During rare visit to Taiz, Yemeni leader vows to break Houthi blockade of city

Chairperson of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, pledged on Tuesday to free the remaining Houthi-held sections of Taiz. (Yemen News Agency)
Chairperson of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, pledged on Tuesday to free the remaining Houthi-held sections of Taiz. (Yemen News Agency)
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Updated 27 August 2024
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During rare visit to Taiz, Yemeni leader vows to break Houthi blockade of city

Chairperson of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, in Taiz.
  • Rashad Al-Alimi, chair of the Presidential Leadership Council, also promises to restore and improve public services
  • He announces dozens of planned projects for the city, including construction of a 30 megawatt power plant

AL-MUKALLA: The chairperson of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, pledged on Tuesday to free the remaining Houthi-held sections of the southern city of Taiz, break the militia’s more than nine-year blockade of the city, and restore and improve public services.

It came as he made his first official visit to Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, since taking up his position on the council in April 2022. Public dissatisfaction with his government has grown as a result of deteriorating services, a depreciated national currency, and the prolonged siege of the city, which has a population of more than 2 million.

The Houthi blockade began almost a decade ago, soon after militia forces failed to capture the city center, in the face of heavy resistance from government troops and allied resistance fighters. The Houthis instead took control of major gateways into the city, blocking people from leaving or entering and preventing humanitarian aid and other deliveries from passing through their checkpoints. As a result, residents and visitors are forced to negotiate difficult and treacherous routes to get into or out of the city.

Al-Alimi traveled to Taiz from the southern city of Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, in a lengthy convoy. From his vehicle he saluted the hundreds of people who had gathered to welcome him, including uniformed schoolchildren. Images and videos posted on social media depicted a loud, happy crowd waving the Yemeni flag, holding banners featuring Al-Alimi’s image and shouting slogans such as “With our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Yemen.”

Al-Amini’s vow to end the Houthi blockade of Taiz, liberate occupied areas from Houthi control, and restore or improve basic services such as power supplies came during a meeting with local government and military officials in the city.

During his visit, accompanied by two colleagues from the Presidential Council and other government officials, he also announced dozens of planned projects for the city, including construction of a 30 megawatt power plant. Another project, funded by the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen, will rehabilitate a medical and educational complex at Taiz University, including a medical school.

Col. Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a military officer in Taiz, told Arab News that Al-Amini’s convoy entered the city using the rugged and steep Heijat Al-Abed route that links Taiz with other parts of Yemen under government control. The road is being improved by another project funded by the Saudi development program.

“This is a dangerous route with a lengthy history of fatal vehicle accidents,” Al-Baher said. “This route has been the site of many many vehicle accidents involving government leaders, including the governor, and the public.”

Many of the Yemenis who welcomed Al-Alimi’s visit to Taiz urged him to take urgent action to end the Houthi blockade and improve conditions for residents of the city.

One public-sector worker, Wadea Hassan, told Arab News: “I would like him to prioritize the lifting of the siege of Taiz, ensure that salaries are paid on time, enhance the quality of services, particularly electricity and water, and devise a solution to the exorbitant prices.”


No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says

No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says
Updated 53 min 20 sec ago
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No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says

No formal mediation track on Lebanon ceasefire yet, Qatar ministry says

DOHA: There is no formal mediation track working toward a ceasefire in Lebanon yet, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told a press briefing on Thursday following days of violence between Hezbollah and Israel.
He said he was not aware of a “direct link” between a 21-day Lebanon ceasefire proposal and a Gaza ceasefire proposal on which Qatar had worked extensively alongside Egypt and the United States.


Israel far-right minister rejects Lebanon ceasefire, calls for ‘crushing’ Hezbollah

Israel far-right minister rejects Lebanon ceasefire, calls for ‘crushing’ Hezbollah
Updated 26 September 2024
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Israel far-right minister rejects Lebanon ceasefire, calls for ‘crushing’ Hezbollah

Israel far-right minister rejects Lebanon ceasefire, calls for ‘crushing’ Hezbollah
  • The United States, European Union issued a joint call for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon after Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah killed hundreds

JERUSULAM: Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday rejected a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon and called for the “crushing” of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The United States, European Union and other allies including several Arab states issued a joint call for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon after Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands in Lebanon this week.
The call for a three-week ceasefire came hours after Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Wednesday told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive against Hezbollah.
Smotrich, a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, opposed the proposal, insisting that continuing the war against Hezbollah was the only way forward.
“The campaign in the north should end with a single result: crushing Hezbollah and elimination of its ability to harm the residents of the north,” Smotrich said on X.
“The enemy must not be given time to recover from the heavy blows it has suffered and reorganize itself to continue the war after 21 days,” he said.
“Hezbollah’s surrender or war — this is the only way to bring back the residents and security to the north and the country.”

