15 killed in an explosion and fire at a gas station in central Yemen

A Yemeni walks and looks through debris and rubble at a destroyed gas station in the northwestern Hajjah province. (AFP file photo)
A Yemeni walks and looks through debris and rubble at a destroyed gas station in the northwestern Hajjah province. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 12 January 2025
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15 killed in an explosion and fire at a gas station in central Yemen

15 killed in an explosion and fire at a gas station in central Yemen

CAIRO: An explosion at a gas station triggered a massive fire in central Yemen, killing at least 15 people, health officials said Sunday.
The explosion occurred Saturday at the Zaher district in the province of Bayda, the Houthi rebel-run Health Ministry said in a statement. At least 67 others were injured, including 40 in critical condition.
The ministry said rescue teams were searching for those reported missing. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion.
Footage circulated online showing a massive fire that sent columns of smoke into the sky and left vehicles charred and burning.

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The explosion occurred in the Zaher district in the province of Bayda, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said.

Bayda is controlled by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have been at war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government for more than a decade.
Elsewhere in Bayda, the Houthis attacked and looted Hanaka Al-Masoud village in the Al-Qurayshiya district last week, according to the internationally recognized government. It said there were fatalities but gave no figures.
Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said the attack came after a weeklong siege of the village.
“This horrific attack targeted citizens’ homes and mosques, and resulted in many casualties, including women and children, and the destruction of property,” he said.
Rights activist Riyadh Al-Dubai said the Houthis detained dozens of men and looted homes, seizing valuables such as gold, money, daggers and other possessions. He said shelling by the Houthis had continued relentlessly day and night for more than five days.
The US Embassy in Yemen condemned the attack, saying in a statement that the “deaths, injuries, and wrongful detentions of innocent Yemenis perpetrated by Houthi terrorists are depriving the Yemeni people of peace and a brighter future.”

 


Morocco foils 78,685 migrant attempts to reach Europe in 2024

Morocco foils 78,685 migrant attempts to reach Europe in 2024
Updated 06 February 2025
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Morocco foils 78,685 migrant attempts to reach Europe in 2024

Morocco foils 78,685 migrant attempts to reach Europe in 2024

RABAT: Morocco stopped 78,685 migrants from illegally crossing into EU territory in 2024, up 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The figures highlight “growing migratory pressure in an unstable regional environment,” the ministry said in response to questions.

Among the migrants, 58 percent were from West Africa, 12 percent from North Africa where Morocco is located, and 9 percent from East and Central Africa, it said.

Years of armed conflict across Africa’s Sahel region, unemployment, and the impact of climate change on farming communities are among the reasons driving migrants toward Europe.

Morocco and neighboring EU member Spain have strengthened cooperation against undocumented migration since they patched a separate diplomatic feud in 2022.

The North African country has for long been a major launch pad for African migrants aiming to reach Europe through the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, or by jumping the fence surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco.

Last year, there were 14 group attempts to cross into Ceuta and Melilla, compared with six in 2023, the ministry said.

Moroccan authorities rescued 18,645 would-be migrants from unseaworthy boats in 2024, up 10.8 percent from 2023, it said.

Last month as many as 50 migrants may have drowned in the latest deadly wreck involving people trying to make the Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands, a migrant rights group said.


West Bank healthcare ‘in a state of perpetual emergency’: MSF

West Bank healthcare ‘in a state of perpetual emergency’: MSF
Updated 06 February 2025
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West Bank healthcare ‘in a state of perpetual emergency’: MSF

West Bank healthcare ‘in a state of perpetual emergency’: MSF
  • Most clinics and hospitals are running at significantly reduced levels, medical charity says

GENEVA: The healthcare system in the occupied West Bank has been in “a state of perpetual emergency” since October 2023, the Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, group said in a new report published on Thursday.

“A dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions ... have severely hindered access to essential services, particularly health care, exacerbating already dire living conditions for many Palestinians,” it said.

Violence in the region soared after the attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered a massive retaliation by Israel that has leveled much of Gaza.

“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the West Bank has seen a dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions,” it said.

The report examined “the attacks and the obstructions of healthcare in a context of what has been described by the ICJ (International Criminal Court) as segregation and apartheid.”

It revealed “a pattern of systematic interference by Israeli forces and settlers in emergency health care delivery.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Over the same period, at least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory, official Israeli figures show.

Preventing Palestinians from accessing healtcare was “part of a wider system of collective punishment imposed by Israel, under the guise of its crackdown on armed Palestinian men,” MSF said.

“The already-strained Palestinian healthcare system in the West Bank has been further weakened since October 2023 and is facing significant budget constraints,” it said.

Nearly half the essential medications are out of stock, and health workers have not been paid in a year, the report said, adding that “most clinics and hospitals are running at significantly reduced levels.”

