17 Filipinos among Galaxy Leader crew held by Houthis in Yemen

The Galaxy Leader approaches the Port of Hodeidah, Red Sea, Yemen, Nov. 22, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 22 November 2023
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17 Filipinos among Galaxy Leader crew held by Houthis in Yemen

  • Foreign ministry says it is working to ‘bring them home safely’
  • Several EU citizens also reported to be among 25 captives

AL-MUKALLA: The Philippine government said on Wednesday that 17 of its citizens are among the 25 sailors held hostage by the Houthis in Yemen, as international pressure mounts on the Iran-backed militia to return the captured ship and release its crew.

On Sunday, the Houthis raided the vehicle carrier Galaxy Leader, which was traveling under the flag of The Bahamas in the Red Sea, and diverted it to Yemen’s western port city of Hodeidah, which they control.

They said the seizure of the ship, which they claim is owned by an Israeli businessman and was carrying Israelis, was intended to put pressure on Israel to end its bombing of Gaza.

“We are currently working with the Department of Foreign Affairs, as well as officials of the registered shipping and manning agency of the vessel to monitor the safety and well-being of the 17 Filipino seafarers onboard the ship, and to bring them home safely,” the Department of Migrant Workers of the Philippines said in a statement.

The EU mission in Yemen said that several EU nationals were also among the ship’s crew.

The capture of the ship sparked outcry in Yemen and around the world, with the Yemeni government and other nations accusing the Houthis of compromising Red Sea security and urging them to free the ship and its crew.

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak said during a meeting with EU ambassadors in Riyadh that the government opposed the act and that it would have no influence on the situation in Gaza.

He accused the Houthis of operating on Iran’s behalf to weaken Red Sea security.

The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the incident could threaten maritime free movement.

“The ship’s seizure as it transited the Red Sea in international waters and its diversion to Hodeidah are jeopardizing safe, free shipping in the region, in violation of international law. This act also undermines the interests of the Yemeni people and neighboring countries,” it said.

Despite the international outrage, the Houthis said they would only free the ship and its crew if Israel ceased its military operations in Gaza.

“We can talk about the Israeli ship if the US and Israel stop killing Palestinians in Gaza and start sending in water, medicine and food,” Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi said on X.

“The navy’s activities are consistent with the principle of reciprocity.”


Abbas to discuss weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps during Beirut visit: delegation member

Updated 11 sec ago
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Abbas to discuss weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps during Beirut visit: delegation member

  • Mahmoud Abbas will meet with the Lebanese president during his three-day visit to the country

RAMALLAH: A member of Mahmoud Abbas’ delegation to Beirut told AFP on Tuesday that the Palestinian president will discuss the issue of weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps during his three-day visit to the country.
“The issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps will be one of the topics on the agenda for discussion between President Abbas, the Lebanese President and the Lebanese government,” said Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee who is accompanying Abbas on the visit.


UK halts trade talks with Israel, summons envoy over Gaza

Updated 12 min 11 sec ago
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UK halts trade talks with Israel, summons envoy over Gaza

  • Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of 'egregious actions and rhetoric'
  • The moves are the UK's toughest stance yet against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza

LONDON: Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel on Tuesday and summoned its ambassador to the foreign ministry in its toughest stance yet against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “egregious actions and rhetoric” over its expansion of military operations in the Palestinian territory.
During an impassioned speech to Britain’s parliament, Lammy also said the UK government was imposing new sanctions on individuals and organizations involved in settlements in the West Bank.
“The world is judging, history will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” he said.
Lammy said Britain “cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration” in Gaza and was pausing negotiations with Israel on a new free-trade agreement.
He said Britain would be “reviewing cooperation” with Israel under its so-called 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel relations.

The world is judging, history will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop

Foreign Secretary David Lammy

“Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary,” Lammy said.
Israel’s government responded by saying “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.”
“If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement.
Lammy said the Israeli government’s plan to displace the Gaza population and its limiting of aid to civilians “facing starvation, homelessness and trauma” meant the conflict was “entering a dark new phase.”
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was being summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office in protest against “the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza.”
He added that Israel’s weeks-long blockade on aid entering the strip, which was marginally lifted on Monday, had been “cruel and indefensible.”
The UK government announced financial restrictions and travel bans, targeting prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss and two other individuals, as well as two illegal outposts and two organizations accused of backing violence against Palestinian communities.
Lammy said Israel suffered a “heinous attack” at the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants on October 7, 2023 and the UK government had backed Israel’s right to defend itself.
He repeated calls that Hamas must release all remaining Israeli hostages seized that day “immediately and unconditionally.” He also reiterated that Hamas “cannot continue to run Gaza.”
Britain and Israel opened negotiations on a free-trade agreement in 2022.
According to the British government, Israel was the country’s 44th-largest trading partner last year, with the two countries exchanging 5.8 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) in goods and services.


