Yemen's Houthis fire at Israel airport amid search for Red Sea ship crew
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Thursday that the group had carried out a 'qualitative military operation' with a ballistic missile after the Israeli military reported the strike had been intercepted.
Meanwhile, maritime security sources told the Reuters news agency that the Houthis were holding six crew members from the Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C vessel, which the rebel group attacked on Monday, killing at least four sailors.
A total of 25 people were on board the Eternity C, according to Aspides, the European Union's naval task force patrolling the Red Sea. Ten crew members were reportedly pulled out of the sea alive after the vessel sank on Tuesday, while 11 are still missing – with six believed to be in Houthi hands.
Saree said on Wednesday that the Houthis had 'moved to rescue a number of the ship's crew, provide them with medical care and transport them to a safe location'.
The United States embassy in Yemen countered that on X, accusing the rebels of kidnapping the crew members after 'killing their shipmates, sinking their ship and hampering rescue efforts'.
The attack on the Eternity C came one day after the Houthis struck and sunk the Magic Seas, reviving a campaign launched in November 2023 that has seen more than 100 ships attacked. All the crew from the Magic Seas were rescued.
After Sunday's attack, the Houthis declared that ships owned by companies with ties to Israel were a 'legitimate target' and pledged to 'prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas … until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted'.
Late on Sunday, Israel's military attacked Yemen, bombing the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and as-Salif, as well as the Ras Qantib power plant on the coast. The Houthis had fired missiles towards Israeli territory in retaliation.
Israel said its attacks also hit a ship, the Galaxy Leader, which was seized by the Houthis in late 2023 and held in Ras Isa port.
The Houthis held 25 crew members from the Galaxy for 430 days before releasing them in January this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US State Department begins layoffs in Trump's shake-up of diplomatic corps
More than 1,350 US State Department employees have been fired in a major diplomatic shake-up ordered by President Donald Trump, in a move critics predict would curb the United States' influence around the world. Friday's mass layoff, which affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, come at a time when Washington is grappling with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia's war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran. Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies. Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings. 'It's just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country,' said US Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat who worked as a civilian adviser for the State Department in Afghanistan during the administration of former President Barack Obama. The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government positions. The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump's plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees. The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the 'deep state'. Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers. Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent. 'It's not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don't need those positions,' Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of his ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 'Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.' The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) – the union representing State Department employees – condemned the 'catastrophic blow to our national interests'. 'We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.' The State Department employed more than 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with about 17,700 in domestic roles. The US Agency for International Development (USAID), long the primary vehicle to provide US humanitarian assistance around the world, has already been mostly dismantled. According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were informed of their firings by email. Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said. Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under former Democratic President Joe Biden, condemned what he called haphazard firings. 'For all the talk about 'merit-based,' they're firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day,' Price said on X. 'It's the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce.'
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israeli settlers beat to death US citizen in West Bank, family says
Israeli settlers have beaten to death a United States citizen in the occupied West Bank, the victim's family members and rights groups have said. Settlers attacked and killed Sayfollah Musallet – who was in his early 20s – in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Musallet, also known as Saif al-Din Musalat, had travelled from his home in Florida to visit family in Palestine, his cousin Fatmah Muhammad said in a social media post. Another Palestinian, identified by the Health Ministry as Mohammed Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers during the attack. Rights advocates have documented repeated instances where Israeli settlers in the West Bank ransack Palestinian neighbourhoods and towns, burning homes and vehicles in attacks sometimes described as pogroms. The Israeli military often protects the settlers during their rampages and has shot Palestinians who show any resistance. The United Nations and other prominent human rights organisations consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank violations of international law, as part of a broader strategy to displace Palestinians. While some Western countries like France and Australia have imposed sanctions on violent settlers, attacks have increased since the outbreak of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023. When Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration revoked sanctions on settlers imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden. Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. But none of the incidents have resulted in criminal charges. The US provides billions of dollars to Israel every year. Advocates have accused successive US administrations of failing to protect American citizens from Israeli violence in the Middle East. On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Washington to ensure accountability for the killing of Musallet. 'Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians,' CAIR deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. He then pointed out that Trump has repeatedly promised to prioritise American interests, as typified by his campaign slogan 'America First'. 'If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration,' Mitchell said. The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) also called for action from the US administration, noting that settlers are 'lynching Palestinians more frequently – with full support from Israel's army and government'. 'The US government has a legal and moral obligation to stop Israel's racist violence against Palestinians. Instead, it's still backing and funding it,' the group said in a statement. The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment about the killing of Musallet. The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the murder of Musallet, describing it as 'barbaric', and called on Palestinians across the West Bank to rise up to 'confront the settlers and their terrorist attacks'. Israel said it was 'investigating' what happened in Sinjil, claiming that the violence started when Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle. 'Shortly thereafter, violent clashes developed in the area between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included the destruction of Palestinian property, arson, physical confrontations, and stone-throwing,' the Israeli military said in a statement. Israeli investigations often lead to no charges or meaningful accountability for the abuses of Israeli officers and settlers. As settler and military violence intensifies in the West Bank, Israel has killed at least 57,762 Palestinians in Gaza in a campaign that rights groups have described as a genocide.
