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Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels have emerged bruised but defiant from a blistering US bombing campaign, cementing their role as one of the Middle East’s most powerful non-state actors after a truce with Washington.US President Donald Trump said the rebels had “capitulated” after the intense, seven-week campaign that came in response to Huthi threats to renew attacks on Red Sea shipping over Israel’s blockade on Gaza.Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi slammed Trump’s remarks on Thursday, calling on supporters to celebrate “America’s great failure” during Friday demonstrations and labelling their campaign on the key shipping route a “total success”.The rebels are the biggest winners of this truce, analysts told AFP, with an official confirming they will keep targeting Israeli ships in the key maritime waterway.The Huthis, who control swathes of Yemen, have launched missiles and drones targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping throughout the Gaza war, saying they act in solidarity with Palestinians.They paused their attacks during a recent two-month Gaza ceasefire, but in March threatened to resume targeting international shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza.The move triggered a response from the US army, which hammered the rebels with near-daily air strikes starting March 15 to keep them from threatening shipping in the key waterways.”It is at best a very unstable agreement. The Huthis’ ambitions in the Red Sea against Israel and in the region in general will not wind down,” said Thomas Juneau, a Middle East specialist at the University of Ottawa.”This allows President Trump to claim victory, but ultimately, it is a very limited” win, he said.- ‘Doubly resistant’ -The Yemeni rebels have framed the ceasefire as a victory, regularly announcing throughout the escalation that they shot down MQ-9 drones and at least three F-18 aircrafts.These losses highlight “billions spent by the US,” said Mohammed Albasha, of the US-based Basha Report Risk Advisory, noting that “none of their senior commanders were harmed”.The recent agreement failed to curb the Huthis’ ambitions.”On the ground, anti‑Huthi forces lacked the capacity to conduct ground operations without Emirati and Saudi backing,” Albasha said.”Both Gulf states publicly opposed a ground offensive given their ongoing understandings with the Huthis,” he added.The group operating out of hard-to-access mountain strongholds has withstood a decade of war against a well-armed, Saudi-led coalition.”The nature of Huthi rule and how they operate makes them doubly resistant to air strikes,” said Michael Shurkin of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank.”The Huthis as an organisation are dispersed and rely on tribal networks. They are classic guerrilla fighters and proficient at asymmetrical warfare,” he added.- Iran links -The Huthis have become Iran’s strongest ally after the Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah were decimated in wars with Israel.”Their importance has increased,” said Juneau, adding that they had become “more indispensable in Iran’s eyes”.Clara Broekaert, a researcher at the Soufan Center, said “the current pause presents a strategic opportunity for the Huthis to rearm and reposition”.But the rebels have retained a certain autonomy from their Iranian backer.A senior member of the Revolutionary Guards is part of one of the Huthis’ essential decision-making bodies, according to Juneau.Tehran provides them with “missile and drone technologies, military and intelligence support” but the rebels are “not puppets acting at Iran’s whim”, he said.”Dependency works both ways” between Iran and the rebels, he said, adding that “this gives the Huthis significant bargaining power”.Camille Lons, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the group allows Tehran to “maintain pressure points, retain regional assets and networks in Yemen”.- Weapons -Relatively unknown a decade ago, the Huthis have remained largely under the radar of Western intelligence services. Their attacks, often with home-assembled drones and missiles, are simple but effective, dramatically reducing Red Sea shipping volumes as cargo companies have avoided the route.It is difficult to asses the extent of their arsenal or how badly the latest US campaign has affected their military capacities.”The assumption is that the knowhow for the sophisticated weapons come from Iran,” said Jeremy Binnie of British private intelligence firm Janes.”Some local manufacturing is taking place to reduce the burden on the smuggling networks, although the extent that is happening isn’t particularly clear,” he said.The Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group said the group was “attempting to use hydrogen fuel cells to power their” drones. If the experiment is succesful, they would be the first non-state actor to do so.”This is no longer a small group manufacturing underdeveloped weapons,” Lons said, underlining the increased “complexity of what the Huthis are capable of producing by themselves”.

