Top Saudi cleric urges troops to defend against the Houthis, and other Mideast developments
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 U.N. 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. More coverage of the U.N. General Assembly is available here.
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.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Saleh al-Fawzan, who traditionally avoids weighing in on politics in a country that holds enormous influence among Muslims worldwide, issued the strongly worded statement. 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,” he said in the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Thursday.
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, Ofek Moalem and Nadav Kali, approached it, the military said Friday. They were evacuated to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The incident is under investigation.
Five other 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.
UNICEF says at least 15 children have been killed in fighting between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Saudi-led coalition forces.
The agency’s representative in Yemen, Akhil Iyer, said Friday at least 14 other children were wounded in the past three weeks amid an uptick in fighting.
The conflict is also causing more children to go hungry, Iyer said, in a country where at least 2.2 million children under five were already projected to suffer from acute malnutrition before the escalation of violence.
The human toll of renewed hostilities in Yemen has stretched beyond the battlefield, overwhelming a health system already battered by years of war.
More than 130,000 people have fled their homes as fighting escalates between the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces. Fewer than 10% of health centers in affected areas are equipped to provide the care that wounded people need, according to the World Health Organization. Years of war have left hospitals with little capacity.
The U.N. agency for Palestinians has met behind the scenes with officials from the U.S.-created Board of Peace, though the board has declared that the agency — known as UNRWA — will have no role in a future Gaza.
Publicly, UNRWA has not been included in the board's planning for the territory's postwar future. But Philippe Lazzarini, the U.N. agency’s last chief, told The Associated Press that members of a Palestinian technocratic committee are clear they want to work with the agency.
“They know that if you get completely rid of the agency today, it might have a further ... devastating impact on the population,” Lazzarini said.
The dynamic underscores how central UNRWA remains to addressing Gaza’s humanitarian crisis during the fragile ceasefire, even as Israel has sought to marginalize it. Israel alleges the agency has been infiltrated by Hamas militants, claims the International Court of Justice says have not been substantiated.
Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian discussed efforts to de-escalate regional tensions with Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as the country's prime minister.
The talks took place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, according to an X post Friday by the Qatari foreign ministry. Qatar has often acted as an intermediary between the U.S. and Iran.
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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
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