Coalition demands Houthi release of hijacked UAE-flagged ship

Above, ships docked at the Hodeidah port, Yemen. Cargo ship RWABEE was hijacked while sailing off the coast of Hodeidah. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 09 January 2022
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Coalition demands Houthi release of hijacked UAE-flagged ship

  • Coalition: Ship had been transporting medical equipment from Socotra to Jazan Port when Houthis attacked it
  • Hijacking sparked condemnation in Yemen

AL-MUKALLA: The Coalition has threatened to use force if the Houthis do not immediately release the UAE-flagged cargo ship they hijacked off the Yemeni western port city of Hodeidah on Sunday.

The Coalition said the ship had been transporting medical equipment from the remote Yemeni island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea to the Saudi port of Jazan when armed Houthis attacked it.

“The terrorist Houthi militia will bear full responsibility as a result of its criminal act of piracy against the ship, which violates the customary International Humanitarian Law, the San Remo Manual on Armed Conflicts at Sea, and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” coalition spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. “The militia must promptly release the ship, or the coalition forces will undertake all necessary measures and procedures to handle this violation, including the use of force if necessary.”

Houthi military spokesperson Yahiya Sarae on Monday admitted seizing the ship, claiming it was carrying weapons and military supplies for the Saudi-led coalition.

The hijacking has sparked condemnation in Yemen and revived demands for purging the militia from western coastal areas under its control.

Yemeni experts and officials said the latest incident confirmed their concerns about Houthi threats to international maritime routes through the Red Sea, renewing their demands that the Houthis be designated a terrorist organization.

Sadek Dawed, a spokesman for the National Resistance Forces, a military unit battling the Houthis on the country’s west coast, accused Iran of pushing the militia into attacking ships to undermine security in the Red Sea, saying that the country’s reputation had been greatly damaged by attacks from Somali pirates, Al-Qaeda, and the Houthis.

“We condemn Iran's attempts to sabotage Yemen’s land, people, reputation and its capabilities,” he tweeted. “We reiterate the duty to support our national efforts to restore Yemen, which has been kidnapped by Iran's wars and its tools in the region.”

Yemeni journalist Samer Rashad Al-Yosofi attributed the hijacking to the international community’s lenient reactions to the militia’s crimes and its insistence on convincing the Houthis to accept peace efforts through peaceful means.

“Iran’s agents are talking about seizing a military cargo ship belonging to the coalition in the Red Sea, even though it is a commercial ship operating in Jazan. This is due to relying on mediations and peace initiatives presented to them (Houthis),” he said.

Journalist and activist Kamel Al-Khodani said the Houthi attack on the ship showed that the militia did not just pose a threat to Yemen.

“This hypocritical world must understand that we are fighting gangs and bandits that not only threaten Yemen but the world. There is no safety and no peace for the international sea lanes and the region before eliminating them.”

The coalition has intensified air raids against Houthi targets across Yemen, killing dozens and destroying vehicles.

It said on Sunday night that it had killed more than 200 Houthis and destroyed 22 military vehicles in the province of Shabwa during the past 24 hours.

The airstrikes have helped Yemeni government troops to make military gains and seize control of the district of Ouselan.


UN records 613 killings in Gaza near humanitarian convoys or aid distribution points run by US group

Updated 04 July 2025
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UN records 613 killings in Gaza near humanitarian convoys or aid distribution points run by US group

  • Deaths near aid points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near humanitarian convoys

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: The UN human rights office said Friday it has recorded 613 killings in Gaza near humanitarian convoys and at aid distribution points run by an Israeli-backed American organization since it first began operations in late May.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings. But she said “it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points” operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

She said it was not immediately clear how many of those killings had taken place at GHF sites, and how many occurred near convoys.

Speaking to reporters at a regular briefing, Shamdasani said the figures covered the period from May 27 through June 27, and “there have been further incidents” since then. She said she was basing the information on an internal situation report at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Shamdasani said the figures, compiled through its standard vetting processes, were not likely to tell a complete picture, and “we will perhaps never be able to grasp the full scale of what’s happening here because of the lack of access” for UN teams to the areas.


Israeli military prepares plan to ensure Iran cannot threaten country, defense minister says

Updated 04 July 2025
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Israeli military prepares plan to ensure Iran cannot threaten country, defense minister says

  • Longtime enemies engaged in 12-day air war in June
  • Israel and Iran agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire on June 24

DUBAI: The Israeli military is preparing an enforcement plan to “ensure that Iran cannot return to threaten Israel,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told senior military officials.

He said the military must be prepared, both in intelligence and operations, to ensure Israel has air superiority and to prevent Tehran from reestablishing its previous capabilities.

He made his remarks following a 12-day air war between the longtime enemies in June, during which Israel struck Iranian nuclear facilities, saying the aim was to prevent Tehran developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies seeking nuclear arms and that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

Israel and Iran agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire that ended hostilities on June 24.


Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal

Updated 04 July 2025
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Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal

  • Israel has earlier agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian militant group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a “final proposal” for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza.

The president also said he had spoken to Saudi Arabia about expanding the Abraham Accords, the deal on normalization of ties that his administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term.

Trump said on Tuesday Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalize a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.

He was asked on Friday if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, and said: “We’ll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours.”

A source close to Hamas said on Thursday the Islamist group sought guarantees that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal would lead to the end of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Dozens of Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza authorities.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.

A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of “ethnic cleansing.”

Abraham Accords

Trump made the comments on the Abraham Accords when asked about US media reporting late on Thursday that he had met Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the White House.

“It’s one of the things we talked about,” Trump said. “I think a lot of people are going to be joining the Abraham accords,” he added, citing the predicted expansion to the damage faced by Iran from recent US and Israeli strikes.

Axios reported that after the meeting with Trump, the Saudi official spoke on the phone with Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Trump’s meeting with the Saudi official came ahead of a visit to Washington next week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

Updated 04 July 2025
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Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’

  • Medical charity warns of new threat from escalation in fighting in Sudan civil war

KHARTOUM: Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March. Their predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

The paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state which they have besieged since May 2024 in an effort to push the army out of its final stronghold in the region.
“People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting ... but also actively targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of emergencies. There were “threats of a full-blown assault,” on El-Fasher, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people largely cut off from food and water supplies and deprived of access to medical care, he said.


Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

Updated 04 July 2025
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Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile.

“To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.

“The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia. We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water. Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 1.8 km wide and 145 meters high, and is Africa's largest hydroelectric project. It can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output. It will begin full operations in September.

Egypt already suffers from severe water scarcity and sees the dam as an existential threat because the country relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan met last week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile basin.” They were committed to safeguarding water security in the region, Sisi’s spokesman said.