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13-02-2025
SANA’A: Yemen’s Houthis have announced they are ready to attack Israel if it reneges on its ceasefire deal with Hamas and resumes its assault on Gaza.
Leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Tuesday that the group was “ready to launch a military intervention at any time in case of escalation against Gaza”.
“Our hands are on the trigger,” he said.
The Houthis, who control most of western Yemen, including capital city Sanaa, have launched attacks throughout the Gaza war in stated solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Since November 2023, the group has carried out more than 100 attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones towards Israel. It said it would limit attacks after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the war last month but the fragile deal, still in the first of three phases, is looking increasingly shaky amid Israel’s repeated violations of its terms.
The first phase of the deal involves captive swaps, a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and a surge of aid into the enclave. The second phase, the details of which have not yet been agreed to, would bring about a complete end to the war. An eventual third phase is meant to address reconstruction in the devastated Palestinian enclave.
On Monday, Hamas said that it would stop releasing Israeli captives over the violations, which include killings, restrictions on allowing wounded people to leave Gaza for treatment, and a failure to allow in sufficient aid. The group said it would continue to honor the terms of the agreement if Israel comes into compliance.
The situation spiraled further, with US President Donald Trump saying that if Hamas did not release all Israeli captives by noon on Saturday, he would propose cancelling the truce and “let hell break out”.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri responded to Trump’s comments, underlining that the ceasefire had to be respected by both parties. “The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters,” he said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated Trump’s threat, saying in a video statement that the military would “return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated”.
Speaking after a four-hour cabinet meeting, the Israeli leader also said he had ordered Israeli troops to gather “inside and around the Gaza Strip”.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz had already instructed the military to be at the highest level of readiness in Gaza.
To date, Gaza’s Health Ministry has said 48,219 Palestinians have been confirmed dead in the war, which has decimated the enclave’s infrastructure, displaced the vast majority of the population, and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe.
As winter storms grip Gaza, the combination of severe weather, lack of shelter, and Israel’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid has created an increasingly desperate situation for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Cold temperatures, relentless rain, and strong winds have turned makeshift shelters into barely liveable spaces, offering little to no protection from the elements.
Israel’s restrictions on aid deliveries have only compounded the crisis, leaving many without access to the most basic necessities, including food, medicine, and heating. (Int’l News Desk)
