Houthis warn of attacks on Israeli airports over Gaza assault
Yemen’s Houthi group will carry out military strikes targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and other airports, says senior official Nasr al-Din Amer.
“This is due to the recent Zionist escalation against the Gaza Strip and the aggression against Yemen, and in continuation of the Yemeni leadership’s decision to impose a ban on this airport and other airports, in addition to the naval ban and the closure of the Umm al-Rashrash port until the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted,” said Amer.
He warned airlines and passengers, especially foreigners, to leave for their safety.
Families of Israeli captives warn against Israel’s expanded assault
Israel’s expansion of military activity in Gaza could lead to the deaths of living captives and eliminate the chance of recovering the dead, says the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
A report by the group’s Hagai Levine and by Tamir Pardo, former head of Israeli intelligence, has warned of “serious dangers” arising from the continued fighting.
The “unstable mental state” of the captives constitutes an “immediate risk factor”, the group said, citing the report.
Intensified fighting could collapse tunnels, change the terrain, and lead to “the disintegration of the chain of command, and the lack of up-to-date intelligence information”.
“The current policy kills lives and erases the dead,” said the group. “Every bomb, every delay increases the danger … Israel can now choose life and return all the abductees. It is time to choose whether to save lives or abandon them.”
Several people detained at Israeli protest marching towards Gaza
About 10 protesters have been detained by Israeli police while trying to march from the southern city of Sderot towards Gaza, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. Alon-Lee Green, national director of the Jewish-Palestinian activist group Standing Together, was reportedly among those detained.
“The arrests are a panicked attempt to silence the growing protest against the killing, abandonment, starvation and destruction,” Standing Together said in a statement.
“We will not stop until the war ends and a deal is reached that returns all the hostages and guarantees a safe future for everyone.”
Israeli prime minister promises ‘victory in Gaza’ amid escalating war
Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a video that Israel “will achieve victory in the Gaza Strip” as Israeli forces expand their operations in Gaza, without addressing the ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Doha.
“There are two interconnected goals for the operation, which are to eliminate Hamas and to free the hostages, and we will achieve both,” he said.
Netanyahu also said that Israel will “establish a barrier along the Jordan River from the [occupied Golan Heights] to Eilat to prevent the infiltration of terrorists and cells”.