“Access to health care is severely impeded by a sprawling system of checkpoints and roadblocks that obstruct ambulance movements, compounded by the escalation of violent military raids involving the use of disproportionate tactics.”

This is compounded by “frequent attacks on medical personnel and facilities ... Hospitals and healthcare structures are often encircled by military forces, with troops sometimes occupying the buildings themselves, compounding the risks to both patients and staff.”

Violence from settlers often exacerbates these dire conditions, it said.

MSF called on Israel to stop its “disproportionate use of force” in the West Bank, including on medical facilities and against medical personnel.

It called for independent probes into past such attacks, for Israel to facilitate medical access to those in need, and to allow the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA to be allowed to continue its work.

Israeli military offensives in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced nearly 5,500 Palestinian families since December, local and UN officials said this week, amid escalating violence in the occupied territory.

Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee camp.

Faisal Salama, head of the camp’s popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of its 15,000 residents had been displaced.

Both Salama and Fowler said that obtaining precise figures was challenging because of the security situation within the camp and its fluctuating population.

“The displaced people from the camp are scattered in the suburbs and in the city of Tulkarem itself,” Salama said.

He said that six people had been killed and dozens wounded since the offensive began on Jan. 25.

“The bombing of residential homes in the camp continues, along with destruction and bulldozing of everything.”

Salama also reported that the violence has severely restricted the movement of goods into the camp.


Over 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since ceasefire: UN

Over 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since ceasefire: UN
Updated 06 February 2025
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Over 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since ceasefire: UN

Over 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since ceasefire: UN

GENEVA: More than 10,000 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza since a fragile ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19, the UN humanitarian chief said on Thursday.

“We’ve moved over 10,000 trucks in the two weeks since the ceasefire, a massive surge,” Tom Fletcher said on X.

The UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator added that he himself was “about to cross into northern Gaza with a convoy of aid.”

“Thank you to the many people making it possible to get these trucks of vital, lifesaving food, medicine, and tents through,” he said.

His comments come as Israel and Hamas prepare to negotiate the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which has paused 15 months of relentless fighting and bombing unleashed after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

With just a trickle of aid coming into the territory before the ceasefire deal, international aid organizations repeatedly reported crisis levels of hunger in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip and warned of looming famine.

The truce has led to a surge of food, fuel, medical, and other aid being allowed into Gaza and enabled people displaced by the war to return to the north of the Palestinian territory.

Under the Gaza truce’s ongoing 42-day first phase, 18 hostages have meanwhile been freed so far in exchange for some 600 mostly Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday that the death toll from the war in the Palestinian territory had reached 47,583.

The number of dead, published by the ministry, continues to rise every day as bodies discovered under the rubble are identified or people die from earlier wounds.

During the past 24 hours, 31 further deaths were recorded by the ministry, which also registered 111,633 wounded from the war.


Rubio planning first trip to Middle East in mid-February, Axios reports

Rubio planning first trip to Middle East in mid-February, Axios reports
Updated 06 February 2025
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Rubio planning first trip to Middle East in mid-February, Axios reports

Rubio planning first trip to Middle East in mid-February, Axios reports
  • Rubio is planning to travel to the region after the Munich security conference

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning to visit the Middle East in mid-February, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two Israeli officials and two other unidentified sources.
Rubio is planning to travel to the region after the Munich security conference, which begins on Feb. 14, and visit Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and possibly more countries, according to Axios.


UN’s World Food Programme needs 'all donors' support for Gaza's aid mission

UN’s World Food Programme needs 'all donors' support for Gaza's aid mission
Updated 06 February 2025
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UN’s World Food Programme needs 'all donors' support for Gaza's aid mission

UN’s World Food Programme needs 'all donors' support for Gaza's aid mission
  • The UN agency provided more than 15,000 tons of food since January 19

ROME: The United Nations World Food Programme urged the international community and “all donors” Thursday to help feed millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and rebuild the war-ravaged area.
The UN agency said it had provided more than 15,000 tons of food since a fragile January 19 ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, feeding more than 525,000 people, but that much more needed to be done.
“We call on the international community and all donors to continue supporting WFP’s life-saving assistance at this pivotal moment,” said Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau following a visit.
“The scale of the needs is enormous and progress must be maintained. The ceasefire must hold,” he said in a statement.
“In critical sectors beyond food — water, sanitation, shelter, even getting children back into school — we need to work together,” he said, insisting that “this requires funding.”
Helping Gazans become self-sufficient could be through re-establishing commercial markets and local food systems, such as farming and fishing, the agency said.
Skau’s visit to Gaza came as Israel and Hamas resumed negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which has paused 15 months of relentless fighting and bombing following Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack.