Long-distance fire exchange continues between Israel and Yemen
...with Israel, US and UK putting top UN officials' lives in grave danger.
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At the very end of my previous original article I mentioned that, in the afternoon of Thursday 26th December 2024, Israel carried out airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, destroying its control towers, the Hodeidah seaport, and Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, while Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi was delivering a speech (whose highlights are reported in the second half of this article), with Israeli Channel 14 confirming the targets of the Israeli aggression and noting that…
this is not an ordinary attack, but the opening of a battle that could be prolonged.
…as quoted by Al Mayadeen, which also highlighted that the large scale attack “was carried out with the US and UK's coordination and support”, with its source saying that “targeting civilian facilities is evidence of the occupation's failure to have a clear target list within the country” - hence the reason why Little Satan (a.k.a. Israel) and Great Satan (a.k.a. the Outlaw US Empire) were trying to gather intelligence in Yemen before their spies and collaborators were arrested by the Yemeni security services, as I reported in my previous original article.
It is also worth mentioning that the aggression happened while the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Sanaa, Julien Harneis, were at the Sanaa International Airport, both unharmed, waiting to board their aircraft, whereas the UN airplane's co-captain was injured and transported to a hospital.
Here is what WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday, Friday 27th December 2024, commenting the incident (from The Guardian):
I was not sure actually I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were. A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.
There (was) no shelter at all. Nothing. So you’re just exposed, just waiting for anything to happen.
So a civilian airport should be protected, whether I am in it or not.
One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. I’m just one human being. So I feel for those who are facing the same thing every single day. But at least it allowed me to feel the way they feel.
I’m worried about our world, where it’s heading.
I have never ... as far as I can remember, seen the world really being in such a very dangerous state.
The UN delegation was in Sanaa for a meeting with Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Supreme Political Council, and Jamal Amer Talium, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates; meeting which, in fact, took place beforehand as expected (see photo above), covering topics such as the “unexplained significant reduction in aid despite the ten-year blockade”, as reported by Yemen News Agency Saba.
Anis Al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Yemeni Ministry of Health, later confirmed that the Israeli aggression, coordinate with US and UK, had resulted in 4 dead people (two of which Sanaa airport employees) and 42 wounded (inlcuding the co-pilot of a UN plane and 13 other Yemeni passengers), as per Al Mayadeen.
Another Al Mayadeen article reported statements of condemnation against the Israeli-US-UK aggression on Yemen from:
Hezbollah, saying that the aggression was a result of…
the enemy's failure to confront Yemen's military strikes and the resilience of Yemen's position in supporting the Palestinian people's right to their land and freedom.
The only option in confronting this Israeli enemy and its supporters is more steadfastness and resistance.
Hamas, describing the attacks as…
an extension of the bullying and terrorist policies pursued by the occupying government against our Palestinian people and the peoples of the region, with political and military cover from Washington and some Western capitals.
[These attacks] will not deter them [Ansar Allah] from their firm decision to provide all forms of support and assistance to our Palestinian people, and to continue striking the Zionist territories until the brutal genocide campaign against our people in Gaza is stopped before the eyes and ears of the world.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:
This cowardly aggression came with American-British coordination and support, and with the participation of U.S. naval vessels.
[It is] an organized war crime that embodies the true face of Zionist and colonial terrorism targeting the peoples of the region.
Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei:
This aggression comes with American and British support and involvement, violating all international laws, and follows the United Nations' inaction in the face of ongoing Israeli crimes.
The escalation in hostilities between the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) on one side and Israel, US and UK on the other was also condemned by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose spokesperson was quoted by Al Mayadeen as saying:
Israeli airstrikes today [Thursday 26th December 2024] on Sana'a International Airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming.
The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and reiterates his call for all parties concerned to cease all military actions and exercise utmost restraint.
He also warns that airstrikes on Red Sea ports and Sana'a airport pose grave risks to humanitarian operations at a time when millions of people are in need of life-saving assistance.
