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Lebanon army accuses Israel of 'procrastination' in ceasefire withdrawal

By - Jan 25,2025 - Last updated at Jan 25,2025

Smoke rises from the site of controlled explosions during demolition activities undertaken by the Israeli army in the southern Lebanese village of Kfarkila yesterday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — The Lebanese army on Saturday said it was ready to deploy its forces in the country's south, accusing Israel of "procrastination" in its withdrawal in time for a deadline the following day.

 

Under the terms of the Israel-Hizbollah ceasefire that came into effect on November 27, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period that ends Sunday.

 

Hizbollah is to pull back its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

 

"There has been a delay at a number of stages as a result of the procrastination in the withdrawal from the Israeli enemy's side," the army said in a statement, confirming it was "ready to continue its deployment as soon as the Israeli enemy withdraws".

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Friday said the military's withdrawal would continue beyond the Sunday deadline stipulated by the deal.

 

"The withdrawal process is conditional upon the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, with Hizbollah  withdrawing beyond the Litani River," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

 

"Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States."

 

The Lebanese army accusation came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 17 called for Israel to end its military operations and "occupation" in the south.

 

Lebanon's new President Joseph Aoun said one week ago that Israel must "withdraw from occupied territories in the south within the deadline set by the agreement reached on November 27".

Iraq ministry says two border guards killed by PKK fire

By - Jan 25,2025 - Last updated at Jan 25,2025

ARBIL, IRAQ — A shooting which officials blamed on the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] killed two Iraqi border guards on Friday near the Turkish boundary in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Iraq's interior ministry said.

 

The PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, has several positions in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases used to strike Kurdish insurgents.

 

"When the Iraqi border forces were carrying out their duties securing the Iraqi-Turkish border... they were fired at by terrorists from the banned PKK organisation" in Zakho district, the interior ministry said in a statement.

 

The two guards were killed and a third wounded, it added.

 

The ministry later announced, according to the official news agency INA, that two of the PKK members "who attacked the patrol" were killed during "search operations in the area in pursuit of the perpetrators".

 

A border guard official told AFP that the guards were patrolling a village near the Turkish border when "shooting and clashes" with the PKK broke out. 

 

Baghdad deploys federal guards along its border with Turkey in coordination with the government of the autonomous Kurdistan region and its forces, the peshmerga.

 

The Iraqi federal authorities in Baghdad have recently sharpened their tone against the PKK. Last year, Baghdad quietly listed the group as a "banned organisation" , though Ankara demands that the Iraqi government do more in the fight against the militant group. 

 

Turkey along with the United States deems the PKK a "terrorist" organisation. 

 

Turkey has conducted hundreds of strikes against PKK fighters in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

 

Yemen rebels in Trump's sights free 150 war prisoners

By - Jan 25,2025 - Last updated at Jan 25,2025

Huthi fighters accompany newly-released Yemeni prisoners on their way to be united with their relatives, in Sanaa on January 25, 2025 (AFP photo)

SANAA — Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who are poised to return to the US terrorism blacklist, released more than 150 prisoners of war in tearful scenes on Saturday.

 

Those freed, who included elderly men with long, grey beards, hugged and kissed relatives, some of them crying, as they were reunited in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

 

The second unilateral release in eight months took place with the Huthis in the sights of not only US President Donald Trump but also the United Nations, after they detained seven UN humanitarian staff on Thursday.

 

The rebels, part of Iran's "axis of resistance", have also been firing on Israel and Red Sea shipping during the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.

 

Prisoners in traditional izar skirts, sandals and keffiyah scarves were led out under the eyes of heavily armed Huthi soldiers in combat fatigues.

 

"We can't describe our feelings, as if we are born again," said Mohammed Nasser, one of the released prisoners.

 

"We thank God that we are out of this prison. We thank everyone who helped in the success of this initiative."

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which had interviewed the prisoners and carried out medical checks during preparations for the release, said 153 "conflict-related" prisoners were freed.

 

"This operation has brought much-needed relief and joy to families who have been anxiously waiting for the return of their loved ones," said Christine Cipolla, the ICRC's head of delegation in Yemen.

 

"We know that many other families are also waiting for their chance to be reunited. We hope that today's release will lead to many more moments like this."