In a separate statement on X, opposition leader Yair Lapid said the Israeli government should only agree to a seven-day ceasefire.
This would “prevent Hezbollah from restoring its command and control systems,” Lapid said.
“We will not accept any proposal that does not include the withdrawal of Hezbollah from our northern border.”
Smotrich, along with far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, has been a strong advocate of continuing the war in Gaza too, where Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants led by the Islamist group Hamas since October 7.
The Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon a day later in what it says is solidarity with its ally Hamas.
Since then Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in fierce cross-border clashes, which worsened this week when Israel launched a withering bombing campaign in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah sites in the deadliest violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.


Israel sends scores of bodies to Gaza; Palestinians demand details before burying them

Israel sends scores of bodies to Gaza; Palestinians demand details before burying them
Updated 26 September 2024
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Israel sends scores of bodies to Gaza; Palestinians demand details before burying them

Israel sends scores of bodies to Gaza; Palestinians demand details before burying them
  • The bodies were brought into Gaza in a container loaded on a truck through an Israeli-controlled crossing
  • Health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis refused to receive them and bury them, urging the ICRC to seek details from Israel

CAIRO: Israel returned the bodies on Wednesday of 88 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which the territory’s health ministry refused to bury before Israel discloses details about who they are and where it killed them.
The bodies were brought into Gaza in a container loaded on a truck through an Israeli-controlled crossing, but, according to Palestinian officials, there was no information provided about the names or ages of the victims or locations where they died.
Health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis refused to receive them and bury them, urging the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC to seek details from Israel.
“The health ministry halted the procedures to receive the container (carrying the bodies) until the completion of the full data and information about those bodies so their relatives can identify them,” the ministry said in a statement.
The head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said health ministry officials told the driver of the truck to bring the bodies of dead Palestinians back to the Israeli crossing from which he had arrived. The truck then left the hospital.
“They must act according to the international humanitarian law and in a way that preserves the dignity of the martyrs and their families,” Ismail Al-Thawabta told Reuters.
The Red Cross said it wasn’t involved in the transfer process.
“We reiterate that all families have the right to receive news about their loved ones and bury them respectfully and in line with their traditions,” said a statement issued by the ICRC.
Under International Humanitarian Law, those who have died during an armed conflict must be handled with dignity and be properly managed. The law requires that they be searched for, collected and evacuated, which helps ensure that people do not go missing, the ICRC statement added.
The Civil Emergency Service tasked with finding people missing under rubble, on roads and in ruined buildings in Gaza says it has been notified of around 10,000 people missing during the near year-long Israeli assault on Gaza.
Gaza health authorities list more than 41,000 Palestinians confirmed killed in the assault, which Israel launched after Hamas fighters attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and capturing around 250 hostages.
In recent days the conflict has spread to another major theater, with Israel launching the biggest airstrikes on Lebanon in nearly two decades, targeting the Hezbollah movement, which has been rocketing Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

MORE STRIKES IN GAZA
War in Gaza has not let up, even as the conflict in Lebanon has escalated. Many months of diplomatic efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire have yielded little progress, with Israel refusing any deal to halt the fighting without the total defeat of Hamas.
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 14 Palestinians on Wednesday, medics said.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israeli forces continued their operations in different areas of the city, amid clashes with Hamas-led fighters, according to residents and statements posted by militants.
Medics said at least eight Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli strikes on two houses in Rafah. One of those strikes killed a woman and her children, they added.
In another attack in Bureij, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, five Palestinians were killed in a house hit by an Israeli missile, medics said.
Israel has also sent tanks into the eastern area of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, and medics said a woman was killed in an air strike on a house in the town earlier on Tuesday.