Al Jazeera
7 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israel turning Gaza into ‘graveyard of children and starving': UNRWA chief
Israel is engineering a 'cruel and Machiavellian scheme to kill' in Gaza, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees says, as the world body reports that since May, some 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. 'Under our watch, Gaza has become the graveyard of children [and] starving people,' UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X on Friday. People in Gaza have 'no way out', he said. 'Their choice is between 2 deaths: starvation or being [shot] at.' Lazzarini was reacting to the Israeli military's killing of 15 people, including nine children and four women, as they waited in line for nutritional supplements in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Thursday. Inaction & silence are our watch, #Gaza has become the graveyard of children & starving people. No way out. Their choice is between 2 deaths: starvation or being shoot at. The most cruel & machiavellian scheme to kill, in total impunity. Our norms & values… — Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 11, 2025 His comments came on another bloody day in the Strip, with medical sources reporting that 31 people had been killed – 10 of them near a GHF-run aid centre in Rafah. The controversial US- and Israel-backed GHF has effectively sidelined Gaza's vast UN-led aid delivery network since it started operations in May, after Israel eased a more than two-month total blockade on the Strip. Since then, 819 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. He said 634 were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites – which number four for the entire enclave – and 185 were killed close to other humanitarian aid convoys, including some run by the UN. Earlier in the day, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said between May and July 7, the UN had recorded 798 killings near aid points in Gaza. Israeli soldiers and US contractors working with GHF have admitted to shooting unarmed Palestinians gathering for food, according to separate recent reports by Israeli outlet Haaretz and The Associated Press news agency. Reporting from the UN in New York, Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo said that Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), had given a briefing in which he reported the situation in Gaza was 'the worst that he has ever seen it'. Skau, who had just returned from his fourth trip to Gaza, had said the WFP had enough food to feed the entire population of Gaza for two months, but the trucks were not being let in. Instead, Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to rely on the GHF. 'A second Nakba' The extent of the killing at the GHF sites emerged as Israel advanced its plans for what it calls a 'humanitarian city' – likened by analysts to a concentration camp – to be built on the ruins of the southern city of Rafah. Satellite images analysed by Al Jazeera show large tracts of land in Rafah being cleared of buildings, seemingly in preparation for the forced transfer of Palestinians. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had told journalists this week that the zone would eventually house Gaza's entire population of 2.1 million. British Israeli analyst Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, noted that the three GHF aid hubs located in the south were an integral part of a plan to bait Palestinians into moving towards Rafah. 'The positioning of these GHF distribution sites is a premeditated part of a plan of social-demographic engineering to move Palestinians – to relocate, displace and kettle them – into this area in the south,' he told Al Jazeera. Rafah, he said, was being used as a 'staging post' to 'ethnically cleanse' Palestinians from the rest of Gaza. 'We are witnessing, it seems, a second Nakba,' he said. The GHF, for its part, boasted on Friday that it was 'reinventing' aid delivery. 'Our secure and innovative channels mean aid is placed directly into the hands of those who desperately need it,' the group said on X. 'On the brink of death every day' As of Friday evening, 31 people – including the 10 slain at the GHF site in Rafah – had been killed in the enclave since dawn, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. Among those killed, at least eight people died after Israel bombed the Halimah al-Saadiyah School in Jabalia an-Nazla, which was sheltering the displaced. The military struck at night as people slept. Witness Ahmed Khalla told Al Jazeera he found dead people lying on the floor of a classroom, coming upon scenes he described as 'beyond horrific', including 'a little girl without a head – literally, without a head'. At least one Palestinian was killed and others were wounded following an Israeli attack that targeted a house on Jaffa Street in the Tuffah area, east of Gaza City. Sources at al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera that the victim was a child. Gaza's Health Ministry said in a statement that patients in the enclave's hospitals 'continue to be placed on the brink of death every day' due to a lack of fuel. It said that as hospitals are forced to ration fuel, this leads to cutting off electricity in some departments and halting some services, including kidney dialysis treatments. 'It also reduces the ability to operate a sufficient number of ambulances, forcing citizens to transport the injured and sick in animal-drawn carts,' said the statement. Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid access into Gaza are placing countless lives at risk, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN's Guterres, said. 'Such denials are life-threatening,' he said during a news conference, stressing that 'every day without a ceasefire brings more preventable deaths in Gaza, children dying in pain, and hungry people shot while trying to reach the trickle of aid allowed' by Israel.