 

 'Sick, wounded, elderly' 

 

Abdulqader al-Murtada, head of the Huthis' Committee for Prisoners' Affairs, said: "The initiative is for humanitarian reasons and unilaterally.

 

"Most of those released are humanitarian cases, including the sick, the wounded, the elderly," he said in a statement.

 

The release follows the Huthis' latest detention of United Nations staff, which prompted a protest from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday.

 

"Their continued arbitrary detention is unacceptable," Guterres said in a statement, calling for the immediate release of all UN personnel held in Yemen.

 

The Huthis have detained dozens of staff from UN and other agencies, most since the middle of last year, alleging an American-Israeli spy ring.

 

Saturday's prisoner release also comes after Trump signed an executive order that moves to return the Huthis to the list of foreign terrorist organisations.

 

Re-listing the Huthis will trigger a review of UN and other aid agencies working in Yemen that receive US funding, according to the order signed on Wednesday.

 

A decade of war has plunged Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with 18 million people needing assistance and protection, according to the UN.

 

Last May, the Huthis freed 113 prisoners in a similar unilateral release. In April 2023, the rebels and Yemen's government exchanged about 1,000 prisoners of war.

 

The Huthis' seizure of Sanaa in September 2014 prompted a Saudi-led intervention the following March in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people either directly or through indirect causes, such as disease.

 

A UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022 has sharply reduced the fighting. But during the Gaza war, the rebels' attacks on Israel and shipping have prompted reprisal strikes from US, Israeli and British forces.

Yemen's Huthis say freed detained ship's crew after Gaza truce

Trump moves to designate Yemen's Huthi rebels 'foreign terrorist organization'

By - Jan 23,2025 - Last updated at Jan 23,2025

A Yemeni protester holds a mock rocket during an anti-Israel demonstration in the Huthi-controlled capital of Sanaa on January 22, 2025 (AFP photo)

SANAA — Yemen's Huthi rebels on Wednesday freed the crew of the merchant ship Galaxy Leader after detaining them for more than a year, citing the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas as motivation.

 

Weeks after the war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7, 2023, the Iran-backed Huthis began launching attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in what they said was support for the Palestinians.

 

At the start of their campaign, helicopter-borne rebels stormed the vehicle carrier Galaxy Leader and detained its 25 international crew.

 

On Wednesday, the Huthi supreme council "announced the freeing of the crew of the Galaxy Leader, who were arrested on November 19, 2023 during the campaign in solidarity with Gaza", the rebels' Saba news agency said.

 

It added that the release came "in support of the ceasefire" in the Palestinian territory, which began on Sunday.

 

Saba said the crew were freed with the help of the Gulf sultanate of Oman.

 

At a press conference held on the tarmac surrounded by the 25 crew members, a Hamas official hailed the "coordination" between his group and the Huthis that led to the crew's release, according to footage aired by the rebel-affiliated Al-Masirah TV channel.

 

Oman's foreign ministry later confirmed that the crew -- comprising the Bulgarian captain and second-in-command, 17 Filipinos, and a handful of Ukrainian, Romanian and Mexican sailors -- had flown from Sanaa to Muscat aboard an Omani air force plane.

 

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos confirmed the release of the Filipinos who were detained, adding that they are now under the care of Manila's Embassy in Oman. 

 

"It is with utmost joy that, after more than a year of captivity in Yemen, I announce the safe release of all seventeen Filipino seafarers, together with the rest of the crewmembers of M/V Galaxy Leader," Marcos said in a statement. 

 

Bulgaria's foreign ministry said Wednesday that "Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov dispatched the government plane" to bring their two citizens back home.

 

 'Heartwarming news' 

 

UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg called the release of the crew "heartwarming news".

 

He also urged the Huthis to end "all maritime attacks".

 

International Maritime Organization chief Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement that it was "a moment of profound relief for all of us -- not only for the crew and their families, but also to the wider maritime community".

 

Dominguez, whose UN agency deals with shipping security, called the release a testament to "diplomacy and dialogue, recognising innocent seafarers must not become collateral victims in wider geopolitical tensions".

 

Among the ships targeted by the Huthis were vessels the rebels believed were linked to Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.

