DUBAI: The second batch of 153 stranded Yemenis in India landed in Aden Airport on Saturday, state news agency Saba News reported.
Health specialists were present at the airport to carry out precautionary measures for those arriving.
The arrivals where then transported by health and security officials into an isolation center to provide them with the necessary health service.
A crumbling health system in war-torn Yemen led thousands of its citizens to seek treatment overseas.
Earlier last year, Yemen’s internationally recognized government said it will begin the first evacuation flights for citizens who have been stranded abroad since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The first evacuation flight was sent to Jordan after Yemen’s Supreme National Emergency Committee created procedures and timetables for scheduling the return of citizens to Yemen.
Second batch of Yemenis stranded in India due to pandemic arrive in Aden
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Second batch of Yemenis stranded in India due to pandemic arrive in Aden

- Health specialists were present at the airport to carry out precautionary measures for those arriving
- A crumbling health system in war-torn Yemen led thousands of its citizens to seek treatment overseas
Israel army issues evacuation warning for 14 areas of north Gaza

The army told residents in an Arabic-language statement that it was “operating with intense force in your areas, as terrorist organizations continue their activities and operations” there.
A similar warning for parts of northern Gaza was issued on Wednesday evening in what the army said was a response to rocket fire.
It said that one “projectile that was identified crossing into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted” by the air force.
It later announced three more launches from northern Gaza, but said the projectiles had fallen inside the Palestinian territory.
Israel has ramped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas.
The territory’s civil defense agency said Israeli attacks had killed at least 19 people on Thursday.
Turkiye’s Erdogan says Damascus must keep focused on Kurdish SDF deal

- Ankara views the SDF and its factions as a terrorist group
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Syria’s government must keep focused on its deal with the Kurdish, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) under which it is to integrate into the Syrian armed forces, pressing Damascus for its implementation.
Speaking to reporters on a flight from Budapest, he said Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and the United States had a committee to discuss the fate of Daesh militants in prison camps in northeast Syria, which have been run by the SDF for years.
Ankara views the SDF and its factions as a terrorist group.
“We are especially following the YPG issue very, very closely. It is important for the Damascus administration not to take its attention away from this issue,” his office on Thursday cited him as saying. The YPG militia spearheads the SDF.
He added that Iraq should focus on the issue of the camps, as most women and children at the Al-Hol camp there were from Iraq and Syria, and that Iraq should repatriate its nationals.
Israel intercepts two missiles launched from Yemen, military says

- Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a ballistic missile toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and two drones toward the Tel Aviv area
Israel’s military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen and that sirens had sounded twice across the country including in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Thursday, as the Houthis stepped up attacks.
Houthi Military Spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a ballistic missile toward Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and two drones toward the Tel Aviv area.
Undeterred by Israeli strikes on Yemen, the Houthis said they would continue to fire at Israel even though they have agreed to a ceasefire with the United States to halt attacks on US ships in the Red Sea.
Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes including one on May 6 that damaged Yemen’s main airport in Sanaa, and another last week targeting the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, most of which have been intercepted or have fallen short.
The group says it is acting in support of Gaza’s Palestinians.
ICC prosecutor says Netanyahu arrest warrant should remain as Israel jurisdiction challenge is heard
ICC prosecutor says Netanyahu arrest warrant should remain as Israel jurisdiction challenge is heard

- Prosecutors argue there is ‘no basis to withdraw or vacate’ the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant
- Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nationals
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: International Criminal Court prosecutors have urged judges to reject a request by Israel to scrap arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister while the court reconsiders its jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.
In a 10-page written submission posted on the ICC website late Wednesday, prosecutors argue there is “no basis to withdraw or vacate” the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The warrants were issued in November, when judges found there was “reason to believe” Netanyahu and Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials strongly deny the accusations.
The prosecution document was signed on behalf of prosecutor Karim Khan, who temporarily stepped down on Friday pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
The filing argues it is important for the underlying investigation to continue in the “current situation where crimes are ongoing and escalating.”
Last month, appeals judges ordered a pretrial panel to reconsider an Israeli challenge to the court’s jurisdiction.
Israel argued in its application for the warrants to be withdrawn that the court “doesn’t have, and never had” jurisdiction to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nations. The Hague-based institution, however, has accepted “The State of Palestine” as one of its 126 member nations.
ICC chief prosecutor Khan is currently on leave until the conclusion of an external probe into accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.
An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court’s independent watchdog.
Along with the warrants for the Israeli officials, the court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn in February, after his death in an Israeli airstrike was confirmed.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan’s critique of Gaza war toll on Palestinians sparks outcry