What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah

What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
Updated 26 September 2024
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What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah

What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
  • The United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire in the conflict to “provide space for diplomacy”
  • Israeli officials say they haven’t yet made an official decision to expand military operations against Hezbollah

CAIRO: Since mid-September, there has been a dizzying escalation in the nearly yearlong conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
First came two days of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah — attacks pinned on Israel that killed at least 39 people and maimed thousands more.
Hezbollah’s leader vowed to retaliate, and on Sept. 20 the militant group launched a wave of rockets into northern Israel. Since then, both sides have fired dozens of rockets on a daily basis, forcing hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the north to huddle in air raid shelters, and prompting tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in parts of southern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
The United Nations said more than 90,000 Lebanese people have been displaced in recent days.
Lebanon said Israeli strikes Monday killed more than 560 Lebanese and injured almost 2,000 in the deadliest attack since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. Several Hezbollah leaders have been targeted in the attacks, including the commander of its most elite unit who was killed in a strike in Beirut.
The United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire in the conflict to “provide space for diplomacy” as fears grow that the violence could become an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which would further destabilize a region already shaken by the war in Gaza. Both sides have said they don’t want that to happen, even as they have defiantly warned of heavier attacks.
Israel and Hezbollah have launched repeated strikes against each other since the Israel-Hamas war began, but both sides have pulled back when the spiral of reprisals appeared on the verge of getting out of control, under heavy pressure from the US and its allies. In recent weeks, however, Israeli leaders have warned of a possible bigger military operation to stop attacks from Lebanon to allow hundreds of thousands of Israelis displaced by the fighting to return to homes near the border.
Here are some things to know about the situation:
What were the latest strikes?
Israel said it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile that targeted Tel Aviv. Hezbollah said it fired a Qader 1 ballistic missile targeting the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.
The Israeli military said it was the first time a projectile fired from Lebanon has reached central Israel, although Hezbollah claims it also targeted an intelligence base near Tel Aviv in August. This has not been confirmed.
Israel said its air force hit some 280 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon on Wednesday. Lebanon’s health minister said the latest Israeli strikes killed more than 70 people and injured hundreds more. This count brings the death toll to more than 630 Lebanese people in three days.
Two Israelis were wounded by shrapnel after dozens of Hezbollah rockets were fired into northern Israel, the military said.
What is the situation on the border?
The Israel-Lebanon border has seen almost daily exchanges since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, killing more than 630 people in Lebanon, and about 50 soldiers and civilians in Israel. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised to retaliate for the electronic device bombings. But Hezbollah also has proved wary of further stoking the crisis. The group faces a difficult balance of stretching the rules of engagement by hitting deeper into Israel in response to its brazen attacks, while at the same time trying to avoid the kind of large-scale attacks on civilian areas that can trigger a full-scale war that it could be blamed for.
Hezbollah says its attacks against Israel are in support of its ally Hamas. Nasrallah said the barrages will continue — and Israelis won’t be able to return to homes in the north — until Israel’s campaign in Gaza ends.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told NBC News on Wednesday that the US is working on a diplomatic agreement to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
What is Israel planning?
Israeli officials say they haven’t yet made an official decision to expand military operations against Hezbollah — and haven’t said publicly what those operations might be.
The head of Israel’s Northern Command has been quoted in local media advocating for a ground invasion of Lebanon, and the Israeli army chief, LT. Gen. Herzi Halevi, told troops stationed on the northern border Wednesday that ongoing air strikes were “to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”
Halevi continued: “Later today, they will receive a very strong response. Prepare yourselves.”
Meanwhile, as fighting in Gaza slowed, Israel increased its forces along the Lebanese border, including the arrival of a powerful army division believed to include thousands of troops. And on Wednesday, Israel announced it will further deploy two reserve brigades for missions in the north.
What would be the impact of a full-blown war?
A new war could be even worse than the one in 2006, which was traumatic enough to serve as a deterrent for both sides ever since. That fighting killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and an estimated 1,100 Lebanese civilians, and left large swaths of the south and parts of Beirut in ruins. More than 120 Israeli soldiers were killed and hundreds wounded. Hezbollah missile fire on Israeli cities killed dozens of civilians.
Israel estimates that Hezbollah possesses about 150,000 rockets and missiles, some of which are precision-guided, putting the entire country within range. Israel has beefed up its air defenses, but it’s unclear whether it can defend against the intense barrages of a new war.
Israel says it could turn southern Lebanon into a battle zone, saying Hezbollah has embedded rockets, weapons and forces along the border. And in the heightened rhetoric of the past months, Israeli politicians have spoken of inflicting the same damage in Lebanon that the military has wreaked in Gaza.