 

The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader is operated by a Japanese firm but has links to Israeli businessman Abraham "Rami" Ungar.

 

The rebels later opened the ship as an attraction for Yemeni tourists who were invited to visit the captured vessel, which was by then flying Yemeni and Palestinian flags, off the rebel-held province of Hodeida.

 

Part of Iran's "axis of resistance", the Huthis have also repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the Gaza war began with Hamas's 2023 attack.

 

On Tuesday, they said that during the Gaza ceasefire they would limit their attacks to vessels linked to Israel.

 

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to once again designate Huthi rebels a "foreign terrorist organization," the White House announced Wednesday.

 

When former president Joe Biden took over from Trump in 2021, he removed the designation that Trump had signed near the end of his first term. 

 

Biden's move came in response to concern from aid groups that they would need to pull out of Yemen as they are obliged to deal with the rebels, who are effectively the government in vast areas including the capital Sanaa.

 

Shooting, explosions in Jenin as Israel presses raid

Palestinian FM accuses Israel of 'collective punishment', says raid part of Israeli plan aimed at 'annexing occupied West Bank'

By - Jan 22,2025 - Last updated at Jan 22,2025

Palestinian men arrested during a military raid on Jenin, are transferred by Israeli soldiers near the Muqeibila crossing on the border with the occupied-West Bank, on January 22, 2025. Gunfire and explosions rocked the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank on January 22, an AFP journalist reported, as the Israeli military kept up a large-scale raid for a second day (AFP photo)

JENIN, Palestinian Territories — Gunfire and explosions rocked the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, an AFP journalist reported, as the Israeli occupation forces kept up a large-scale raid for a second day.

 

The operation, launched just days after a ceasefire paused more than a year of fighting in Gaza, has left at least 10 Palestinians dead, according to Palestinian health authorities. 

 

Israeli officials have said the raid is part of a broader campaign against militants in the West Bank, citing thousands of attack attempts since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.

 

"The situation is very difficult," Jenin governor Kamal Abu Al Rub told AFP. 

 

"The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to Jenin camp and to the Jenin government hospital... There is shooting and explosions," he added, referring to the Israeli military.

 

Israeli forces have detained around 20 people from villages around Jenin since the operation began on Tuesday, the official said.

 

An AFP correspondent reported hearing gunfire and explosions from the northern city's refugee camp, a hotbed of militancy where Israeli forces have carried out repeated raids.

 

In December, Jenin area militants also clashed with the security forces of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

 

'Iron Wall' 

 

The Israeli military said it was continuing with the operation, dubbed "Iron Wall", adding that it had "neutralised over 10 terrorists".

 

"Additionally, aerial strikes on terror infrastructure sites were conducted and numerous explosives planted on the routes by the terrorists were dismantled," it said in a statement.

 

The raid in Jenin aims to counter "hundreds of terrorist attacks, both in Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) and the rest of Israel," military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said at a press briefing.

 

He said that since the start of the Gaza war, Israel had seen "over 2,000 terror attack attempts" from the West Bank, adding that the army had "eliminated around 800 terrorists".

 

Shoshani said the explosive devices planted along roads had recently killed a soldier in the area.

 

Islamic Jihad, one of the factions present in Jenin, condemned what it called "the systematic displacement, destruction and killing carried out by the occupation army against Jenin refugee camp".

 

The Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry accused Israel of "collective punishment" and said the raid was part of an Israeli plan aimed at "gradually annexing the occupied West Bank". 

 

 'Decisive operation' 

 

Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to continue the raid in Jenin.

 

"It is a decisive operation aimed at eliminating terrorists in the camp," Katz said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the military would not allow a "terror front" to be established there.

 

"It is a key lesson learnt from Gaza... we do not want terrorism to recur in the camp once the operation ends," he said.

 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint" from Israeli security forces and expressed deep concern, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

 

Violence has surged throughout the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, 2023.

 

According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 848 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war began. 

200 detainees on loose after mass jailbreak in South Sudan

By - Jan 22,2025 - Last updated at Jan 22,2025

A photo taken on Sunday shows a general view of damaged shops and houses in Sudan's Al Jazira state capital Wad Madani following its takeover by the army from paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (AFP photo)

 

JUBA — Almost 200 people arrested when recent protests descended into looting in South Sudan remain on the loose following a huge jailbreak, police said Wednesday. 

 

Demonstrations erupted in the capital Juba last week over reports that clashes in neighbouring Sudan had killed 29 South Sudanese, but turned violent with people looting Sudanese-owned businesses.

 

The anger spread across the country, with officers opening fire to disperse the crowds and later arresting scores, although the exact number detained was never confirmed.

 

Police spokesperson John Kassara said on Wednesday that 600 of those arrested in connection with the looting "broke out from the military detention facility" in a Juba district at around 9:30am.

 

He said "550 are civilians and 50 are members of organised forces", meaning that they were members of the armed forces or police.

 

The military police "shot fire" into the air while chasing the escapees, he said, later recapturing 410 people.

 

"They are still pursuing the remaining 190 prisoners."

 

At least 16 Sudanese nationals were killed in the violence last week, with dozens wounded and hundreds seeking shelter with police.

 

The situation prompted the government to declare a nighttimes curfew, with President Salva Kiir urging restraint.

 

By the weekend, the situation had calmed although the curfew remains in place.

 

South Sudan broke away from its northern neighbour in 2011, but the hugely impoverished nation has battled chronic political instability, economic calamity and environmental disasters since.

 

Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese fled to Sudan, but the civil war that broke out there in 2023 has seen many travels back over the border.

 

Most of the million people who have fled Sudan's war over the southern border have been South Sudanese returning to their home country, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

 

Thousands of Sudanese have also come south, fleeing the violence between two warring factions that have seen tens of thousands of people killed.

Syrians return to homes devastated by war

By - Jan 21,2025 - Last updated at Jan 21,2025

HAMMURIYEH, Syria — When Syrian grandfather Omar Kafozi returned to his house near Damascus after Bashar Al Assad's ouster, he saw unfathomable destruction.

 

Now, cushions and plants brighten the wreckage that he is determined to call home again.

 

"As soon as we found out that... the regime was gone and that people were coming back... we sorted our things" and packed the car, said Kafozi, 74, standing in the wreckage of his home in a former rebel bastion near the capital.

 

"I had to come home and stay by any means," he told AFP. "We came back in the hope that our home would be different to this."

 

Plastic sheeting covers windows in what remains of the home where he and his family are living with no electricity, running water or even a proper bathroom, in the town of Hammuriyeh.

 

Syria's war began in 2011 when Assad unleashed a crackdown on democracy protests, prompting soldiers to defect from the army and civilians to take up weapons.

 

When Eastern Ghouta, where Hammuriyeh is located, fell out of Assad's control, the government imposed a siege and launched a ferocious air and ground assault.

 

Assad's forces were accused of conducting chemical attacks on rebel areas of Eastern Ghouta.

 

In 2018, tens of thousands of fighters and civilians were bussed to opposition-held northwest Syria under evacuation deals brokered by Assad backer Russia.

 

Among those who left the area at the time were Kafozi and his family.

 

His granddaughter Baraa, now eight and carrying a bright pink school bag, "was an infant in our arms" when they left, he said.

 

Fast-forward to December 2024, Assad was ousted in an offensive spearheaded by Islamist fighters, allowing displaced Syrians to return to their homes.

 

Kafozi said that when Baraa first saw the damage, "she just stared and said, 'what's this destroyed house of ours? Why did we come? Let's go back.'"

 

"I told her, this is our home, we have to come back to it," he said.

 

No regrets 

 

Until their return to Hammuriyeh, his family sought refuge in the northwest and survived a 2023 earthquake that hit Syria and neighbouring Turkey.

 

Despite the damage to his home, Kafozi said: "I don't regret coming back."

 

Outside, children played in the dusty street, while a truck delivered gas bottles and people passed on bicycles.

 

Next door, Kafozi's nephew Ahmed, 40, has also returned with his wife and four children, but they are staying with relatives because of the damage to their home.

 

From the shell of a bedroom, the day worker looked out at a bleak landscape of buildings crumpled and torn by bombing.

 

"Our hope is that there will be reconstruction in the country," he said.

 

"I don't think an individual effort can bear this, it's too big, the damage in the country is great."

