������Ƶ

ADEN: Hundreds attended funeral services Tuesday for 31 Yemeni journalists who were killed in Israeli airstrikes last week that targeted Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the capital of Sanaa.
The strikes last Wednesday followed a drone launched by the Houthis that breached Israel’s multilayered air defenses and slammed into a southern Israeli airport, blowing out glass windows and injuring one person.
In Yemen, dozens were reported killed, including the journalists, in the strikes that hit Sanaa, including residential areas, a military headquarters and a fuel station, according to the health ministry in the rebel-held northern part of Yemen.
The National Museum of Yemen was also damaged in Sanaa, according to the rebels’ culture ministry, with footage from the site showings damage to the building’s façade. A government facility in the city of Hazm, the capital of northern Jawf province, was also hit.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV broadcast the funerals Tuesday, showing dozens inside a mosque and the caskets being carried ahead of the burial.
The turnout was lower than expected for such a a “huge loss,” according to Khaled Rageh and Ahmed Malhy, who attended the funerals, likely because heavy morning rain kept some away. The two men spoke to The Associated Press by phone.
Israel has previously launched waves of airstrikes in response to the Houthis’ firing missiles and drones at Israel. The Houthis say they are supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis have launched missiles and drones toward Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea for over 22 months, saying they are attacking in solidarity with Palestinians amid the war in Gaza.
The Committee to Protect Journalists told The Associated Press on Monday that the organization is still actively looking into the reported deaths of Yemeni journalists but was having difficulties in verifying facts on the ground in rebel-held Sanaa.
“The information environment is highly restricted — Houthi authorities have imposed strict censorship, including a ban on sharing photos or videos related to the airstrikes,” the CPJ said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch in a Monday post said Israeli airstrikes in Sanaa also hit a media center housing the headquarters of two newspapers, describing it as another example of the dangers facing journalists in Yemen.
“The recent Israeli forces’ attack further highlights the threats journalists are facing in Yemen, not just by domestic authorities but also by external warring parties,” said HRW.
Mohammed Al-Basha, a Yemen analyst, said on X that the strikes hit as staffers at the “September 26” newspaper gathered to prepare the paper’s next edition.

JERUSALEM: Israel on Tuesday said it “categorically rejects” a probe by UN investigators which determined that Israel has since October 2023 been committing “genocide” in Gaza.
“Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur,” commission chief Navi Pillay said.
The investigators concluded that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with President Isaac Herzog and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, have “incited the commission of genocide” in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli foreign ministry accused the authors of the report of “serving as Hamas proxies,” saying they were “notorious for their openly antisemitic positions.”
“The report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others,” it added.
The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations also categorically rejected the findings of a Commission of Inquiry that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza as a “libelous rant.”
The report, which also found that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited genocidal acts, is “scandalous” and “fake,” Daniel Meron said in Geneva.
The commission concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had since October 2023 committed “four of the five genocidal acts” listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
These are “killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”
Nearly 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.
The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced at least once, with tens of thousands more fleeing again as Israel ramps up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, where the UN has declared a full-blown famine.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.