The crew of a container ship were tackling a fire after their vessel suffered an explosion in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen. The ship was about 91 miles southeast of the city of Aden when the blast occurred, the UK Navy said in an update. They said it followed an earlier explosion near the same vessel, and no casualties have been reported. The vessel in question was a Liberia-flagged container ship, according to security company Ambrey Analytics. The explosion damaged an accommodation block as well as one other part of the ship, Ambrey said, adding that firefighting efforts were underway. Yemen's Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack. They have been consistently attacking merchant shipping in the region for months in protest against Israel's war with Hamas and subsequent US and UK airstrikes on militants in the country.
The Coast Guard forces in Yemen's Socotra province declared today the loss of a ferry that was sailing from Hadhramout to Socotra, carrying five sailors and five passengers, including two women. The ferry left at noon on Thursday, February 29, 2024, from the port of Al-Shahr - Hadramout, heading to Socotra, and contact with them has been lost until this moment, according to the Coast Guard forces.
The sinking of the Rubymar, which carried a cargo of fertilizer and oils and previously leaked fuel, could cause ecological damage to the Red Sea and its coral reefs, said the head of Yemen's General Authority for Environmental Protection, Faisal Al-Thalabi. He indicated that the sunken ship "holds 200 tons of diesel and 80 tons of mazut (fuel oil), both highly dangerous. He added, "These substances will seriously harm the Red Sea's unique wildlife and pollute nearby shores and islands. The attack on the ship by the Iran-backed Houthi group caused its sinking, complicating rescue efforts." The Belize-flagged Rubymar had been drifting northward after being struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on February 18 in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial waterway linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Israeli forces swept into the Palestinians' administrative capital of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank overnight, killing a 16-year-old in a refugee camp during their biggest raid into the city in years, Palestinian sources said on Monday. Witnesses in Ramallah said Israeli forces had driven dozens of military vehicles into the city, which is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Mustafa Abu Shalbak while raiding Am'ari refugee camp. The Israeli war on Gaza has been ongoing since October last year, killing over 30000 people, mostly women and children.