 

Syria's 13-year-war has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions more and ravaged the country's infrastructure and industry.

 

Local official Baibars Zein, 46, said bus transport had been arranged for people displaced from Hammuriyeh.

 

"We've taken around 106 families -- the total number of families that want to come back is around 2,000," he said near a mosque with a damaged minaret.

 

 'Oppression is gone' 

 

Among those who returned was Zein's brother Saria, who left his wife and five children in northwest Syria to try to make their flat inhabitable before they return.

 

"This damage is from the battle that happened and regime bombardment -- they bombed us with barrels and missiles," said Saria, 47, pointing to cracked walls.

 

Rights groups documented the extensive use during the war by Assad's army of so-called barrel bombs, an improvised explosive dropped from planes.

 

To Saria, the devastation was a grim reminder of a 2015 strike that killed his seven-year-old daughter.

 

His wife narrowly missed being hit by shrapnel that took a chunk out of the wall, he said.

 

Saria hopes to finish basic repairs within a fortnight, but a lot of work will remain.

 

His children "are really excited, they call me and say 'Dad, we want to come back,'" he said.

 

"We are very very optimistic -- the oppression is gone," he said. "That's the most important thing."

 

Toll in Turkey ski resort fire climbs to 66

By - Jan 21,2025 - Last updated at Jan 21,2025

Search and rescue teams work at the site of a fire that broke out in a hotel in the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Bolu, northwestern Turkey, on January 21, 2025 (AFP photo)

ISTANBUL — The death toll from a fire that engulfed a hotel at a popular ski resort in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday rose to 66, officials said, expressing great "pain" at the tragedy. 

 

Witnesses said desperate guests had tried to escape using ropes, footage showed bedsheets hanging from the windows, and media reports suggest some had died after trying to jump to safety.

 

"Our pain is great," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters at the resort in Kartalkaya, around 170 kilometres northwest of the capital Ankara,

 

He added that "66 citizens lost their lives and 51 others were wounded" as officials said that the fire had now been contained.

 

The blaze broke out at 3:27 am (0027 GMT) in the 12-storey Grand Kartal hotel, which has wooden cladding, Yerlikaya said.

 

Some 238 guests were registered at the hotel, the minister added. It was a peak time during a two-week school holiday. 

 

Turkish authorities detained four suspects including the owner of the resort hotel, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on X.

 

The minister previously announced that six prosecutors had been allocated to investigate the blaze. 

 

Private broadcaster NTV said that the dead included three people who had jumped from the hotel's windows. 

 

The fire is believed to have started in the restaurant and spread quickly, though it was not immediately clear what caused it.

 

Part of the structure backs onto a cliff, making it harder for firefighters to tackle the blaze. 

 

'I heard screams'

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut short an address to his ruling AKP party congress in Ankara, saying: "Our pain is great, our heartache is great."

 

He said administrative and judicial investigations have been launched into the cause of the fire. 

 

"All necessary steps will be taken to shed light on all aspects of the incident and to hold those responsible accountable," he promised.

 

Television footage showed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky with a snowcapped mountain behind the hotel.

 

"I heard screams around midnight, (hotel) residents were shouting for help," Baris Salgur, who works at a nearby hotel, told NTV television.

 

"They asked for a blanket, saying they will jump. We did what we could, we brought rope, pillows, we brought a sofa. Some people threw themselves once the flames approached them."

 

 'No safety'

 

Footage showed the wrecked lobby of the hotel with shards of glass on the floor, the reception desk and the wooden furniture inside charred black. 

 

Authorities warned that the building could collapse. 

 

A survivor who managed to escape the flames told local media that no alarms rang out at the hotel when the fire started, and complained about the lack of any safety measures including fire stairs or smoke detectors. 

 

Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy said that the hotel had two fire escapes. 

 

"The hotel has a fire safety certificate issued by the fire department... Regular inspections must be carried out by the fire department," he said. 

 

Footage revealed bed sheets hanging from the hotel's windows indicating that some people had tried to use them to escape the blaze. 

 

Those evacuated were rehoused in nearby hotels.

