Houthi Movement Chief Vows to Introduce Military 'Surprises' in Red Sea
Yemen's Houthis will introduce military "surprises" in their Red Sea operations, the Iran-aligned group's leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday."Our military operations will continue and advance and we have surprises that our enemies will not expect at all," al-Houthi said. Houthis have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping since mid-November, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel's military actions in Gaza. Their Red Sea attacks have disrupted global shipping and, forced firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilise the wider Middle East.
The Director General of the Tur Al-Baha District in Lahj province in South Yemen (southern Yemen), Afif Al-Jaafari said the main road linking the Tur Al-Baha District, Lahj Governorate, and the Haifan District in Taiz, has been reopened for the first time in eight years. Al-Jaafari said the efforts of the local mediation committee were crowned with success, and both sides of the war agreed to reopen the road to alleviate the suffering of travelers and drivers transporting commercial goods between Lahj and the northern governorates. The main road between the district of Tur Al-Baha in Lahj and Haifan district in Taiz was closed after the Houthi group took control of the Haifan district in 2016.
On Wednesday, the body of a girl was found inside a car, four days after she disappeared in a neighborhood of the capital, Sanaa. Sources close to the victim, Rumaila Al-Sharabi, said that residents found the body of Rumaila, who is studying in the Department of Pharmacy at Al-Razi University, inside her car four days after her disappearance. The sources indicated that it became clear through investigations after reviewing the surveillance cameras that the girl was treacherously killed by two of her friends from the dentistry department and three other students.
Gaza health authorities said more than 100 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces as they waited for an aid delivery on Thursday, but Israel challenged the death toll and said many of the victims were run over by aid trucks. At least 104 people were killed and more than 280 wounded in the incident near Gaza City, Palestinian health officials said, and the death toll in nearly five months of war passed 30,000. The incident caused the largest loss of civilian lives in weeks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said it was an "ugly massacre conducted by the Israeli occupation army on people who waited for aid trucks at the Nabulsi roundabout".
