Saudi Arabia says no involvement with strikes targeting Hodeidah

Saudi Ministry of Defense denied any involvement with Israeli strikes on Yemen. (X: @modgovksa)
Short Url
Updated 21 July 2024
Follow

Saudi Arabia says no involvement with strikes targeting Hodeidah

  • Ministry of Defense spokesman says the Kingdom will not allow any entity to use its airspace for offensive action
  • The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its deep concern over the escalating military situation in Yemen

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Sunday said it had nothing to do with the Israeli air strikes on Yemen’s city of Hodeidah and that it will not allow anyone to use the Kingdom’s airspace for offensive purposes.

“The Kingdom has no relation or involvement in the targeting of Hodeidah, and the Kingdom will not allow any entity to violate its airspace,” Brigadier General Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Defense, said in a statement on the X social media app.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed on Sunday its deep concern over the escalating military situation in Yemen.

In a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency, the ministry commented on the recent Israeli attack, stating that it “exacerbates the current tension in the region and undermines ongoing efforts to end the war in Gaza.”

 

 

The ministry urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to keep the region and its peoples safe from the dangers of war. It called upon the international community and influential parties to fulfill their roles and responsibilities in ending conflicts in the region.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed Saudi Arabia's commitment to ending the war in Gaza and its ongoing support for peace efforts in Yemen, aiming to alleviate the suffering of its people and achieve security and peace in the region.

Israeli warplanes struck the Houthi-held western Yemeni city on Saturday in an apparent reprisal for the Houthi drone strike on a Tel Aviv apartment building before dawn Friday, killing one civilian.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the airstrike was meant to send a message to the Houthis that their attacks would not be left unanswered.

The Iran-backed Houthi militia, which controls a large part of Yemen, had been attacking commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea and the Bab-Al-Mandab straight in a sympathy action for the Palestinians in Gaza amid Israeli attacks.

The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported that the Israeli strikes hit a power plant and a gasoline storage facility, killing three and wounding 87 people.

Unfazed by the swift Israeli response, Houthi officials threatened to continue attacking ships doing commerce with Israel and on Israel itself.

“We emphasize that this brutal aggression will only strengthen the determination and steadfastness of the Yemeni people and their valiant armed forces in their support for Gaza,” Mohammed Abdul Sallam, the Houthi chief negotiator based in Muscat, posted on X.

Houthi Shura Council member Abdul Sallam Jahaf said: “We will respond more violently and harshly to this Zionist-American orgy.” 

 


Divided EU weighs action against Israel over Gaza war

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Divided EU weighs action against Israel over Gaza war

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers on Tuesday discussed options for action against Israel over the war in Gaza — but looked unlikely to agree on any.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has put forward 10 potential steps after Israel was found to have breached a cooperation deal between the two sides on human rights grounds.
The measures range from suspending the entire accord or curbing trade ties to sanctioning Israeli ministers, imposing an arms embargo and halting visa-free travel.
Despite growing anger over the devastation in Gaza, EU states remain divided over how to tackle Israel and diplomats say there appears to be no critical mass for any move.
“I can’t predict how the discussion will go,” Kallas said, ahead of the foreign ministers’ talks in Brussels.
She said the main focus would likely be on how the EU could leverage improvements to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
That comes after Kallas on Thursday announced a deal with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, to open more entry points and allow in more food.
Gaza’s two million residents face dire humanitarian conditions as Israel has severely limited aid during its war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“We see some positive signs when it comes to border crossings open, we see some positive signs of them reconstructing the electricity lines, providing water, also more trucks of humanitarian aid coming in,” Kallas said Monday.
But she said the situation in Gaza remained “catastrophic.”
“Of course, we need to see more in order to see real improvement for the people on the ground,” she said.
Saar, speaking at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, was confident Israel would avoid further EU action.
“I’m sure not any of them will be adopted by the EU member states,” said the foreign minister. “There’s no justification whatsoever.”
While the EU appears unable to take further moves against Israel, just getting to this stage has been a considerable step.
The bloc only agreed to review the cooperation deal after Israel relaunched military operations in Gaza following the collapse of a ceasefire in March.
Until then deep divisions between countries backing Israel and those more favorable to the Palestinians had hamstrung any move.
In a sign of that, Hungary looked likely to maintain a block on more sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank despite French minister Jean-Noel Barrot making a fresh plea for action.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of 251 people taken hostage by Hamas, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says that at least 58,386 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign. The UN considers those figures reliable.