Paramilitary drone strikes targeting Sudan’s wartime capital have sought to shatter the regular army’s sense of security and open a dangerous new chapter in the war, experts say.Since April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has been at war with the army, which has lately recaptured some territory and dislodged the paramilitaries from the capital Khartoum.The latter appeared to have the upper hand before Sunday, when drone strikes began blasting key infrastructure in Port Sudan, seat of the army-backed government on the Red Sea coast.With daily strikes on the city since then, the RSF has sought to demonstrate its strength, discredit the army, disrupt its supply lines and project an air of legitimacy, experts believe.According to Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair, “this is intended to undermine the army’s ability to provide safety and security in areas they control”, allowing the RSF to expand the war “without physically being there”.For two years, the paramilitaries relied mainly on lightning ground offensives, overwhelming army defences in brutal campaigns of conquest.But after losing nearly all of Khartoum in March, the RSF has increasingly turned to long-range air power.Using weapons the army says were supplied by the United Arab Emirates, it has hit strategic sites hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from their holdout positions on the capital’s outskirts.Michael Jones, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, says the RSF’s pivot is a matter of both “strategic adaptation” and “if not desperation, then necessity”.- Strategic setback -“The loss of Khartoum was both a strategic and symbolic setback,” he told AFP.In response, the RSF needed to broadcast a “message that the war isn’t over”, according to Sudanese analyst Hamid Khalafallah.The conflict between Sudan’s de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has split Africa’s third-largest country in two.The army holds the centre, north and east, while the RSF controls nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.”It’s unlikely that the RSF can retake Khartoum or reach Port Sudan by land, but drones enable them to create a sense of fear and destabilise cities” formerly considered safe, Khalafallah told AFP.With drones and light munitions, it can “reach areas it hasn’t previously infiltrated successfully”, Jones said.According to a retired Sudanese general, the RSF has been known to use two types of drone — makeshift lightweight models with 120mm mortar rounds that explode on impact, and long-range drones capable of delivering guided missiles, including the Chinese-manufactured CH95.On Thursday, rights group Amnesty International published a report that said “Chinese GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers” used by the RSF in Khartoum and Darfur were provided by the UAE.- Sparing fighters -The Sudanese government severed diplomatic ties with the Gulf state on Tuesday, accusing it of supplying the advanced weapons systems the RSF has used to attack Port Sudan.Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied arming the RSF, despite reports from UN experts, US politicians and international organisations.According to Mohaned Elnour, nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, the RSF’s “main objective is to divert the army’s attention” and position itself as a potential government, which it has said it will form.”It’s much easier for them to attack quickly and withdraw, rather than defend territory,” Elnour said.Crossing Sudan’s vast landmass — some 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) from RSF bases in Darfur to Port Sudan — requires long-range drones such as the Chinese-made Wing Loong II, deployed by the UAE, or the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 used by the army, according to Amnesty.Both sides in Sudan are in a race to “destroy each other’s drone capacity”, Khair said.Two years into the devastating war, the RSF has another incentive to rely on drones, she said.”It allows them to spare their troops” after reports that RSF recruitment has dipped since the war began.”Initial recruitment was high based on the opportunity to loot, and there’s very little left to loot now,” she said.Both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians, but the RSF is specifically accused of rampant looting, ethnic cleansing and systematic sexual violence.

First responders in Gaza said Thursday that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage.Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack.”Seventy-five percent of our vehicles have stopped operating due to a lack of diesel fuel,” the civil defence agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.He added that its teams, who play a critical role as first responders in the Gaza Strip, were also facing a “severe shortage of electricity generators and oxygen devices”.For weeks, UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations have warned of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water in the coastal territory that is home to 2.4 million Palestinians.”It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip,” Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva Thursday.The situation in Gaza is on a “razor’s edge” and “the next few days are absolutely decisive”, he added.The UN’s agency for children, UNICEF, warned that Gaza’s children face “a growing risk of starvation, illness and death” after UN-supported kitchens shut down due to lack of food supplies.Over 20 independent experts mandated by the UN’s Human Rights Council demanded action on Wednesday to avert the “annihilation” of Palestinians in Gaza.Senior civil defence official Mohammad Mughayyir told AFP that Israeli bombardment across Gaza on Thursday killed 21 people, including nine in a strike that targeted the Abu Rayyan family home in the northern city of Beit Lahia.On Thursday, Palestinians waited in line to donate blood at a field hospital in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.”In these difficult circumstances, we have come to support the injured and sick, amid severe food shortages and a lack of proteins, by donating blood”, Moamen al-Eid, a Palestinian waiting in the line, told AFP.- ‘No food or drink’ -Hind Joba, the hospital’s laboratory head, said that “there is no food or drink, the crossings are closed, and there is no access to nutritious or protein-rich food”.”Still, people responded to the call, fulfilling their humanitarian duty by donating blood” despite the toll on their own bodies, she added.”But this blood is vital, and they know that every drop helps save the life of an injured person.”Israel resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a ceasefire stalled.On Monday, the country’s security cabinet approved a new roadmap for military operations in Gaza, aiming for the “conquest” of the territory while displacing its people en masse, drawing international condemnation.An Israeli security official stated that a “window” remained for negotiations on the release of hostages until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf, scheduled from May 13 to 16.Hamas, which is demanding a “comprehensive and complete agreement” to end the war, on Wednesday denounced what it called Israel’s attempt to impose a “partial” deal. The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack has killed at least 52,760 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry, which is considered reliable by the UN.bur-phy-lba-acc/dv