US, France and allies call for ‘immediate’ 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah

Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Tyre, Lebanon September 25, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Tyre, Lebanon September 25, 2024. (Reuters)
Updated 26 September 2024
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US, France and allies call for ‘immediate’ 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah

Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following an Israeli strike, as seen from Tyre, Lebanon September 25, 2024. (Reuters)
  • In a joint statement, the allies said the recent fighting is “intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation”
  • The signatories include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia and Canada

NEW YORK: The US, France and other allies jointly called Wednesday for an “immediate” 21-day ceasefire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.
The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is “intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation.”
“We call for an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy,” the statement reads. “We call on all parties, including the Governments of Israel and Lebanon, to endorse the temporary ceasefire immediately.”
The signatories include the United States, Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the UN Security Council during a meeting that “we are counting on both parties to accept it without delay.”
Barrot said France, a former colonial power to Lebanon, and the US had consulted with the sides on “final parameters for a diplomatic way out of this crisis,” adding that “war is not unavoidable.”
US deputy ambassador to the UN Robert Wood encouraged the council to support the diplomatic efforts but didn’t offer specifics about the plan.
“We are working with other countries on a proposal that we hope will lead to calm and enable discussions to a diplomatic solution,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US administration was “intensely engaged with a number of partners to deescalate tensions in Lebanon and to work to get a ceasefire agreement that would have so many benefits for all concerned.”
Blinken and other advisers to President Joe Biden have spent the past three days at and on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly meeting of world leaders in New York lobbying other countries to support the plan, according to US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic conversations.
Americans hope such a ceasefire could lead to longer-term stability along the border between Israel and Lebanon. Months of Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of fire across the border drove tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border, and escalated attacks this week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle East.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein have been meeting with Middle East allies in New York and have been in touch with Israeli officials about the proposal, one of the US officials said. McGurk and Hochstein have been the White House’s chief interlocutors with Israel and Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, another Iranian-backed militant group.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu has given the green light to pursue a possible deal, but only if it includes the return of Israeli civilians to their homes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati threw his support behind the French-US plan that “enjoys international support and which would put an end to this dirty war.”
He called on the Security Council “to guarantee the withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied Lebanese territories and the violations that are repeated on a daily basis.”
Israel’s UN Ambassador, Danny Danon, told journalists at the United Nations that Israel would like to see a ceasefire and the return of people to their homes near the border: “It will happen, either after a war or before a war. We hope it will be before.”
Addressing the Security Council later Wednesday night, he made no mention of negotiations on a temporary ceasefire but said Israel “does not seek a full-scale war.”
Both Danon and Mikati reffirmed their governments’ commitment to a Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon. Never fully implemented, it called for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by Lebanese forces and UN peacekeepers, and the disarmament of all armed groups including Hezbollah.
Danon demanded that the resolution be enforced in full without delay: “I make this declaration here today, to remove any doubt: Never again. Never again will the Jewish people hide from the monsters whose purpose in life is to murder Jews.”
Earlier Wednesday, Biden warned in an appearance on ABC’s “The View” that “an all-out war is possible” but said he thinks the opportunity also exists “to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region.”
Biden suggested that getting Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire could help achieve a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. That war is approaching the one-year mark after Hamas raids in southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. Israel responded with an offensive that has since killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, who do not provide a breakdown of civilians and fighters in their count.
“It’s possible and I’m using every bit of energy I have with my team … to get this done,” Biden said. “There’s a desire to see change in the region.”
The US and other international mediators have tried and failed for months to broker a ceasefire in Gaza that also would release hostages held by Hamas.
The US government also raised the pressure with additional sanctions Wednesday targeting more than a dozen ships and other entities it says were involved in illicit shipments of Iranian petroleum for the financial benefit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the chief of Israel’s army said Wednesday that the military is preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon as Hezbollah hurled dozens of projectiles into Israel, including a missile aimed at Tel Aviv that was the militant group’s deepest strike yet.
Blinken has been urging both Israel and Hezbollah to step back from their intensifying conflict, saying that all-out war would be disastrous for the region and that escalation was not the way to get people back to their homes on the Israel-Lebanon border.
“It would be through a diplomatic agreement that has forces pulled back from the border, create a secure environment, people return home,” Blinken told NBC News. “That’s what we’re driving toward because while there’s a very legitimate issue here, we don’t think that war is the solution.”