By Sumayya
Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has issued a rare statement, calling on the kingdom’s troops to defend the country from neighboring Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Yemen is deteriorating as fighting escalates, further straining the country’s overstretched health sector.
In New York, the wars in Iran and Gaza have dominated the agenda at the UN General Assembly, where the leaders of Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt were scheduled to address the United Nations later Friday.
Here is a look at the latest news from the Middle East.
Top religious figure urges Saudi troops to be ready to defend the kingdom
With Saudi oil facilities, cities and ships off its coast coming under escalating attacks, the kingdom’s top religious authority has called on soldiers to be prepared to defend the country from Iran-backed Houthis.
The strongly worded statement from Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh al-Fawzan, who traditionally avoids weighing in on politics in a country that holds enormous influence among Muslims worldwide, is a rare message on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East from the kingdom’s top religious authority.
Al-Fawzan addressed his message to soldiers defending the kingdom’s borders and members of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen, peppering it with Quranic verses and religious edicts.
“Protecting this great nation, guarding its borders, defending against aggression and punishing those who want to harm any inch of it is one of the greatest duties … where lives are sacrificed for the sake of God,” he said. The Saudi Press Agency carried the statement late Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has said it intercepted a number of missiles launched at the kingdom but has struggled, along with its allies, to contain the Houthis.
Two Israeli soldiers are killed in Gaza
Israel’s military said two of its soldiers were killed in northern Gaza on Thursday while inspecting an unexploded Israeli drone near a military post. They were the first Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza in months.
The drone exploded as the soldiers approached it, the military said Friday. They were evacuated to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
The military called the explosion “a serious safety incident” and identified the soldiers as Ofek Moalem and Nadav Kali. It said the incident was under investigation.
Previously, five Israeli soldiers have been killed since last October’s ceasefire that attempted to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and the militant Hamas group.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones and have killed 1,408 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Clinics in Yemen struggle as the state’s internal conflict restarts
The human toll of renewed clashes in Yemen has reached past the battleground, crushing a medical framework already damaged by annual cycles of conflict.
Deeper than 130,000 populations have escaped their residences as combat intensifies between the Iran-supported Houthis and Saudi-backed cabinet units. Fewer than 10 per cent of medical hubs in impacted spots remain ready to supply the trauma care injured populations demand, based on the World Health Organization.
Annual cycles of conflict have left Yemen’s clinics with minimal space. Youngsters remain sharing emergency room mattresses, expecting women remain being turned away from medical hubs and clinical stocks remain running short.
The most fresh phase of combat launched in July after the Houthis declared a barrier on Saudi vessels in the vital Bab el-Mandeb channel, supplementing weight on universal commerce already upset by the conflict in Iran and the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. Prior UNRWA chief shields branch’s capacity in Gaza
The UN branch for Palestinians has gathered behind the scenes with authorities from the U.S.-established Board of Peace, though the board has declared that the branch — recognized as UNRWA — will manage no capacity in a tomorrow Gaza.
Publicly, UNRWA has not been embraced in the board’s tracking for the zone’s postwar tomorrow. But Philippe Lazzarini, the UN branch’s final chief, informed The Associated Press that members of a Palestinian technical group remain absolute they desire to perform with the branch.
“They recognize that if you get completely rid of the branch today, it might manage a further additional devastating impact on the populace,” Lazzarini expressed.
The dynamic highlights how central UNRWA remains to handling Gaza’s welfare crisis during the fragile truce, even as Israel has sought to sideline it. Israel claims the branch has been penetrated by Hamas militants, assertions the International Court of Justice has expressed have not been proven.
