Israel vows to ‘defend ourselves alone’ after Trump strikes truce with Houthis
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to “defend ourselves alone” against Yemen’s Houthi rebels after US President Donald Trump struck a deal with the Iran-backed group.
The US deal, announced just hours after the Israeli military carried out major strikes against Yemen’s international airport and other facilities in response to a Houthi attack on Israel’s main airport, was a surprise to Israel, which was not informed in advance about the truce, an Israeli official told CNN earlier.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu said, “Israel will defend itself by itself.” In the past, Israel has carried out joint strikes with the US against the Houthis, but two consecutive days of Israeli attacks on Yemen earlier this week were done alone. “If others join us—our American friends—all the better. If they don’t, we will still defend ourselves on our own,” he said in a video posted on social media.
Trump ‘thinks about America’s interests’
The US-Houthi truce sidelined the Israeli government, according to former US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross.
He noted that Netanyahu was left in the dark when the US began talks with Hamas in March and only found out about US nuclear talks with Iran when Trump made the announcement seated next to the prime minister in the Oval Office last month. The US-Houthi ceasefire is one more instance where Israel’s concerns were a tertiary consideration for the White House, if at all, he said.
Whether Houthi ballistic missile launches against Israel continue remains to be seen, but Ross told CNN that Israel does not appear to have been a major factor in the White House’s thought process.
There has been no public criticism of the White House decision from Israeli officials. Netanyahu, who once openly criticized the Biden administration’s requests and policies, is one of Trump’s most vocal international supporters. Other members of the government have reserved their judgement as well, instead focusing on Israel’s resolve against the Houthis.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Thursday that “Israel must be able to defend itself by itself against any threat and any enemy. This has been true in the face of many past challenges, and it will remain true in the future.”
With American weapons and many billions of dollars of support....
Israeli military extends detention of Palestinian journalist despite acknowledging lack of evidence
Samoudi, a prominent Palestinian journalist who has worked with CNN and other Western news outlets, was detained by Israeli forces on April 29
The Israeli military acknowledged Thursday that it does not have “sufficient evidence” to substantiate terrorism funding allegations it leveled against a prominent Palestinian journalist, even as an Israeli general ordered he be detained for another six months.
The Israeli military’s top general in the occupied West Bank ordered the journalist, Ali Samoudi, 58, to be held under administrative detention, which allows the military to hold individuals without trial for up to six months at a time. Administrative detention orders can be renewed indefinitely.
The commander issued the order on Wednesday following a military court hearing last week during which prosecutors sought to extend his detention.
“As sufficient evidence was not found against him, and in light of the accumulated intelligence material, security authorities requested to consider issuing an administrative detention order,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement to CNN. “Today, after reviewing the intelligence, the commanding officer of the Central Command decided to place him under administrative detention for a period of six months.”
At the time, the Israeli military accused him of transferring funds to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group in the West Bank and Gaza which Israel considers a terrorist organization. The Israeli military provided no evidence to back up its claim. Israeli military prosecutors never leveled that accusation in court, Samoudi’s lawyer Jamil al-Khatib said, instead vaguely accusing Samoudi of harming the activity of Israeli forces in the West Bank.
The military’s administrative detention order cites Samoudi’s “presence posing a danger to the security of the region” as justification for his detention. He is one of 20 journalists detained and held under administrative detention since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS)
Samoudi was also a witness to the high-profile killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, by Israeli forces in 2022, during which he was also shot.
