Yemens

United Nations demands the release of its employees after Houthi forces raided a facility and detained staff in Sanaa.

Yemen’s Houthi authorities have detained about two dozen United Nations employees after raiding another UN-run facility in the capital Sanaa, the UN has confirmed.

Jean Alam, spokesperson for the UN’s resident coordinator in Yemen, said staff were detained inside the compound in the city’s Hada district on Sunday.

Those held include at least five Yemeni employees and 15 international personnel. A further 11 UN staff were briefly questioned and later released.

Alam said the UN is in direct contact with the Houthis and other relevant actors “to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sanaa”.

A separate UN official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Houthi forces confiscated all communication equipment inside the facility, including computers, phones and servers.

The staff reportedly belong to several UN agencies, among them the World Food Programme (WFP), the children’s agency UNICEF and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The incident follows a sustained crackdown by the Houthis on the UN and other international aid organisations operating in territory under their control, including Sanaa, the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, and Saada province in the north.

According to UN figures, more than 50 staff members have now been detained.

Houthis claim UN staff are spying for Israel

The Houthis have repeatedly accused detained UN staff and employees of foreign NGOs and embassies of espionage on behalf of the United States and Israel, allegations that the UN has denied.

In reaction to previous detentions, the UN suspended operations in Saada earlier this year and relocated its top humanitarian coordinator in Yemen from Sanaa to Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government.

In a statement on Saturday, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned: “We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”

Dujarric was responding to a televised address by Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi, who claimed his group had dismantled “one of the most dangerous spy cells”, alleging it was “linked to humanitarian organisations such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF”. Dujarric said the accusations were “dangerous and unacceptable”.

Saturday’s raid comes amid a sharp escalation in detentions. Since August 31, 2025, alone, at least 21 UN personnel have been arrested, alongside 23 current and former employees of international NGOs, the UN said.

Ten years of conflict have left Yemen, already one of the poorest countries in the Arab world, facing what the UN describes as one of the gravest humanitarian crises globally, with millions reliant on aid for survival.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned nearly three dozen people and firms, accused of being part of a massive fundraising, smuggling and weapon-procurement network for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The network of 32 people and firms blacklisted Wednesday is located in Yemen, China, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands, and are accused of being Houthi-associated companies, their owners and key Houthi operatives.

The Treasury said those targeted finance and facilitate the Houthis’ procurement of advanced military-grade materials, including ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as components for drones the Houthis have used to attack U.S. military and commercial vessels.

The United States has been targeting the Houthis amid Israel’s war against Hamas, another Iran-backed proxy, which exploded into the open Oct. 7, 2023, when it attacked Israel.

In response, Israel launched an ongoing war in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian enclave and killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since then.

Since mid-November 2023, the Houthis have been enforcing a military blockade of the Red Sea, attacking vessels that cross in solidarity with the Palestinian people, resulting in the deaths of a handful of mariners and sinking at least four ships.

“The Houthis continue to threaten U.S. personnel and assets in the Red Sea, attack our allies in the region and undermine international maritime security in coordination with the Iranian regime,” John Hurley, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

Among those sanctioned Thursday was Salih Dubaysh, who was named the replacement for Saleh Mesfer Alshaer after he was sanctioned in 2021.

Dubaysh has since been in charge of the Houthis’ seizure of Yemen state-owned and private assets across the country. The Treasury said he has confiscated private land for the Houthis under the pretext that the owners had committed treason against the militia.

Abdullah Mesfer al-Shaer, a relative of Dubaysh, was also sanctioned, along with companies under his name.

A group of petroleum smugglers linked to Mohammad Abdulsalam — who was sanctioned in March — as well as Houthi-linked maritime shipping companies, were also blacklisted, along with weapons and components procurement facilitators and suppliers.

Israeli air strikes hit Yemen’s capital Sanaa a day after Israel targeted Qatar’s capital Doha. Initial reports say several people were killed and dozens injured. The Israeli military says a Houthi missile was fired at Jerusalem yesterday following the Israeli attack on Qatar.