Yemen's Huthis to limit attacks to Israel-linked ships during truce

By - Jan 21,2025 - Last updated at Jan 21,2025

SANAA — Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said Tuesday they would limit their Red Sea attacks to vessels linked to Israel during the ceasefire in the Gaza war.

 

The Huthis have been attacking shipping in the vital waterway in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians since November 2023, weeks after Hamas carried out the deadliest attack in Israeli history.

 

"We have informed international shipping companies that our military operations will focus solely on vessels linked to" Israel during the truce, a Huthi official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

 

Part of Iran's "axis of resistance", the Huthis have also repeatedly launched missile and drone attacks on Israel since the war in Gaza began with Hamas's October 7 attack.

 

Among the ships targeted in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden were vessels the rebels believed were linked to Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.

 

Their campaign has severely disrupted trade routes, prompting the United States and its allies to conduct strikes against Huthi targets in Yemen.

 

The Huthi official also said his movement would halt its attacks against Israeli-linked vessels once every phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was implemented.

 

The Israel-Hamas deal, announced last week by mediators Qatar and the United States, should see 33 Israeli hostages freed in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in an initial 42-day phase. 

 

A second, unfinalised phase of the agreement would involve negotiations for a permanent end to the war. 

 

The third and final phase would deal with the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the remains of hostages who died in captivity.

 

Months of attacks 

 

On Sunday, the Huthis claimed an attack on an American aircraft carrier and warned of "consequences" for any retaliation during the ceasefire. 

 

The US military, however, dismissed the attack claims as being part of a Huthi "disinformation campaign".

 

At the start of their anti-shipping campaign, the Huthis stormed and hijacked a vehicle-carrier, the Galaxy Leader, detaining its 25 international crew who remain captive.

 

The Huthis later opened the ship as an attraction for Yemeni tourists, who were invited to visit the captured vessel off the rebel-held province of Hodeida.

 

Another attack saw the Rubymar sink carrying 21,000 tonnes of fertiliser last February after being hit by a Huthi missile. Its crew was evacuated before it went down. 

 

And in August last year, the Sounion tanker carrying more than a million barrels of oil was set ablaze in a Huthi attack, threatening a major environmental disaster before it was eventually towed away and made safe.

 

Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, the rebels, who control much of Yemen, have also fired dozens of missiles and drones at Israel.

 

They had stepped up their missile launches against Israel in recent weeks, with 16 people wounded in one attack targeting Tel Aviv in December.

 

In response, Israeli jets struck Huthi targets in a series of air raids, including one that killed four people at Sanaa's international airport last month. 

 

Israeli military chief resigns over October 7 'failure'- statement

By - Jan 21,2025 - Last updated at Jan 21,2025

Palestinians prepare to set camp in front of the rubble of their houses as they return to Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday (AFP photo)

 

JERUSALEM —The head of Israel's military, Major General Herzi Halevi, resigned on Monday over his responsibility for its "failure" during the Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023.

 

In his resignation letter, released by the army, Halevi said he was leaving "due to my acknowledgement of responsibility for the [military's] failure on October 7".

 

He said he was leaving at a time of "significant successes" for the military, though he also said that "not all" of Israel's war goals had been achieved.

 

"The objectives of the war have not all been achieved. The army will continue to fight to further dismantle Hamas and its governing capabilities, ensure the return of the hostages" and enable Israelis displaced by militant attacks to return home, he said.

 

Major General Yaron Finkelman, the head of Israel's southern military command, which is responsible for Gaza, also resigned.

 

The pair's resignation comes days into a ceasefire with Hamas that brought to a halt 15 months of war sparked by the deadliest attack in Israel's history.

 

Halevi requested to leave his role on March 6, saying "until then, I will complete the inquiries into the events of October 7 and strengthen the [military's] readiness".

 

On October 7, 2023 thousands of Palestinian fighters stormed into southern Israel from Gaza.

 

Their attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. 

 

They also took 251 hostages into Gaza, including women, children and elderly people. 

 

Gaza was heavily surveilled at the time of the attack and surrounded by a high-tech border fence complete with sensors and remote-operated machine guns.

 

The militants were able, despite Israel's state-of-the-art defences, to storm a major military base as well as residential communities across the south and a music festival, where they committed atrocities.

 

It took the military three days to completely clear the militants from Israeli territory.

 

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