Rubio says US has not discussed deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya

Updated 22 min 2 sec ago
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Rubio says US has not discussed deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya

  • Rubio said he was not aware of Libya being included
  • He also said the US was pleased to see the resumption of food shipments to Gaza

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the United States has not discussed the deportation of Palestinians from Gaza to Libya, but he said that Washington had asked other countries in the region if they would be open to accepting Gazans who want to move voluntarily.

“What we have talked to some nations about is if someone voluntarily and willingly says I want to go somewhere else for some period of time because I’m sick, because my children need to go to school, or what have you, are there countries in the region willing to accept them for some period of time?,” Rubio said, adding that he was not aware of Libya being included in that.

Rubio also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States was pleased to see the resumption of food shipments to Gaza, adding that the United States understands that another 100 trucks are behind the initial ones to cross in to Gaza and more might enter in the coming days.


Lebanon pushes for local elections despite Israeli attacks

Updated 26 min 12 sec ago
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Lebanon pushes for local elections despite Israeli attacks

  • Interior minister underlines commitment to ensure elections are conducted with integrity and safety
  • Elections in the South and Nabatieh governorates, scheduled for their fourth phase this coming Saturday, will be held during ongoing Israeli incursions south and north of the Litani River

BEIRUT: The Lebanese government still faces one final — and perhaps the most security sensitive — electoral challenge: the elections in the South and Nabatieh governorates.

These elections, scheduled for their fourth phase this coming Saturday, will be held during ongoing Israeli incursions south and north of the Litani River.

Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar, in the southern city of Sidon on Tuesday, affirmed that “the government is mindful of the potential for Israeli violations and assaults during the municipal elections scheduled for Saturday. However, the decision remains clear and resolute regarding the continuation of the electoral process regardless of the circumstances.”

The minister emphasized to Mansour Daou, the governor of South Lebanon, and representatives of the security, military, and judicial agencies in the South, “the state’s commitment to ensuring that the elections are conducted with integrity and safety,” underscoring their significance as part of the reconstruction process for the people of the South.

In the lead-up to the elections, an Israeli military drone targeted a motorcycle on the road between Mansouri and Majdalzoun in the Tyre district, resulting in reports from the Ministry of Health indicating that “nine individuals were injured, including two children, with three of the injured in critical condition.”

Another Israeli drone launched a bomb at fishermen off the coast of Ras Al-Naqoura.

Attention in the south is focused on two issues: observing the extent to which people will participate in the elections, particularly those whose homes were destroyed and displaced to other villages; and monitoring Hezbollah’s ability to maintain its popularity in the south, where the devastation and rubble are still visible to the public. To date, no reconstruction has occurred in any facilities either north or south of the Litani River, because Israel has turned the border area into a devastated and desolate zone, maintaining its occupation of five strategic hills and daily thwarting any attempts to establish readymade rooms for logistical purposes to assist the affected population.

The latest data from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, as of May 12, indicates that since the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, “Israel has killed 156 individuals and injured 376 others, with a total of 3,138 air and maritime violations recorded.”

According to the Israeli army, “by the end of April, around 140 Hezbollah members had been eliminated, with the vast majority of assassinations (more than 50 percent) taking place south of the Litani River. Assassinations north of the Litani River and in the Bekaa region accounted for 48 percent of the operations; 33.3 percent north of the Litani River and 14.7 percent in the Bekaa.”

The Israeli army claimed that “the majority of the assassinated members belonged to Hezbollah’s Aziz, Nasr and Badr units.” In a new study, the Israeli Alma Center stated: “Those individuals were involved in the rehabilitation of infrastructure on the ground.” 


Rubio says Syria could be weeks away from ‘full-scale civil war’

Updated 20 May 2025
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Rubio says Syria could be weeks away from ‘full-scale civil war’

  • US Secretary of State says Syria is weeks away from a potential collapse and splitting up

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that Syria could be weeks away from a fresh civil war of “epic proportions,” as he called for support to the transitional leadership.
“It is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks — not many months — away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up,” Rubio told a US Senate hearing.
The top US diplomat spoke after a series of bloody attacks on the Alawite and Druze minorities in Syria, where Islamist-led fighters in December toppled Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive after a brutal civil war that began in 2011.
US President Donald Trump last week on a visit to Saudi Arabia announced a lifting of Assad-era sanctions and met with the guerrilla leader who is now Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.
Sharaa, clad in a suit and complimented by Trump as a “young, attractive guy,” was until recently on a US wanted list over jihadist connections.
Rubio quipped: “The transitional authority figures, they didn’t pass their background check with the FBI.”
But he added: “If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out.”
Rubio, who also met with Syria’s foreign minister in Turkiye on Thursday, blamed the renewed violence on the legacy of Assad, a largely secular leader who hailed from the Alawite sect.
“They are dealing with deep internal distrust in that country, because Assad deliberately pitted these groups against each other,” Rubio said.