SANAA: Yemeni security officials say unidentified gunmen have abducted an employee at the UN migration agency in the capital, Sanaa.
The officials said late Friday that Hisham Abdel-Rahman Bagash was abducted a day earlier when a masked man led him out of his car and threatened him with a gun.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Bagash’s father, Abdel-Rahman, said in a Facebook post that his son was accompanied by his wife at the time of the abduction but the kidnappers only took him. His whereabouts are unknown.
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war pitting Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition backing an internationally-recognized government since March 2015.
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Officials say UN migration agency employee abducted in Yemen
Officials say UN migration agency employee abducted in Yemen
Israel, Hamas must ‘de-escalate, allow humanitarians to operate,’ ICRC DG Robert Mardini tells Arab News
- Senior official of International Committee of the Red Cross doubles down on calls to warring sides to respect Geneva Conventions obligations
- Expresses gratitude for strong Saudi support in Gaza and Sudan, wants humanitarian partnership to climb new heights
RIYADH: Despite the daily efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross to “step up, to scale up, to send more people on the ground in Gaza,” humanitarians “can only do so much,” according to Robert Mardini, the ICRC’s director general.
He made the comment in the course of an interview on Tuesday with Arab News in Riyadh, where he held a meeting with officials from the Saudi aid agency KSrelief.
“We cannot cope with this magnitude of needs and we want the parties in the conflict, the Israeli side and the Hamas side, to de-escalate and to create the conditions for humanitarians to be able to operate at the level that is required,” Mardini said.
He added that the current level and intensity of fighting in Gaza makes humanitarians’ ability to operate at the levels required “impossible.”
He said: “No meaningful humanitarian response is possible under the current circumstances. This is why we have to, in parallel to doing everything we can to step up the humanitarian response, double down on repeating and reiterating our calls to the parties in the conflict to respect their obligations under the rules of war, the Geneva Conventions.”
Mardini made it clear that as humanitarians, the ICRC will continue to push the limits of the possible to “make a difference for the people in Gaza.”
But while efforts will continue, Mardini said the ICRC can only do so much, “and the responsibility lies within the parties in the conflict.”
He added: “They have the obligations under the Geneva Conventions to protect civilians, to do everything they can to protect civilians, and to de-escalate the conflict; to ensure that there are regular humanitarian pauses to allow humanitarian supplies to get into the Gaza Strip; and to allow humanitarian workers to be able to deliver much-needed humanitarian support to the people in Gaza, and also to give respite to the civilian population, who are living in disastrous conditions, in constant fear of violent death.”
Mardini has no doubt about the immediate requirements: A de-escalation of the conflict, regular humanitarian pauses, and better conditions for civilians.
He said all people in Gaza today were traumatized by what is happening.
When asked about what needs to take place to alleviate the suffering of people in Gaza, he said that humanitarian goods were critical.
“Even before the conflict started on Oct. 7, on average 400 to 500 or 600 trucks a day were getting into the Gaza Strip at the time where it was more or less normal life,” Mardini said.
Now, after nearly two months of fighting, “people (are) being torn apart with thousands killed, tens of thousands severely injured,” and the needs of the region are much greater.
He added: “So, definitely, 200 trucks, which was the maximum reach during the seven-day truce, is only a small fragment, and it’s a drop in an ocean of needs. Trucks alone will not save the people of Gaza.
“What the people of Gaza need now is going back to a normal life, is more respite, is the de-escalation of the conflict. And it’s a political solution that is needed to avoid additional loss of life, and desperation and despair.”
Mardini stressed that although the ICRC is currently trying to receive reasonable security guarantees, “it’s very tough because today, really nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
He said: “Our own teams were in the line of fire. The teams of the Palestine Red Crescent Society were also caught in the line of fire. Many other humanitarians from UNWRA, MSF, also lost their lives in the line of duty.”
Mardini underlined the gravity of the humanitarian situation, adding that the ICRC has a full surgical team working in the European Hospital of Gaza with Palestinian doctors and nurses.
He said: “The testimonies they are giving us are terrifying and horrifying, you know. The sheer number of mass casualties is totally unprecedented.”
According to the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza, fighting has claimed more than 16,000 lives since the start of the war. While a humanitarian pause was reached on Nov. 24, it ended on Dec. 1, with Israeli forces resuming combat operations.
Mardini said: “The resumption of the fighting in the Gaza Strip is taking its toll on the civilian population, which has been through impossible hardship over the past almost two months.”
Mardini described the testimonies he has heard from ICRC colleagues on the ground in the Gaza Strip operating in a hospital and supporting the Palestine Red Crescent Society volunteers as “horrendous.”
He added: “People are living in difficult circumstances. The families have been separated. Thousands are getting into hospitals.”
He said that hospitals were so overcrowded with the sick, injured, and those seeking shelter that treatment had become difficult. He added that such overcrowding, complicated by shortages of water and medicine, may lead to the spread of disease.