Julien Harneis, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Yemen, also reiterated the civilian nature of Sanaa International Airport, where, together with other 18 UN officials, he had witnessed first-hand the Israeli aggression, explaining that humanitarian missions in the country would be paralyzed, if the Sanaa Airport was disabled, as reported by Al Mayadeen, which also quoted him as saying that all parties in conflict have the responsibility to protect UN officials and humanitarian operators.
Well… the fact is that Israel and its allies (US and UK on top) do not care at all about UN officials, volunteers and humanitarian missions/operations helping people in need. Just look at what Israel has done in Gaza, where it has bombed facilities and vehicles of UN and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and killed several UN officials as well as volunteers, not to mention the attacks on UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) facilities! Something needs to be done to stop this madness - words are completely useless.
Following the aggression last Thursday, 26th December 2024, the Political Bureau of the Ansar Allah movement issued a statement saying that the YAF are ready “to confront escalation with escalation” and that they will respond swiftly to the Israeli aggression and that it will defend itself against aggression no matter the cost, stating that such strikes and attacks against the country “will not deter” the Yemeni people from supporting the Palestinian people and their Resistance in Gaza, as reported by Al Mayadeen. And so they did…
In the morning of Friday 27th November 2024 the YAF executed three military operations, as reported by Al Mayadeen and Saba:
one targeting the Ben Gurion Airport in Yaffa (Tel Aviv) with a Palestine 2 ballistic missile,
another one “targeting a vital target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa with a drone”,
a third one targeting the ship (Santa Ursula), which violated the ban imposed by the YAF, in the Arabian Sea east of Socotra Island with a number of drones.
US and UK then responded in the evening with an airstrike targeting the 21st of September Park, formerly Firqaa Park, in the Maeen district of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, as reported by Saba and Al Mayadeen, which quoted the Deputy Head of the Media Office of the Ansar Allah Movement, Nasr al-Din Amer, as saying:
Yemen's operations will not stop under any escalation or pressure, regardless of its scale.
Only halting the aggression on Gaza can stop Yemen's operations.
We will never abandon Gaza, and our operations will escalate, not retreat.
In response to the latest aggression against Yemen, the YAF launched another ballistic missile overnight towards Israel, with sirens going off across Israeli-occupied areas in south-eastern Palestine and the West Bank, in particular near the Dead Sea, the southern al-Naqab desert, occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), Beit Shemesh, and al-Khalil in the West Bank, as reported by Al Mayadeen, and this afternoon YAF spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree confirmed that the missile targeted the Nevatim airbase in the in the al-Naqab desert, in the Negev region, as per Saba and Al Mayadeen. Finally, this evening the YAF has shot down a $32 million American MQ-9 Reaper drone, the 13th downed since the Houthis entered the fray after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on 7th October 2023 (source: Saba).
I think it is quite clear that, after decapitating Hezbollah in Lebanon, reaching a ceasefire with its new submissive leadership and isolating it from Iran, thanks to the toppling of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria by HTS and the other terrorist groups, Israel and its main allies (US and UK) are now trying to locate and decapitate Ansar Allah’s leadership in Yemen, so that they can subjugate it and then focus on the last party of the Axis of Resistance, the “head of the snake”, as they call it: Iran. However, Ansar Allah is proving a tough adversary, not only because of its Red Sea blockade and its long-range drones and ballistic missiles targeting sensitive targets in Israel, but also because of its ability to down American drones and maybe even fighter jets, as discussed in my article in the link below. The Outlaw US Empire would be significantly humiliated if the “sandal-wearing” Houthis managed to sink one of its aircraft carrier or even just a smaller warship with a cruise missile or with a swarm of unmanned surface vehicles (that’s why they keep at a distance from Yemeni shores) - it would mark the end of its military hegemony.
I will conclude this article with the highlights of the speech that Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi delivered two days ago, Thursday 26th December 2024 (taken from Yemen News Agency Saba - all emphasis mine):
Our situation, by the grace of God, is great, the situation of a people who feel their responsibility, carry awareness, rely on God, trust God, and take the means of strength.