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday decried an “assault on children” after Israel closed all six of its schools in annexed east Jerusalem, months after an Israeli ban on its activities took effect.”Storming schools & forcing them shut is a blatant disregard of international law”, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini posted on X, describing the move as “An assault on children. An assault on education”.UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told AFP that Israeli forces “closed six United Nations schools in annexed east Jerusalem on Thursday, posting closure orders on the six buildings and forcibly entering three of the six schools”.An AFP photographer present at two of the schools in the Shuafat refugee camp reported that Israeli forces entered the premises and posted a closure notice stating the schools were operating without “authorisation”.The children had to leave the premises, with many departing in tears. Several young pupils, some visibly moved and others shocked, hugged in front of the school before they left.UNRWA said one of its staff members was detained.”From May 8, 2025, it will be prohibited to operate educational institutions, or employ teachers, teaching staff or any other staff, and it will be forbidden to accommodate students or allow the entry of students into this institution,” the closure order in Hebrew read.UNRWA’s director in the West Bank, Roland Friedrich, told AFP that “heavily armed” forces surrounded the three UNRWA schools in Shuafat camp at 9:00 am.Friedrich added that 550 pupils aged six to 15 were present when the closure was enforced, calling it “a traumatising experience for young children who are at immediate risk of losing their access to education.”Friedrich said police were deployed in the area around three separate schools in other parts of east Jerusalem, which has been annexed by Israel since 1967.UNRWA said that the school year for 800 children had “been ended by force”.- ‘Violation of right to education’ -The Palestinian Authority condemned the move in a statement to AFP, calling it a “violation of children’s right to education”.In a statement, its education ministry called the closures a “crime” and urged international institutions “to assume their responsibilities and defend the right of refugee children to a free and safe education”.UNRWA has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for more than 70 years, but has long clashed with Israeli officials, who have repeatedly accused it of undermining the country’s security.At the end of January, Israeli legislation came into force banning the agency’s activities. Due to the annexation, the law applies to east Jerusalem but not to the rest of the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.Contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden.Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of the agency’s employees took part in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.A series of investigations found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.Nevertheless, the UN said in August that nine staff working for UNRWA would be sacked because they may have been involved in the attacks.Adalah, an Israeli group defending the rights of the Arab minority, reported that Israeli police were raiding six UNRWA-run schools in east Jerusalem.The organisation filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court in mid-January arguing the new legislation against UNRWA violated “fundamental human rights and Israel’s obligations under international law”.The Supreme Court rejected its request for the legislation to be suspended.In April, Adalah demanded a halt to the closure orders on UNRWA-run schools at the Supreme Court.The state responded that the Jerusalem municipality was offering alternative schooling and the court rejected the NGO’s motion.Adalah called the proposed alternatives “wholly inadequate”.The United Nations considers the annexation of Jerusalem’s eastern sector illegal.

The Red Cross on Thursday denounced the human cost of the war raging in Gaza, slamming Israel’s “unacceptable” full blockade on aid into the besieged and conflict-ravaged Palestinian territory.Aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which they say has been exacerbated by an Israeli blockade on all aid since early March.”It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip,” Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva.”That’s just fundamentally against anything that international humanitarian law provides.”The situation in Gaza is on a “razor’s edge” and “the next few days are absolutely decisive”, he added.”There’s a moment where we will also run out of anything that’s left in terms of medical supplies and other” aid, he said.Israel resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a ceasefire stalled.The country denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group’s unprecedented October 2023 attack.- ‘We should all be terrified’ -“What we would need is an immediate return to a ceasefire situation to ease the pressure,” Krahenbuhl said.”I think everybody should feel deep indignation about what is happening in Gaza. I can’t reconcile myself with the human cost of this conflict,” he said.”Frankly, if this is the future of warfare, we should all be terrified, and we should all be aware that this questions the very foundations of our humanity.”Israel is reportedly aiming to shut down the existing UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, forcing all deliveries to go through Israeli hubs.Krahenbuhl stressed that “there is no monopoly among humanitarian organisations” to deliver aid. “States can undertake it.”But he insisted that any delivery of aid must respect humanitarian principles “such as the impartiality of aid, that it actually reaches people, that it’s not politically motivated and directed”.Every effort to get aid to Gazans in need should be “taken seriously”, Krahenbuhl said.”But right now, the most effective way to get aid to people is to lift… actions or decisions that were taken to prevent aid from reaching” inside Gaza.”There are huge quantities of aid that are on the borders of Gaza that can go in tomorrow,” he insisted.