Defence minister’s threat follows report of new missile launch from Yemen.

Israel’s defence minister has promised to inflict the 10 biblical plagues of Egypt on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The threat was issued by Israel Katz on social media on Thursday amid reports that the Iran-backed Houthis have stepped up their missile attacks against Israel. The Yemeni rebel force has resumed attacks in retaliation for last week’s assassination of Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi and several senior officials.

“The Houthis are firing missiles at Israel again. A plague of darkness, a plague of the firstborn – we will complete all 10 plagues,” Katz wrote in Hebrew on X, as tensions continue to escalate between his country and the Yemeni group.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli army said a missile fired from Yemen had struck outside Israeli territory. The previous day, the military had reported it intercepted two Houthi missiles.

The Yemeni group on Monday claimed responsibility for a missile attack in the Red Sea that hit the Israeli-owned tanker Scarlet Ray.

Katz’s threat refers to the 10 disasters that the Bible’s Book of Exodus says were inflicted on Egypt by the Hebrew God to convince the pharaoh to free the enslaved Israelites.

The Houthis have launched numerous drone and missile attacks against Israel, saying the launches are in support of the Palestinians, since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.

The group, which controls vast areas of Yemen, also ran a campaign targeting international shipping in the Red Sea, a route vital for global trade. That saw the United States launch a concerted series of attacks on the Houthi-occupied parts of Yemen earlier this year.

In May, Oman brokered a ceasefire between the US and Houthis, leading Washington to halt its daily bombing campaign.

However, the group said the agreement does not cover operations against Israel, and has continued to launch attacks.

In turn, Israel has carried out several rounds of strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports as well as the rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

A week ago, an Israeli air strike killed al-Rahawi, nine of his ministers, and two other Houthi representatives.

Houthis condemn killing of Ahmed al-Rahawi, other government ministers in Israeli attack on Yemen’s capital this week.

A Houthi official has vowed “vengeance” against Israel after the Yemeni group confirmed that an Israeli air strike earlier this week killed the prime minister of the Houthis’ government in the capital, Sanaa.

Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed in a Thursday strike on Sanaa along with “several” other ministers, the Houthis said in a statement on Saturday.

Al-Rahawi, who served as prime minister in areas of the divided country that the group controls, was targeted along with other members of the Houthi-led government during a workshop, the statement said.

The Houthis did not specify how many other ministers were also killed in the Israeli attack.

“We shall take vengeance, and we shall forge from the depths of wounds a victory,” Mahdi al-Mashat, a Yemeni politician and military officer who serves as the chairman of the Supreme Political Council of the Houthis, said in a video message later in the day.

Israel’s attack on Sanaa, which the Israeli military had said struck “a Houthi terrorist regime military target”, came as tensions in the region continue to escalate amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

🔴عاجل🔴
رئاسة الجمهورية اليمنية: نعلن استشهاد المجاهد أحمد غالب الرهوي رئيس الوزراء في حكومة التغيير والبناء مع عدد من رفاقه الوزراء يوم الخميس الماضي pic.twitter.com/sSpIqTukkn

— قناة المسيرة (@TvAlmasirah) August 30, 2025

Translation: Yemeni Presidency: We announce the martyrdom of the mujahid Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi, prime minister of the Government of Change and Construction, along with several of his fellow ministers, on Thursday.

Israel has repeatedly targeted Houthi positions in recent months as the Yemeni group has launched attacks on Israel and on Western vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in what it says is a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The group has repeatedly said that Israeli attacks will not deter its military operations.

On Wednesday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack on southern Israel, which the country said was intercepted.

Escalating attacks

In its statement on Saturday, the Houthi presidency said its government and institutions would still be capable of carrying out their duties after the deadly Israeli attack.

“The blood of the great martyrs will be fuel and a motivator to continue on the same path,” it said.

Al-Mashat also said the Houthis will “continue the path of building our armed forces and developing their capabilities”.

“To our people in Gaza, our stance is steadfast, and will remain so until the aggression ceases and the siege is lifted, no matter the scale of the challenge,” he said.

