RSS
Houthi Leader Threatens to Attack US, Israel Over Gaza Plan, Says Trump Should ‘Transfer’ Jews to America
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a TV link ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, at a mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, March 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The leader of the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist group in Yemen has threatened military action if the United States and Israel implement US President Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza, arguing instead that Trump should move Jews to America and give them their own state.
“If the Americans and Israelis try to implement the [Trump] plan by force or agree with the Arab regimes to implement it, we will intervene even with military force,” Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said during a televised speech in Yemen on Thursday.
“We will intervene through missiles, drones, naval operations, and other means if the US and Israel implement the displacement plan by force,” he continued. “We will confront them with all means. We will never stand idly by in the face of a plan of attack against the Palestinians.”
Like many other Middle Eastern leaders, al-Houthi rejected Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza to rebuild the war-torn enclave while relocating its Palestinian residents elsewhere during reconstruction efforts.
During his speech, al-Houthi called Trump a “criminal,” saying his plan “denies rights and justice.”
“Trump’s plan to uproot the Palestinian people from their land and homeland is an expropriation of rights,” he said. “We are not surprised by the plan; there is no limit to the ambitions of the American president who believes in the unjust Zionist project [Israel].”
During Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House last week, Trump called on Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states to take in Palestinians from Gaza after nearly 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, a bloody onslaught that launched the ongoing war in Gaza, Houthi terrorists in Yemen have routinely attacked Israel with missiles and attack drones.
In December, for example, a ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed group struck a playground in Tel Aviv, injuring at least 16 people and causing damage to nearby homes after several interception attempts by Israel’s air defense systems failed.
The Houthis have been waging an insurgency in Yemen for two decades in a bid to overthrow the Yemeni government. They have controlled a significant portion of the country’s land in the north and along the Red Sea since 2014, when they captured it in the midst of a civil war.
The Yemeni terrorist group began disrupting global trade in a major way with their attacks on shipping in the busy Red Sea corridor after Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities, arguing their aggression was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Houthi rebels — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — said they would target all ships heading to Israeli ports, even if they did not pass through the Red Sea.
Beyond Israeli targets, the Houthis have threatened and, in some cases, actually attacked US and British ships, leading the two Western allies to launch retaliatory strikes multiple times against Houthi targets in Yemen.
With the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas in place, however, there have been no further Houthi attacks against Israel. However, with talks underway to extend the ceasefire to a second phase, al-Houthi threatened that the strikes would resume if the Trump plan were implemented.
“I call on the armed forces to be prepared for military intervention if Trump carries out his threats,” he said. “We will be monitoring and coordinating with the fighters in Palestine and the resistance axis.”
Since October 2023, the Houthis — designated as a terrorist organization by several countries including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Israel — have launched over 200 missiles and 170 attack drones in repeated attacks against the Jewish state.
In his speech, al-Houthi also mockingly urged Trump to take Jews into the US as a critique of his plan to relocate Palestinians elsewhere during reconstruction efforts in Gaza.
“Trump, who in his first term brought the ‘deal of the century,’ has committed the ‘crime of the century’ in his current term,” the Houthi leader said.
“If Trump and the United States want to take care of the Jews, they should transfer them to the United States,” he continued. “They can transfer the Jews to America and give them one of the states; the United States has uninhabited areas.”
Earlier this week, al-Houthi also threatened Israel, saying the Yemeni terrorists would “launch attacks if Israel attacks again in Gaza and does not abide by the ceasefire agreement.”
“We will stand by the Lebanese people if the occupation decides to escalate,” he added, referring to last year’s ceasefire that stopped fighting between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. “We confirm the principle of supporting the Palestinian people militarily, politically, and with information.”
Last month, Israel and the terrorist group Hamas reached a ceasefire and hostage-release deal brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar.
Under phase one, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, in exchange for Israel freeing over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are serving life sentences for terrorism-related offenses.
So far, 16 of the 33 hostages have been released during the first phase, which is set to last six weeks.
“We are ready for military intervention in the event of Israeli escalation against Gaza,” al-Houthi said. “The Palestinian Authority is cooperating with the Israeli enemy, even these days, unfortunately.”
The Houthi leader also called for people to attend demonstrations throughout Yemen on Friday, to “send a warning message to the Israeli and American enemies against displacement or aggression.”
The post Houthi Leader Threatens to Attack US, Israel Over Gaza Plan, Says Trump Should ‘Transfer’ Jews to America first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.