The Houthis expand their control in the western coast of Yemen, and Israel continues assassinations and bombings in Lebanon and the West Bank.

Yesterday, the Houthis expanded their control on the western coast of Yemen to areas of the Dhubab District, coinciding with their members entering Mayon Island and taking control of the Hanish Islands archipelago and Zuqar Island in the Red Sea.

The group's advance comes the day after it took control of Mokha and its port, in a field shift that redrew the map of military deployment on the western coast, and prompted government forces to rearrange their lines south of the city.

This development raises the risks surrounding Bab al-Mandab, while the Yemeni government has intensified its diplomatic action internationally and regionally, in an attempt to protect Bab al-Mandab and place the Houthi threat to navigation in the Red Sea at the forefront of international attention.

This move coincided with an emergency Security Council session that discussed the Houthi escalation. There were firm American, British and French positions regarding the attacks targeting Yemen, Saudi Arabia and maritime navigation, while UN envoy Hans Grundberg warned that the return of war had become a reality.

Anxiety gripped the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon after the Israeli bombing of two two-kilometre-long tunnels in the Ali Al-Taher Heights. The bombing doubled fears of the “next stage,” amid a statement by Defense Minister Yisrael Katz in which he said: “We are ready to continue the campaign and continue striking (Hezbollah) and in additional locations.” He also defined what he called the “security border,” which extends across the Mediterranean coast in the west to Mount Hermon in the east.

Residents in the south recounted how they experienced a “difficult night,” during which “the ground shook for about 5 seconds.”

In a related context, the Lebanese government issued a decision prohibiting the sale of its occupied lands for fear of Israel. Finance Minister Yassin Jaber said that the decision “aims to protect property and prevent any attempt to transfer its ownership to parties linked to the occupation.”

Israel has escalated assassination operations against leaders and activists of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement.

On the night of Thursday-Friday, the Israeli army assassinated Muhammad al-Yazuri, known as “Abu al-Haytham,” the commander of the “Khan Yunis Brigade” in the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” after a drone targeted him while he was walking in the Al-Mawasi area, and Hudhayfah Abu Muammar, one of the engineers in the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” was killed with him.

In addition, as part of the boasting and election propaganda of the far-right minister, Bezalel Smotrich, the Union of Settlement Farms that works under his supervision revealed, for the first time in a decade, a map revealing that these settlement farms now extend over a vast area of ​​more than 1.1 million dunams in the West Bank.