Attacks against Palestinians intensify in occupied West Bank, says UN rights office

Updated 15 July 2025
Follow

Attacks against Palestinians intensify in occupied West Bank, says UN rights office

  • About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its ‘Iron Wall’ operation
  • In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in over two decades in the West Bank

GENEVA: There has been an increase in killings of and attacks against Palestinians by settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

“Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its “Iron Wall” operation.

It is contributing to the ongoing consolidation of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, the OHCHR said.

In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in over two decades in the West Bank.

Since January there have been 757 settler attacks on Palestinians or their properties, which is a 13 percent increase on the same period last year, OHCHR said.

At least 964 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Fifty-three Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and in Israel in reported attacks by Palestinians or in armed clashes, the office added.


One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, says UN Palestinian refugee agency

Updated 15 July 2025
Follow

One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, says UN Palestinian refugee agency

  • One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished

GENEVA: One in ten children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza is malnourished, UNRWA said on Tuesday.
"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.


Israel military says striking Hezbollah targets in east Lebanon

Updated 20 min 46 sec ago
Follow

Israel military says striking Hezbollah targets in east Lebanon

  • “The military compounds that were struck were used by the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” a statement said
  • Defense Minister Israel Katz said the latest strikes were “a clear message” to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it was striking targets belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

“Moments ago, Israeli Air Force fighter jets... began numerous strikes toward Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Beqaa, Lebanon,” it said in a statement.

“The military compounds that were struck were used by the Hezbollah terrorist organization for training and exercising terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against (Israeli) troops and the State of Israel,” it added.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the latest strikes were “a clear message” to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government “which is responsible for upholding the agreement.”

“We will strike every terrorist and thwart any threat to the residents of the north and to the State of Israel — and we will respond with maximum force against any attempt at rebuilding,” he said in a statement from his ministry.

The military statement said an Israeli operation in September 2024 had “eliminated” Radwan force commanders in Beirut and southern Lebanon, but that “since then the unit has been operating to reestablish its capabilities.”

“The storage of weapons and the activities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization at these sites constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and constitute a future threat to the State of Israel,” it added.

Under the November ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.


Drone attack shuts Iraq oil field run by US company

Updated 15 July 2025
Follow

Drone attack shuts Iraq oil field run by US company

  • The Kurdistan natural resources ministry said the Sarsang oil field in Duhok province was hit
  • Strike called ‘an act of terrorism against the Kurdistan Region’s vital economic infrastructure’

IRBIL, Iraq: A drone strike forced a US company to suspend operations at an oil field in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region Tuesday, amid a wave of similar attacks targeting the region’s energy infrastructure.

The Kurdistan natural resources ministry said the Sarsang oil field in Duhok province was hit, calling the strike “an act of terrorism against the Kurdistan Region’s vital economic infrastructure.”

The attack followed a similar drone strike a day earlier in neighboring Irbil province.

HKN Energy, the US company, said Tuesday’s blast occurred at about 7:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) at one of its production facilities in the Sarsang field.

“Operations at the affected facility have been suspended until the site is secured,” it said in a statement.

A fire broke out following the explosion, which did not cause any casualties.

Emergency response teams have contained the blaze, the company said later in an update.

In the past few weeks, there has been a spate of drone and rocket attacks mostly affecting Kurdistan.

Long plagued by conflict, Iraq has frequently experienced such attacks, often linked to regional proxy struggles.

The explosion in Sarsang field occurred a day after three explosive-laden drone attacks were reported in Kurdistan, with one drone shot down near Irbil airport, which hosts US troops, and another two hitting the Khurmala oil field causing material damage.

There has been no claim of responsibility for those attacks.

But, on July 3, the Kurdistan authorities said a drone was downed near Irbil airport, blaming the Hashed Al-Shaabi – a coalition of pro-Iran former paramilitaries now integrated into the regular armed forces.

The federal government in Baghdad rejected the accusation.

The latest attacks come at a time of heightened tension between Baghdad and Irbil over oil exports, with a major pipeline through Turkiye shut since 2023 over legal disputes and technical issues.

In May, Iraq’s federal authorities filed a complaint against the autonomous Kurdistan region for signing gas contracts with two US companies, including HKN Energy.