- Yair Golan’s comments are some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza
- It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy
TEL AVIV, Israel: Killing babies “as a hobby.” “Expelling a population.” “Fighting against civilians.”
It is some of the harshest language against Israel’s wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.
It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war strategy, especially his failure to free all the hostages held by Hamas. What made the comments by center-left opposition party leader Yair Golan rare – and jarring to officials across the political spectrum – was their focus on the plight of Palestinians.
The ensuing controversy underscored how little the war’s toll on Gaza’s civilians has figured into the public discourse in Israel – in stark contrast to the rest of the world.
Speaking to the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet, Golan – a former general – said Israel was becoming a pariah state and cautioned that “a sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set for itself the goals of expelling a population.”
After the outcry, he said he was referring to the conduct of Israel’s far-right government in his remarks, not of its soldiers.
A rare focus on the plight of Palestinian civilians
Golan’s words were a shock to the system because, outside of the country’s politically marginalized left, criticism focused on Palestinian civilian suffering and deaths has rarely been spoken publicly in Israel.
The reasons for this include: the trauma Israelis still feel over Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7. 2023, Jewish citizens’ deep faith in the righteousness of the military, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza and soldiers are dying to rescue them.
Criticism of the war has focused overwhelmingly on Netanyahu. His opponents believe his own political motives have dictated war strategy and his failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release all the hostages – an accusation he denies.
“Part of the Israeli public and media outlets are still trapped in an obsession over the initial shock that started this war,” said Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister and fierce critic of the current government. “But this is changing and it’s just a matter of time.”
Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages held by Hamas, around a third of whom are said to be alive.
Opponents of the war have tended to focus on concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and the risk of soldier casualties in a campaign that many feel has run its course.
While Olmert disputed Golan’s choice of words, he said the essence of his remarks “reflects what many people think.”
Israelis are still traumatized by Hamas’ attack
After Hamas’ 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Israelis rallied behind the military. They saw the war as a just response to the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. Many Israelis cannot imagine a future where Hamas remains intact.
Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90 percent of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape.
While international media coverage has largely focused on the war in Gaza and its toll on civilians there, in Israel the media still devotes heavy attention to the Oct. 7 attack itself and the hostage crisis. Photos of those still held captive line the streets.
Stories about the plight of Palestinian civilians are less prominent, and largely avoid the harshest images emanating from Gaza. Most outlets repeat the official line that Hamas is solely to blame for the civilian toll.
For many Jewish Israelis, it is hard to fathom that their own children, most of whom must enlist in Israel’s military, could be committing the crimes that Golan described.
All that has helped solidify a national narrative that views the war as an existential struggle.
“When you fight a war of existence, you don’t much think about the suffering of the enemy,” said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
Golan’s words have sparked outcry before
A former deputy chief of staff of the military, Golan’s words have sparked outcry in the past. The most notable occasion was a 2016 speech marking Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day, when he compared what he said was an increasingly illiberal atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.
On Oct. 7, Golan donned his uniform and grabbed a gun to help battle militants during Israel’s flailing first response to Hamas’ assault. Olmert called him “one of Israel’s greatest warriors.”
Golan is not the first public figure to have made such remarks about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Former defense minister and military chief of staff Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of ethnic cleansing during a major operation last year. Zehava Galon, a former leader of a dovish political party, highlighted the deaths of thousands of children at a recent protest in Tel Aviv.
But unlike them, Golan has his political future at stake, lending more weight to his words.
Pictures of dead Palestinian children
Netanyahu said Golan’s words “echoed disgraceful antisemitic blood libels.” Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, said Golan’s remarks were extreme and false and called on him to recant and apologize, which he did not do. Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, said Golan’s words were “a gift to our enemies.”
Rosner said Golan’s wording was “uncareful” and that instead of triggering introspection, they prompted a media debate over Golan himself and the damage his remarks might cause to Israel.
But they could resonate among the steadfast anti-war protest movement, said Alma Beck, an activist who is part of a small contingent of demonstrators who have been holding up pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza ever since Israel ended a ceasefire in March. She said the group began as 20 people and has grown to 600, still just a fraction of the thousands attending the broader anti-government protests.
Beck said the protest movement has been receptive to messages that focus on the Palestinian toll, and more signs with that message have been held up by demonstrators in recent weeks. Their main criticism remains that Netanyahu is continuing the war to appease his governing partners and ensure his own political survival.
“I think there is a shift. I think people are starting to connect the dots,” she said, while noting that the bulk of Israeli society hasn’t changed. “I hope that it will only grow.”