It remains unclear how many people were killed in Thursday’s air strike on Sanaa.

Quoting unnamed sources, Israeli media reported on Friday that the Israeli army attacked the entire Houthi cabinet, including the prime minister and 12 other ministers.

The attack came four days after Israeli strikes on the Yemeni capital on August 24 killed 10 people and wounded more than 90, according to health officials.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Houthi military sites and the presidential palace in that attack.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut noted that Israel has said it will “continue to target Houthi-related targets, meaning that anything that could be used militarily or politically by the rebel group” will be a target for the Israeli military.

“The [Israeli] defence minister, Israel Katz, had previously noted that Israel’s strikes on Yemen weren’t really doing enough to deter the group from launching” attacks against the country, Salhut said.

As a result, Katz said “he wanted to target their leadership similar to what Israel has done with assassinations within other political groups across the region, like Hezbollah, like Hamas, like Islamic Jihad”, she added.

Houthis promise more attacks unless Israel ends its offensive on Gaza and lifts the siege.

Israel’s military has launched new air raids on Yemen’s Hodeidah port, targeting what it described as Houthi-linked sites used to stage drone and missile attacks against Israel and its allies.

Minister of Defence Israel Katz on Monday said the military was “forcefully countering any attempt to restore the terror infrastructure previously attacked”.

The Israeli military claimed that the “port serves as a channel for weapons used by the Houthis to carry out terrorist operations against Israel and its allies”.

The Houthi movement, which controls large parts of northern Yemen, later claimed responsibility for drone and missile attacks on locations in Israel, including Ben Gurion airport, Ashdod and Jaffa.

In a statement, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the strikes were a direct response to the attacks on Hodeidah and Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza.

“The drone attack successfully achieved its objectives,” he said, adding that operations would continue until Israel ends its offensive on Gaza and lifts the siege.

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have carried out several attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has responded with repeated strikes on Houthi targets, particularly in Hodeidah, a key entry point for goods and aid into Yemen.

“The Houthis will pay a heavy price for launching missiles toward the State of Israel,” Katz said.

Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on the Greek-owned vessel Eternity C, which maritime officials said had killed four people.

In May, the United States brokered a deal with the Houthis to halt their bombing campaign in exchange for reduced attacks on international shipping. However, the Houthis clarified that the agreement did not extend to operations involving Israel.

Four sailors from Eternity C dead, 10 found alive, 11 still missing – six believed to be in Houthi hands.

Houthi rebels in Yemen attempted to strike Israel’s Ben Gurion airport after sinking two vessels in the Red Sea this week, as the group ramps up its military pressure in support of Palestinians under Israeli fire in its bid to bring the war in Gaza to an end.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Thursday that the group had carried out a “qualitative military operation” with a ballistic missile after the Israeli military reported the strike had been intercepted.

Meanwhile, maritime security sources told the Reuters news agency that the Houthis were holding six crew members from the Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged Eternity C vessel, which the rebel group attacked on Monday, killing at least four sailors.

A total of 25 people were on board the Eternity C, according to Aspides, the European Union’s naval task force patrolling the Red Sea. Ten crew members were reportedly pulled out of the sea alive after the vessel sank on Tuesday, while 11 are still missing – with six believed to be in Houthi hands.

Saree said on Wednesday that the Houthis had “moved to rescue a number of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care and transport them to a safe location”.

The United States embassy in Yemen countered that on X, accusing the rebels of kidnapping the crew members after “killing their shipmates, sinking their ship and hampering rescue efforts”.

The attack on the Eternity C came one day after the Houthis struck and sunk the Magic Seas, reviving a campaign launched in November 2023 that has seen more than 100 ships attacked. All the crew from the Magic Seas were rescued.

After Sunday’s attack, the Houthis declared that ships owned by companies with ties to Israel were a “legitimate target” and pledged to “prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas … until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted”.

Late on Sunday, Israel’s military attacked Yemen, bombing the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and as-Salif, as well as the Ras Qantib power plant on the coast. The Houthis had fired missiles towards Israeli territory in retaliation.