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Thursday that Israel closed three of its schools in annexed east Jerusalem, months after an Israeli ban on its activities took effect.An AFP photographer at the scene reported that a closure notice in Hebrew was left at the entrance of at least one of the schools, and UNRWA said at least one of its staff members was detained.”From May 8, 2025, it will be prohibited to operate educational institutions, or employ teachers, teaching staff or any other staff, and it will be forbidden to accommodate students or allow the entry of students into this institution,” the closure order read. UNRWA’s director in the West Bank, Roland Friedrich, told AFP that “heavily armed” forces surrounded three UNRWA schools in east Jerusalem’s Shuafat camp at 9:00 am on Thursday.Friedrich added that 550 pupils aged six to 15 were present when the closure was enforced, calling the event “a traumatising experience for young children who are at immediate risk of losing their access to education.”Friedrich said that police were being deployed at three separate schools in other parts of east Jerusalem, which has been annexed by Israel since 1967.An AFP photographer reported that Israeli forces removed children from two schools, many of whom left in tears, and posted a closure notice stating that the schools were operating illegally without “authorisation”.Several young pupils, some visibly moved and others shocked, hugged in front of the school before leaving the premises.The Palestinian Authority condemned the move in a statement to AFP, calling it a “violation of children’s right to education”.In a statement, its ministry of education called the closures a “crime” and urged international institutions to “to assume their responsibilities and defend the right of refugee children to a free and safe education”.UNRWA has provided support for Palestinian refugees around the Middle East for more than 70 years, but has long clashed with Israeli officials, who have repeatedly accused it of undermining the country’s security.- ‘Wholly inadequate’ -At the end of January, Israeli legislation came into force severing ties with the agency, which is banned from operating on Israeli soil.Contact between it and Israeli officials is also forbidden.Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of the agency’s employees took part in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.A series of investigations, including one led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided evidence for its headline allegation.Palestinian human rights group Adalah reported that Israeli police were raiding six UNRWA-run schools in east Jerusalem.The organisation filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court in mid-January arguing the new legislation against UNRWA violated “fundamental human rights and Israel’s obligations under international law”.The Supreme Court rejected its request for the legislation to be suspended.In April, Adalah demanded a halt to the closure orders on UNRWA-run schools at the Supreme Court. The state responded that the Jerusalem municipality was offering alternative schooling and the court rejected the NGO’s motion.Adalah called the proposed alternatives “wholly inadequate”.Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, though the United Nations considers its annexation of the city’s eastern sector illegal.The Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.

Lebanon said heavy Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Thursday killed one person as the Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah “infrastructure”, the latest raids despite a fragile ceasefire.Israel has continued to launch regular strikes on its neighbour despite the November truce which sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group including two months of full-blown war.Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “Israeli warplanes carried out a wide-scale aerial aggression on the Nabatiyeh region, launching a series of heavy raids in two waves” targeting hills and valleys in the area, located around 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the border.The health ministry said the strikes killed one person and wounded eight others, adding that the toll was provisional.The Israeli military said it struck “a terrorist infrastructure site” used by Hezbollah “to manage its fire and defence array”.It said it struck Hezbollah operatives, “weapons, and tunnel shafts”, adding that “this infrastructure is part of a significant underground project that… has been rendered inoperable” by Israeli military raids.It called the site and activities there “a blatant violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon”.The NNA said “huge explosions… echoed in most areas of Nabatiyeh and the south”, causing “terror and panic” among residents, who rushed to pick up their children from school, as ambulances headed to the targeted areas.An AFP photographer saw smoke rising from hills in the region.- ‘Children were scared’ -“We heard a loud strike, about 10 consecutive blows,” said Jamal Sabbagh, a 29-year-old doctor who was giving schoolchildren health checks near the city of Nabatiyeh.”Some of the children were scared and there was panic, the teachers were also frightened,” he told AFP.The raids come a day after an Israeli strike killed a commander from Palestinian militant group Hamas in the southern city of Sidon.Under the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah was to pull back its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.Israel was to pull all its forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems “strategic”.The Lebanese army has been deploying in the area as the Israeli army has withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.President Joseph Aoun said late last month that the Lebanese army is now deployed in more than 85 percent of the south and that the sole obstacle to full control across the frontier area was “Israel’s occupation of five border positions”.Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw all its troops.Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanon, was heavily weakened in its latest war with Israel.Lebanese authorities have vowed to implement a state monopoly on bearing arms, though Aoun has said disarming Hezbollah is a “delicate” matter that requires dialogue.The November truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and United Nations peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.