The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they unfold.
US says it destroyed Houthi missiles, drones over Red Sea
The US military says it destroyed two Houthi patrol boats, one uncrewed surface vessel and one drone over the Red Sea over the last 24 hours.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who control most areas of Yemen, launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen into the Red Sea, the US Central Command says in a statement, adding there was no damage or injuries from those missiles.
June 13 U.S. Central Command Update
In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed one air defense sensor in a Houthi controlled area of Yemen.
Then, USCENTCOM forces successfully destroyed one Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed surface… pic.twitter.com/cnbPOQzcyT— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 14, 2024
It adds that Polish-operated bulk cargo carrier M/V Verbena, flying under a Palauan flag, was hit for a second time. Authorities earlier reported that a sailor was seriously injured in a missile strike on the ship.
“The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are targeting and threatening the lives of third country nationals who have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza,” CentCom says.
UN leads calls for release of staffers detained by Houthis over alleged spy ring
The heads of six UN agencies and three international humanitarian organizations are issuing a joint appeal to Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the immediate release of 17 members of their staff who were recently detained along with many others also being held by the Iranian-backed group.
Their appeal is echoed by a statement from several dozen nations and the European Union ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Yemen where UN special envoy Hans Grundberg said the Houthis were holding all those detained in the crackdown incommunicado.
The statement calls their detentions “unprecedented — not only in Yemen but globally.”
They asked the Houthis to confirm the exact whereabouts of those detained and for immediate access, citing international humanitarian law which requires all parties to armed conflict to respect and protect humanitarian personnel.
“The targeting of humanitarian, human rights, and development workers in Yemen must stop,” the joint statement says. “All those detained must be immediately released.”
The Houthis said Monday they had arrested members of an “American-Israeli spy network,” days after detaining the staffers from the UN and aid organizations.
Maj. Gen. Abdulhakim al-Khayewani, head of the Houthis’ intelligence agency, announced the arrests, saying the spy network had first operated out of the US Embassy in the capital Sanaa. After it was closed in 2015 following the Houthi takeover of Sanaa and northern Yemen, he said, they continued “their subversive agenda under the cover of international and UN organizations.”
Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, strongly condemns the abuse and detention of current and former USAID staff as well as UN and NGO employees and demanded their immediate release,
“These detentions are an affront both to diplomatic norms and to the dedication the individuals have shown to supporting the people of Yemen,” she says in a statement. “The Houthis’ attempts to spread disinformation regarding the roles of USAID, the US government, the UN, and other international organizations working to improve the lives of the Yemeni people through the use of forced and fraudulent `confessions’ is deplorable.”
Top Hamas official: Nobody has any clue how many hostages still alive
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan says nobody knows how many of the 116 remaining hostages kidnapped on October 7 are still alive.
“I don’t have any idea about that,” the Beirut-based terror official tells CNN. “No one has an idea about this.”
He also blames Israel for the mental state of four hostages recently rescued, after a doctor said they were subject to constant physical and emotional abuse while in captivity.
“I believe if they have mental problem, this is because of what Israel have done in Gaza,” he says, adding the wild claim that the abductees looked better coming out of Gaza than when they were kidnapped.
Hamdan defends the group’s rejection of truce terms, saying Israel needs to agree to a full ceasefire before any negotiations on freeing hostages.
Hamas needs “a clear position from Israel to accept the ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, and let the Palestinians to determine their future by themselves, the reconstruction, the (lifting) of the siege … and we are ready to talk about a fair deal about the prisoners exchange,” he is quoted saying.
He also rejects a recent Wall Street Journal report that claimed Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar welcomed Gazan civilian deaths as a “necessary sacrifice.”
“It was fake messages done by someone who is not Palestinian and (it) was sent (to the) Wall Street Journal as part of the pressure against Hamas and provoking the people against the leader,” CNN quotes him saying. The network adds that no evidence was given.
Cal State LA president decries vandalism, assaults after protesters trash building
The campus president of California State University, Los Angeles says three employees and a student were assaulted during the takeover of an administration building by pro-Palestinian protesters Wednesday, who left behind significant damage.
“I am saddened, and I am angry,” says Berenecea Johnson Eanes in a statement to the school community. “Campus community: Know that we will recover from this, but also know that I am committed to doing everything we can to ensure this will never be allowed to repeat. I cannot and would not protect anyone who is directly identified as having participated in last night’s illegal activities from being held accountable.”
Eanes said she has engaged with protesters who have occupied the campus encampment for some 40 days.
“So long as the encampment remained non-violent, I was committed that the university would continue to talk,” the president wrote. But in the wake of destruction and theft that occurred Wednesday, a line was crossed and “those in the encampment must leave.”
No arrests or injuries were reported in the takeover, which ended early Thursday.
After a takeover of a Cal State L.A. building by pro-Palestinian activists, who smashed windows, trashed offices and left graffiti, we're getting a first look at the damage. Why were they allowed to loot the building for hours? This morning at 6 from ABC7 https://t.co/PZa2qKHM55 pic.twitter.com/yQ59veU8PP
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) June 13, 2024
Images from the scene showed graffiti on the building, furniture blocking doorways and overturned golf carts, picnic tables and umbrellas barricading the plaza out front.
Eanes said the vandalism would affect “admissions, records, accessible technology, basic needs, new student and family engagement, Dreamer resources, and educational opportunity programs. It will take time to restore all those spaces and divert significant resources that would otherwise go to academics, student services, or operations.”
The university has announced that all main campus classes and operations will be remote until further notice.
Islamic Jihad names Jenin terror leaders killed in clash with IDF
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group says two senior leaders of its Jenin branch were killed in an Israeli raid Thursday.
The Jenin Battalion, an offshoot of the group’s al-Quds Brigade armed wing, says Mohammed Jaber Shalabi and Mohammed Asri Fayyad were killed in a clash with Israeli troops in Qabatiya, just south of Jenin.
Both were members of the Jenin Brigade’s military council, it says, naming Shalabi as a close companion of Jenin Brigade’s founder Jamil al-Amouri, who was killed in a 2021 clash.
The IDF said earlier that special forces commandos had killed two “senior” Palestinian gunmen in Qabatiya during a 13-hour raid in the city. One soldier was lightly hurt in the clashes.
Several suspects were arrested in the Jenin area during the operation, and combat engineers uncovered explosive devices planted under roads, the army said.
US, allies willing to step up pressure on Iran after nuke watchdog report
The US State Department says Washington and its allies are prepared to continue to increase pressure on Iran if Tehran does not cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran has rapidly installed extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at its Fordo site and begun setting up others, an International Etomic Energy Agency report said earlier in the day.
The State Department said the report showed that Iran aimed to continue expanding its nuclear program “in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose.”
Woman reported killed in fiery south Lebanon strike
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reports that a woman was killed in a reported Israeli strike on a home outside of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Earlier reports on the fiery attack on a home on the outskirts of the village of Janata said at least seven people had been wounded in the strike.
???? ???????? #Breaking: Massive explosion heard across south Lebanon. Initial reports indicate an Israeli airstrike targeted a residential building in Janata, near Tyre. #Lebanon #Israel pic.twitter.com/sMDaFCKQP0
— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) June 13, 2024