Yemen – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his “deep” concern on Sunday regarding the risk of further escalation in the Middle East, following Israeli raids on the western Yemeni city of Hodeidah, calling on all parties to “exercise maximum restraint.”
This came in a statement to journalists issued by Guterres, published by the office of the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on its website.
According to the statement, “The Secretary-General of the United Nations is deeply concerned by reports of Israeli air strikes in and around the port of Hodeidah in Yemen.”
He added: “Initial reports indicate that a number of people were killed and more than 80 injured in this attack, and that there was extensive damage to civilian infrastructure.”
According to the statement, the Secretary-General called on “all parties concerned to avoid attacks that might harm civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
He continued: “Guterres also remains deeply concerned regarding the risk of further escalation in the region and continues to urge all to exercise maximum restraint.”
On Saturday, Israeli aircraft launched airstrikes targeting the port of Hodeidah, its fuel tanks, and the power station, killing 3 people and injuring 87 others with various burns, according to the Ministry of Health affiliated with the Houthi group (not recognized).
On Saturday, the Israeli army claimed responsibility for the raids, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “direct response” to a drone attack launched by the Houthi group on the city of Tel Aviv early Friday morning, which killed an Israeli and injured 10 others.
American officials told the private Hebrew Channel 12 that Tel Aviv launched the attack on Hodeidah alone, without any military intervention from Washington.
This is the first direct Israeli response to Houthi attacks in recent times.
For its part, the Houthi group said that the Israeli attack on Hodeidah “will only increase its determination and steadfastness” in supporting the Gaza Strip, and threatened operations that will “disturb” Tel Aviv in response to the attack, according to tweets on the “X” platform by the group’s spokesman, Mohammed Abdul Salam, and a member of its Supreme Political Council, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi.
In “solidarity with Gaza” in the face of the Israeli war that has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, the Houthi group has begun targeting Israeli or Israeli-linked cargo ships in the Red Sea with missiles and drones since November.
In response to these attacks, Washington and London began, since the beginning of this year, launching air strikes and missile attacks on “Houthi sites” in Yemen, which the group responded to by announcing that it now considers all American and British ships among its military targets, and expanding its attacks to ships passing through the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean or any place that its weapons can reach.
Anatolia
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2024-07-21 17:43:59