Israel said its attacks also hit a ship, the Galaxy Leader, which was seized by the Houthis in late 2023 and held in Ras Isa port.

The Houthis held 25 crew members from the Galaxy for 430 days before releasing them in January this year.

Surge in Red Sea attacks after months of calm potentially signals revival of Houthis’ campaign over Gaza war.

Five crew members have been rescued from a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea after a suspected attack from Yemen’s Houthi group, according to a maritime monitor. The attack is so far known to have killed at least three sailors out of the 22-member crew and wounded two.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO), run by the British military, said on Wednesday that “search and rescue operations commenced overnight” after Monday’s attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C.

UKMTO had said on Tuesday that the ship sustained “significant damage” and “lost all propulsion”. UK-based security firm Ambrey told the AFP news agency that the badly damaged vessel had sunk off Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, which is under the control of the Houthis.

20250708-UKMTO_WARNING_INCIDENT_027-25-UPDATE 003https://t.co/yo0ifPJbtT#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/7VTJBPT8Tt

— UKMTO Ops Centre (@UK_MTO) July 9, 2025

The Houthis, who say they are targeting Israel-linked ships as part of a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians under relentless Israeli fire, to pressure the Israeli military to end its assault on Gaza, have not claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, it came one day after they claimed responsibility for attacking another cargo ship – the Magic Seas – in the Red Sea, causing it to sink. All the crew were rescued.

The assaults mark the first attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since late 2024, potentially signalling the start of a new armed campaign threatening the waterway, which had begun to see more traffic in recent weeks.

After Sunday’s attack on the Magic Seas, the Houthis declared that ships owned by companies with ties to Israel were a “legitimate target”, pledging to “prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas … until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted”.

Yemen’s exiled government, the European Union’s Operation Aspides military force and the US State Department blamed the rebels for the attack on Eternity C.

“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

“The United States has been clear: We will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks,” she added.

The bulk carrier had been heading north towards the Suez Canal when it came under fire by men in small boats and by bomb-carrying drones on Monday night, with security guards on board firing their weapons, according to Operation Aspides and Ambrey, cited by The Associated Press news agency.

Operation Aspides told AFP on Tuesday that three people had been killed, with at least two injured, including “a Russian electrician who lost a leg”.

Authorities in the Philippines told AFP that there were 22 crew on the Eternity C, all but one of them Filipinos.

The Eternity C’s operator, Cosmoship Management, has not commented on casualties or injuries.

In separate incidents, Israel’s military and the Houthis exchanged strikes on Sunday, with Israel saying it had bombed three ports and a power plant in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, prompting the Iran-allied group to fire more missiles towards Israeli territory.

Israel said it struck the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and as-Salif on the Red Sea coast as well as the Ras Kathib power plant.

It said it also struck a radar system on the Galaxy Leader, which was seized by the Houthis and remains docked in the port of Hodeidah.

As the war between Israel and Iran continues, Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they are coordinating with Tehran.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, have since 2023 launched attacks on Israel and shipping in the Red Sea in what they say is support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthis are also a close ally of Iran, and now they say that their latest attacks are on behalf of the “Palestinian and Iranian peoples”, according to the Telegram account of Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree, who added that the Yemeni group were coordinating with “the operations carried out by the Iranian army against the criminal Israeli enemy”.

On Sunday, two days after Israel first attacked Iran in the early hours of June 13, the Houthis announced that they had targeted Israel.

In a televised address, Saree said the group fired several ballistic missiles at Jaffa.

The Houthis are timing their attacks with the Iranians, according to Hussain Albukhaiti, a pro-Houthi political commentator.

The Houthis are launching missiles “after Iran launched its missiles”, Albukhaiti told Al Jazeera. “This way the Zionist settlers [Israelis] keep going back and forth to their shelters so they can live a small fraction of the fear they caused the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The Houthi attacks are essentially a continuation of their previous periodic missile and drone attacks on Israel. The Israelis have mostly been able to intercept the attacks but some have gotten through, most notably an attack in early May on Ben Gurion airport that injured six people and led to a suspension of flights.

