Forty-five journalists have been killed in Yemen since the fighting erupted between the internationally-recognized Yemeni government and the Houthi group in 2015. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate on World Press Freedom Day said 165 press platforms stopped working and 200 local and Arab news websites have been blocked since 2015. The Syndicate urged all parties to stop violations against journalists and to protect the freedom of journalism in the country. For the past two years, Yemen has seen a state of truce and a halt in fighting between warring parties. However, the situation remains unstable nationwide, and journalists continue working in an unsafe environment.
Yemen's Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area that is within their range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea, said in a televised speech on Friday, Reuters reports. "We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach," he said. The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war. This has forced vessels to take longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and has stoked fears that the Israel-Palestine war could spread and destabilize the Middle East.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Friday that the U.S. military intends to deploy fighter jets, reconnaissance planes and armed drones to the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar. The move is reportedly designed to circumvent restrictions on airstrikes conducted from an airbase located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). An unnamed Emirati official explained the restrictions on U.S. aerial strikes in the region. "Restrictions have been imposed on strike missions against targets in Iraq and Yemen," the official stated, referring to previous American-led air strikes on Iranian-backed terrorist militias in Iraq as well as the Houthis in Yemen. "Those restrictions are coming from a place of self-protection," the Emirati official added without elaborating.
Hamas negotiators began intensified talks on Saturday on a possible Gaza truce that would see a halt to the fighting and the return to Israel of some hostages, a Hamas official told Reuters, with the CIA director already present in Cairo for the indirect diplomacy. The Hamas delegation arrived from the Palestinian Islamist movement's political office in Qatar, which, along with Egypt, has tried to mediate a follow-up to a brief November ceasefire amid mounting international dismay over the soaring death toll in Gaza. More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed since October last year.
