as well as militants who committed war crimes.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group, said in a statement that “the current version of the general amnesty law raises deep concerns over its potential legal and security consequences.”’
Shwani said 2,118 prisoners have been released from the justice ministry’s prisons since the amnesty law took effect, while others had been released from the custody of security agencies before being transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
“We have a committee studying the status of inmates and identifying those who may qualify for release, but the vision is not yet final,” he said. The minister said he expects a “good number” to be released but “cannot specify an exact percentage until we receive clarity from the judiciary on who qualifies for the amnesty.”
Iraq’s prisons house hundreds of foreign nationals, most of them convicted of terrorism-related charges or affiliation with the Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The inmates hail from countries including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Egypt, North African nations, and several European states, as well as a handful of US citizens. Shwani said discussions are underway with several governments to repatriate their citizens, excluding those sentenced to death.
He said inmates have been repatriated under existing agreements with Iran, Turkiye, and the United Kingdom, including 127 Iranian inmates who were recently transferred back to Tehran.
An Iranian who was convicted in the 2022 killing of a US citizen in Baghdad remains in custody, however, Shwani said.
Stephen Edward Troell, 45, a native of Tennessee, was fatally shot in his car in November by assailants as he pulled up to the street where he lived in Baghdad’s central Karrada district with his family. Iranian citizen Mohammed Ali Ridha was convicted in the killing, along with four Iraqis, in what was described as a kidnapping gone wrong.
All executions have been halted following the issuance of the general amnesty law, Shwani said.
Iraq has faced criticism from human rights groups over its application of the death penalty and particularly over mass executions carried out without prior notice to lawyers or family members of the prisoners.
Shwani pushed back against the criticisms of prison conditions and of the executions.
“There are strict measures in place for any violations committed against inmates,” he said. “Many employees have been referred for investigation, dismissed, and prosecuted.”
He insisted that the “number of executions carried out is limited — not as high as reported in the media” and said the death penalty is only applied in “crimes that severely threaten national security and public safety,” including inmates convicted in a 2016 bombing attack in Baghdad’s Karrada district that killed hundreds of people, as well as cases of child rape and high-ranking Daesh leaders.
Executions have been paused to reassess cases under the new amnesty law, he said.
Israeli authorities destroy Palestinian homes in West Bank cities

- Israeli authorities demolish 25 structures that belonged to the Dababseh family in Khallet Al-Dabaa village
- In Ramallah, forces raze a 150 sq. meter home that housed five people
LONDON: Israeli authorities demolished several Palestinian structures, including homes, in occupied West Bank cities on Monday.
Israeli forces demolished two homes in Al-Mughayyir village, north of Ramallah. They also destroyed a 200 sq. meter home in Al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya, for building without a permit. Additionally, several structures were demolished in the Jordan Valley.
Wafa reported that Israeli authorities demolished 25 structures that belonged to the Dababseh family in Khallet Al-Dabaa village, including homes, water wells, naturally formed caves, agricultural rooms, barns, and solar panels, after forcibly evicting residents.
In Ramallah, forces demolished a 150 sq. meter home that housed five people, while a demolition notice was issued for another house.
In the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli forces destroyed homes and livestock pens belonging to residents in Khirbet Al-Deir, while in Nabi Elias village, it raided several vehicle repair garages, the Wafa news agency reported.
The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, associated with the Palestinian Authority, reported that Israeli forces or settlers carried out 1,693 attacks on Palestinian towns, their properties, and lands in April.
Woman killed as gunmen attack Damascus nightclub: monitor, witness

- A witness, requesting anonymity for security reasons, said he “heard gunfire at dawn” as he was near the nightclub
- “I saw a woman’s body, blood stains on the ground, and chaos after the shooting,” he said
DAMASCUS: Armed men opened fire inside a club in Damascus on Monday, killing a woman, according to a witness and a war monitor, the second attack in a week targeting the Syrian capital’s nightlife.
The perpetrators or their motives were unknown. Some Syrians have expressed fears that the country’s new authorities would seek to impose restrictions on public behavior but it was unclear whether the attackers were linked to them.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that “unidentified gunmen attacked the Al-Karawan nightclub in the Hijaz area with automatic weapons and opened fire, killing a woman and wounding others.”
A witness, requesting anonymity for security reasons, said he “heard gunfire at dawn” as he was near the nightclub.
He told AFP that he “did not dare to enter the club until some time after the firing stopped.”
Inside the club, “I saw a woman’s body, blood stains on the ground, and chaos after the shooting,” he said.
Contacted by AFP, the interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the deadly attack.
The club is located in a commercial area in the heart of Damascus, where many licensed nightclubs and bars have been operating for decades.
A resident of the same street said security forces had been monitoring the venue from a vehicle for days.
A local vendor said “there has never been any problem with the nightclub” in the five years he has worked in the area.
Hours before the shooting, a video circulated on social media showing security camera footage from a previous attack on a nightclub in the same area.
The footage, verified by AFP, shows gunmen entering the venue before beating fleeing men and women with their weapons.
Authorities said on Sunday that the gunmen involved in the first incident had been arrested.
“After initial investigations and reviewing the recordings, the individuals involved in the assault were identified, arrested and transferred to the judiciary,” the interior ministry said in a statement carried by Alekhbariah television.
“Any transgression or assault affecting citizens or public facilities will be met with strict legal measures,” it added.
Since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, the intentional community has been pressing Syria’s new rulers to respect personal freedoms, protect minorities and include all components of society in the transitional period.
UAE to teach AI in government schools from kindergarten up

DUBAI: UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid announced on Sunday that artificial intelligence lessons would be introduced for public-school children of all ages starting the next academic year.
In a tweet on X, Sheikh Mohammed wrote that the UAE cabinet had approved “the final curriculum to introduce ‘Artificial Intelligence’ as a subject across all stages of government education in the UAE, from kindergarten to grade 12, starting from the next academic year.
“Our goal is to teach our children a deep understanding of AI from a technical perspective, while also fostering their awareness of the ethics of this new technology,” he continued.
“Our responsibility is to equip our children for a time unlike ours, with conditions different from ours.”
As part of the UAE’s long-term plans to prepare future generations for a different future, a new world, and advanced skills, the UAE government today approved the final curriculum to introduce “Artificial Intelligence” as a subject across all stages of government education in the…
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) May 4, 2025
The step aims to equip students with the essential knowledge and skills to understand AI concepts appropriate for each academic level.
UAE Minister of Education Sarah Al-Amiri said this integration of AI into classrooms reflects the “UAE government’s future-focused vision,” according to a statement on WAM News Agency.
The UAE will be among the first countries to introduce AI in school curricula, the statement added.
The AI curriculum will cover seven key areas, including foundational concepts, data and algorithms, software use, ethical awareness, real-world applications, innovation and project design, and policies and community engagement.