But the Houthi attacks have also had another consequence for Israeli defences, according to Yemen expert Nicholas Brumfield.

“The constant threat of Houthi attacks coming from the south requires Israel to spread out its air defences rather than positioning them all to more effectively [defend] counterattacks coming from Iran,” he told Al Jazeera.

Shipping routes

In November 2023, the Houthis began attacking ships they say were linked to Israel in the Red Sea. International ships that travel to the Red Sea are forced to pass Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The attacks have ceased in recent months, particularly after the Houthis and the United States came to an agreement to stop attacking each other in early May, following a US bombing campaign that is reported to have killed more than 200 people in Yemen.

But the attacks could still resume, and the Houthis never agreed to stop targeting Israel, which itself has also continued to bomb Yemen.

“We had an agreement with the US to stop attacking each other, but Yemen will not obey this agreement if the US joins the Zionists in their attacks against Iran,” Albukhaiti said.

“We remember that Trump cancelled the nuclear deal between Iran and the US,” he said, referring to the US president’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal between Iran and several Western countries in 2018. Albukhaiti accused Trump of cancelling the deal because it was not in Israel’s interest.

“Yemen will do the same, and will cancel the agreement with the US, because it’s not in the interest of Iran, which is an important ally of Yemen,” he said, referring to the Houthi rebel group as “Yemen”, although the group’s government is not recognised internationally.

Iran has also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between it and Oman. About 20 million barrels per day (BPD), or the equivalent of about 20 percent of global petroleum liquids consumed, pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Analysts said the Houthis could potentially do the same in the Red Sea.

Sea mines are “very low-tech, easy-to-make mines that would nevertheless introduce considerable uncertainty for global shippers,” Brumfield said.

“I don’t think that Iran or Yemen will hesitate to use sea mines if necessary to block the entire shipping lines in our region,” Albukhaiti added.

Risks to Gulf states

There are also fears that the conflict could drag in other countries in the region. The US has bases in a number of countries in the Middle East, and the Houthis have previously been involved in fighting with many of them, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

If the current conflict spirals, Gulf countries may find themselves threatened by Houthi attacks.

“The Houthis are trying to recover from the US strikes we saw between mid-March and May, and probably aren’t begging to restart those more intensive strikes if they don’t have to,” Brumfield said. “But I also think they’d be amenable to restarting them if they saw themselves as participating in a grand regional war between the US-Israel and the Axis of Resistance, especially if a lot of US military resources are diverted to Iran.”

Albukhaiti said Houthi forces “could also target US bases in the region”, specifically those involved in the coalition against Yemen, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, because “we are still at war with these countries”, he said.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily in the war in Yemen between the Houthis and the country’s internationally recognised government in 2015, unleashing a years-long campaign of air strikes. Saudi Arabia ceased hostilities in Yemen in 2022, but has yet to officially reach a deal with the Houthis.

And before that, it had come under Houthi attack. In 2019, Saudi oil production was cut by around 50 percent after Houthi drone strikes on oil plants. Since then, analysts say the Saudis have worked hard to keep more stable relations with the Houthis in order to avoid further attacks.

But despite these efforts, the detente could be forgotten if the Houthis see fit to resume hitting their northern neighbour.

“I don’t think [attacks on Saudi Arabia are] off the table,” Brumfield said. “If elements in Houthi leadership in favour of a military-first approach win out, it’s plausible they would attack the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] as part of a general escalation in both the regional and Yemen conflict.”

Brumfield added that the Houthis would, however, have to also keep in mind that Saudi Arabia has provided “diplomatic cover” for the Houthis in the past few years, as it seeks to find a final deal to end the conflict in Yemen. Any attacks from the Houthis would likely make Saudi Arabia abandon that strategy.

Internal strife

Anti-Houthi groups in Yemen have been watching events carefully over the past few months, as they sense an opportunity with the initial US campaign against the Houthis, and now the weakening of the Houthis’ principal ally, Iran.