“Doctors are facing impossible choices of who to save, who will make it, who won’t be able to make it, because of the very limited medical supplies, the lack of fuel,” he said.
He added that civilians were in areas, “the so-called safe zones,” adding that “(they) are not really safe, because there are no safe places in the Gaza Strip today.”
Commenting on his meeting with Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, KSrelief’s supervisor general, during which they discussed the situation in Gaza, he said: “The King Salman Center is a very solid partner of ICRC.
“We have discussed ways and means to step up the humanitarian response. I expressed also our gratitude at ICRC for the very strong support of the King Salman Center, which has recently contributed through funding for our humanitarian endeavors in the Gaza Strip, as it did several months ago to our work in Sudan.”
When asked about the application of the law of armed conflict, which was put in place to set the conduct of military operations and provide protection for the victims of conflict, Mardini asserted that “the law of armed conflict actually works.”
He said: “We have a demonstration of this every day. Every day, an ICRC surgeon is able to save a life.
“Every day, a Palestine Red Crescent volunteer is able to evacuate the severely injured from our hospital to the other. Every day. And we have seen this over the past seven days. The ICRC managed to facilitate the release of hostages in Gaza and Palestinian detainees in Israel to their families in Ramallah.
“These are the laws of war in action. These are the laws of war working.”
Elaborating on the point, he said that when the law of armed conflict works, it “prevents harm from happening in the first place … The laws of war are the ultimate safety net to uphold dignity in war. They should be supported; they should be respected by parties in the conflict.”
Discussing the role of the ICRC in aiding hostage situations, he described the agency as a “neutral intermediary.”
He said: “The ICRC has a dialogue with all sides of the conflict. And when the hostages were taken, we did three things. We first called for their immediate release, because civilian hostages should not be taken in armed conflict.”
He went on to add that the ICRC checked the health status of hostages and ensured they were able to communicate with their families.
He said: “I have to hope that the two parties will continue to negotiate for further releases of hostages and Palestinian detainees. And we are certainly ready to renew these types of operations, of course, provided the conditions are acceptable for the safety of hostages and detainees, and our own staff.”
He added: “We need to keep hope alive. I think it’s important civilians, on both sides of this front line, still have hope. And they deserve better conditions than they have today.”
Lebanon complains to Security Council about Israel’s targeting of Lebanese army
- French foreign ministry calls on ‘all parties to exercise maximum restraint to prevent the outbreak of regional conflict’
- FM Abdallah Bou Habib said that he ‘instructed the Lebanese mission to the UN to submit a complaint against Israel in response to the targeting of the Lebanese army’
BEIRUT: Israeli bombing of a residential building in the Lebanese border town of Mays Al-Jabal has killed one person and injured two others.
Following a night of violence, the public square in Mays Al-Jabal resembled a war zone. The town and its surroundings were relentlessly bombarded for hours, extending well into the night. The vicinity of Mays Al-Jabal Hospital experienced intense artillery shelling. The Israeli army used artillery and internationally prohibited phosphorus shells.
From Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning, Hezbollah launched 14 military operations against Israeli military sites. The actions were in response to an Israeli airstrike that resulted in the death of a Lebanese army soldier and the injury of three others at an army center in the Al-Adisa border area.
The French foreign ministry expressed its regret on Wednesday over the Israeli strike that claimed the life of a Lebanese soldier. It stressed “the need for all parties to exercise maximum restraint to prevent the outbreak of a regional conflict.”
Lebanese caretaker foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said that he “instructed the Lebanese mission to the United Nations to submit a new complaint to the Security Council against Israel in response to Israel’s targeting of the Lebanese army, which caused the martyrdom of a soldier and the injury of others.”
In the complaint, Bou Habib stated that “Israel is actively violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and attacking it on land, sea and air while refraining from implementing international resolutions, especially Resolution 425.”
UNIFIL forces warned of “the rapid increase in violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border, which could lead to serious consequences for people on both sides of the Blue Border Line.”
After Israel targeted a Lebanese army post, UNIFIL said in a statement: “This is the first time that a Lebanese soldier has been killed during this critical period. The Lebanese army did not engage in the conflict with Israel.”
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed that “a threat was detected from inside a Hezbollah reconnaissance complex and the firing of shells near the Nabi Aweida-Al-Adisa area on the Lebanese border.” He added that “members of the Lebanese army were not the targets of the Israeli raid.”
Adraee expressed “the Israeli army’s regret for the incident,” and claimed that the army was “investigating the circumstances.”
Hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah continued at a low level but remained confined to a geographical border area. According to Israeli Channel 12, the missile fire that was launched from Lebanon hit “an Israeli army position in Mount Hermon.”
In the morning, the Israeli army attacked a house in the town of Aita Al-Shaab. Three shells were fired from a Merkava tank from the Pranit barracks. No casualties reported. The same house had been bombed previously.
The Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Yaroun and Maroun Al-Ras, as well as the towns of Khiam, Fardis, Rashaya Al-Fukhar, Helta Farm, the outskirts of Kfar Shuba, and Al-Salamia Farm on the outskirts of Al-Mari village in Hasbaya District. The areas surrounding the towns of Tayr Harfa and Shehine were also subjected to artillery shelling.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “military drones bombed the headquarters of Hezbollah’s operations command and infrastructure.”
Hezbollah announced that it had targeted “an Israeli radar site and investigated direct hits.”
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai is scheduled to visit Christian towns in the border region on Thursday.
During their monthly meeting on Wednesday, the Maronite bishops expressed their “deep sadness regarding the ongoing war in Gaza, with its terrible tragedies and horrific calamities.”
The bishops denounced “opening new fronts in southern Lebanon by any Palestinian faction because it is a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty as an independent state.”
They affirmed their adherence to the principle that “the decision on war and peace must be in the hands of the Lebanese state alone because of its repercussions on the entire Lebanese people.”
Egypt condemns Israel’s decision to build new settlement in East Jerusalem
- First settlement plan to be fully approved by the Israeli government since 2012
- About 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank
CAIRO: Egypt has condemned Israel’s decision to build a new settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to left-wing Israeli organization Ir Amim, which monitors the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Jerusalem, it is the first settlement plan to be fully approved by the Israeli government since 2012.
In a statement, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called the move “a new blatant violation of international decisions and the UN Security Council resolutions regarding the illegitimacy of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
The ministry stressed Egypt’s categorical rejection of the Israeli settlement policies in the entire occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and its repeated attempts to undermine the existing legal, historical, and demographic context in an effort to separate parts of the land from its Palestinian surroundings.
It demanded that Israel halt its illegal settlement activities.
The statement reiterated Egypt’s call to influential international parties, including the UN and its relevant bodies, to shoulder their responsibilities in protecting the rights of the Palestinian people and to halt unilateral Israeli settlement operations that undermine the foundations of peace.
The statement stressed the need for Israel to stop exploiting the world’s preoccupation with the war it is waging against the Palestinian people in Gaza to intensify its illegal practices in the West Bank, including settlement activities.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
About 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank, adjacent to East Jerusalem.
CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza
- Israel resumed combat operations after a seven-day temporary truce with Hamas
- Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City has been destroyed in the Israeli offensive
DUBAI: CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman lost nine relatives in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza, CNN reported.
Dahman had escaped to Egypt with his family, but on Sunday heard news that at least nine family members were killed when the building they were living in Beit Lahia took a direct hit by an Israeli strike.
His uncle, and the uncle’s wife, daughter and two grandchildren, as well as his aunt, her husband and two children perished, while at least two other relatives are in critical condition and others are still buried under the rubble.
Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City was also destroyed in a separate strike on an adjacent building the same day, CNN reported.
“I will never be able to forget every stone and corner of the house in which I was born and raised and in which my children were born,” Dahman said in the CNN report.
“They were extremely peaceful and simple people, and their entire lives were devoted solely to work and raising their sons and daughters. They have no affiliation with any organization or group… Pray to God to have mercy on them all.”
Dahman’s brother had earlier called to tell him that his home in Gaza City, where he was born and grew up, has been reduced to ruins by the Israeli bombardment.
He had just finished renovating the apartment months before the Hamas attack, and told CNN he had fond memories living there, including celebrating his sons’ birthdays with cake and candles surrounded by family.
“Unfortunately, I left all my memories, my belongings, and the gifts that my bosses sent me at work in this house, all of which were lost under the rubble now.”
Israel’s military resumed combat operations against Hamas in Gaza last week after accusing Hamas of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.
The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.
Israel has sworn to annihilate the Palestinian militant group, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage when Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Russia’s Putin meets with UAE president in Abu Dhabi during Middle East visit
- UAE President welcomes Russian leader at official reception held at Qasr Al-Watan
ABU DHABI: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday landed in the UAE for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union, UAE state media reported, as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage.
“Putin’s plane has landed in Abu Dhabi,” the state-run RIA Novosti also reported on social media, while Russian state television showed Putin being greeted by officials on the runway.
The Russian president’s plane was accompanied by a number of military aircraft to greet Putin upon entering the UAE airspace.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed greeted Putin at an official reception held at Qasr Al-Watan. The Russian leader’s convoy was accompanied by a group of honor guards mounted on Arabian horses.
Sheikh Mohamed welcomed his “dear friend” and UAE jets greeted the Kremlin chief with a fly-past trailing the colours of Russia's flag.
The two countries’ national anthems were played and a 21-gun salute fired as part of a welcoming ceremony, WAM reported.
An Emirati air display then followed, painting the sky in the colors of the Russian flag.
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