The movement of our people is the subject of great hope for God's victory, because this people responded to God Almighty to support the truth, and it is within the framework of its faith, jihad, its practical response, its liberation, awareness, and its taking of the causes, in the direction of great victories.
While the Israeli enemy was boasting that the atmosphere was in its favor and in favor of singling out the Mujahideen in Gaza, but it was surprised by this continuity from the Yemen Al-Iman Front.
The defense means that the enemy possesses and no country in the world possesses did not prevent the Yemeni missiles, yet they talk about the state of terror, about a week without sleep, and some Zionists die during the stampede, and some have a heart attack from the sound of the sirens, in addition to the direct damage of the missile bombardment.
The enemy recognizes that it is unable to confront Yemen's challenge because it is based on faith, awareness , insight, on taking causes, relying on God and trusting in Him.
The enemy media and officials admit the failure and say that the port of Eilat has been abandoned and completely disrupted, and also admit that Israel has failed to force the Houthis to cease fire after 14 months of confrontation.
No matter how much the criminal Netanyahu and the ministers in his government persist about the confrontation with Yemen, the picture is clear, and there are admissions of failure in every sense of the word, and the enemy entity suffers from the intelligence challenge in Yemen and its failure to obtain the necessary information, which means failure to penetrate security and information.
As a result of the intelligence failure in Yemen, an offer was announced for those who are fluent in the Yemeni dialect and know the popular culture in Yemen to join the Israeli intelligence.
It is strange that the Israeli enemy, which the mercenaries [referring to European countries] look up to, hopes that the mercenaries will relieve him of the Yemeni issue, while the mercenaries pin their hopes on the Israeli enemy, and speak with admiration and glorification of what he does in Syria, Lebanon and what he did in Palestine, then he pins hope on them to fight on his behalf.
The Israeli enemy suffers from a great cost in interceptor missiles, and the Israeli has completely despaired of the possibility of solving the issue of preventing his navigation in the Red, Arabian Seas and the Bab al-Mandab.
The Israeli enemy's despair and its inability to restore its navigation in the Red , Arabian Seas and Bab al-Mandab testifies to the victory that God has bestowed on our people and our mujahideen.
This week, there was a large, great and very important operation, which was the engagement with the US aircraft carrier Truman and the warships that came with it.
The targeting of the Truman resulted in the downing of an American F18 aircraft, one of the most important and expensive American aircraft. [Here is my article on this topic, in case you missed it].
From after World War II until now, no one in the world has dared to carry out a bold operation by targeting US aircraft carriers, and when the Americans say that they shot down an F18 plane through suspicion and error, it expresses a state of failure, inability and great confusion.
The American sees that the excuse for shooting down the plane is shameful, and has become in a state of great confusion and is calling on others and is keen to implicate them with him in the aggression against our country.
The mercenaries have been defeated, more than half a million airstrikes did not help them, and they have fled from camps, palaces and fall into the arms of the American and Israeli, and the case of the American with his mercenaries is as the Yemeni proverb says, “Morm fell on a swollen one” [sic].
The American, Israeli and those with him are failures, and everyone has enough experience with our country.
We are in a battle situation, facing and challenging the Americans and Israelis with our faith in God and our reliance on Him, and we are in a constant practical endeavor to take the causes of victory and the causes of strength.
We are on the verge of completing a full year since the US announced its aggression against our country, dragging the tails of disappointment and failure.
What the Israeli enemy allowed to enter Gaza was 12 trucks in 70 days, at a rate of one truck every six days, as part of a policy of severe starvation.
Those who are recruited to the Israeli enemy as spies and agents are playing a bad role, and what they are doing is a crime and betrayal.
What the Israeli enemy commits in Lebanon confirms the importance of the resistance to it.
The people of Syria will eventually be forced to be in direct confrontation with the Americans and Israelis.
On a final note, it is worth reporting that yesterday, after a brief infiltration which I mentioned in my previous original article, the Israel “Defense” Forces withdrew from the Wadi al-Hujayr area, a strategic valley in southern Lebanon, as reported by Al Mayadeen.