“The most [the Houthis are] capable of doing is continuing symbolic attacks on Israel or potentially restarting activity in the Red Sea,” Raiman Al-Hamdani, an independent Yemen analyst, told Al Jazeera. “But doing so could provoke a renewed military response from the US, Israel, and the UK, which might weaken their position domestically and open space for anti-Houthi groups to exploit any resulting instability.”

However, analysts say that few of the groups that oppose the Houthis, including the Yemeni government, are in a position to take and effectively govern territory from the Houthis.

And, should those groups mobilise, the Houthis would likely respond, Albukhaiti said.

Houthi forces could target any domestic opponents through “oil and gas fields and platforms” as well as the “airports and water distillation plants” of the countries he said backed the groups, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki, who is wanted by the US, challenges Houthi dominance of Arab and Muslim world’s resistance movement.

The leader of al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch has targeted US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk over United States backing for Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and its besieged Palestinian population.

“There are no red lines after what happened and is happening to our people in Gaza,” said Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki in a half-hour video message that was spread online Saturday by supporters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni branch of the armed group.

“Reciprocity is legitimate,” he said.

Al-Awlaki’s video message also included calls for so-called lone wolves to assassinate leaders in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab states over the war, which has decimated Gaza, killing at least 54,772 Palestinians over the past 20 months.

The message featured images of Trump and Musk, US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, as well as logos of Musk’s businesses – including electric carmaker Tesla.

Born in 2009 from the merger of al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP is completely distinct from Yemen’s Houthi rebel group, which controls most of the country and agreed to a ceasefire with the US earlier this month.

AQAP grew and developed amid the chaos of Yemen’s war, which has pitted the Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government since 2015.

Al-Awlaki became the group’s leader in 2024, replacing predecessor Khalid Batarfi, who died that year.

He already has a $6m US bounty on his head, having, as Washington puts it, “publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies”.

Though believed to be weakened in recent years due to infighting and suspected US drone strikes killing its leaders, the group had been considered the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda still operating since the US killing of founder Osama bin Laden in 2011.

United Nations experts estimate AQAP has between 3,000 and 4,000 active fighters and passive members, claiming that it raises money by robbing banks and money exchange shops, as well as by smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies and conducting ransom operations.

The Houthis have previously denied working with AQAP, though the latter’s targeting of the Houthis has dropped in recent years, while its fighters keep attacking the Saudi-led coalition forces.

Now, with its focus on Israel’s war on Gaza, AQAP appears to be following the lead of the Houthi group, which has launched missile attacks on Israel and targeted commercial vessels moving through the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire.

“As the Houthis gain popularity as leaders of the ‘Arab and Muslim world’s resistance’ against Israel, al-Awlaki seeks to challenge their dominance by presenting himself as equally concerned about the situation in Gaza,” said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert with the Basha Report risk advisory firm.

“For a national security and foreign policy community increasingly disengaged from Yemen, this video is a clear reminder: Yemen still matters,” he said.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Four strikes hit the runway and a Yemenia Airways plane, according to Houthi-affiliated media report.

Israel says it has launched air strikes on Yemen’s main airport in the capital, Sanaa, a day after Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired two projectiles towards Israel.

The Houthi-affiliated news outlet Al Masirah TV reported on Wednesday that four strikes hit the runway and a Yemenia Airways plane.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the Israeli air force struck Houthi “terror targets” at the airport and “destroyed the last aircraft remaining”.

“This is a clear message and a continuation of our policy: whoever fires at the State of Israel will pay a heavy price,” Katz said.

The latest Israeli attack on Yemen comes a day after the Houthi armed group fired two projectiles towards Israel that were shot down by Tel Aviv’s air defences. The Houthis later confirmed that they had launched two “ballistic missiles”.

Sanaa airport, the largest in Yemen, came back into service last week after temporary repairs and runway restoration following previous Israeli strikes.

It was mainly used by United Nations aircraft and the only remaining civilian aircraft of Yemenia Airways, after three others were destroyed in the last attack.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have repeatedly targeted Israel in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians in the enclave.

This is a developing story.