Israel-Hamas war day 214: What's going on in Gaza?

A report in Al-Ain media in the UAE claimed to reveal an interesting development in Yemen. The report claims that Hezbollah has “confiscated” funds in Yemen from the Houthis and that Hezbollah is playing a role in Yemen. The report leaves many questions that are impossible to confirm, but it likely reveals some details that are worth analyzing. First of all, it reflects a concern in the UAE and the Gulf about the increased ties of the Houthis to Iran and other Iranian proxies. It reflects concern that the Houthis are being operationalized to do proxy work for Iran.

Iran has been active in backing the Houthis in their war on Saudi Arabia since 2015 when Saudi Arabia and other countries intervened in Yemen to prevent the Houthis from taking Aden. There was a ceasefire in Yemen in 2022, and Saudi Arabia and the Houthis appeared to be on a track toward peace because Riyadh and Tehran were patching things up with China’s backing. Now, the Houthis have directed resources to join Hamas in the war against Israel. The Houthis are playing their role by attacking ships. This raises concerns about how Iran may use the Houthis in the future.

Behind 'Abu Radwan'

The report at Al-Ain says that the news organization learned that the Houthi militias received "directives from Hezbollah to allocate the largest portion of the financial revenues it earns from the Yemeni governorates in the north to military operations and military industrialization." Hezbollah in Lebanon apparently now supervises some of what the Houthis are doing and works as a “mastermind” behind operations. “The sources revealed that Hezbollah addressed the militia leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, by transferring the process of managing the financial resources that the Houthi militias earn from revenues, royalties, and taxes from areas under their control to a special committee headed by one of Hezbollah’s experts present in Sanaa, whose nickname is ‘Abu Radwan.’”

The name Abu Radwan, if it’s real and not just a made-up name, is possibly linked to the Hezbollah Radwan forces, who are portrayed as the elite force of Hezbollah. The Radwan force takes its name from the late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was known as al-Hajj Radwan. This was his “war name” or nom de guerre. The fact that a mysterious man in Yemen who is linked to Hezbollah has taken on the name Abu Radwan is entirely plausible, but it’s only plausible in the context of knowing who the original Hajj Radwan was and what is meant by Radwan in the Hezbollah lingo.

Armed Houthi followers ride on the back of a pick-up truck during a parade in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and to show support to Houthi strikes on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, in Sanaa, Yemen January 29, 2024. (credit: KHALED ABDULLAH/REUTERS)

The article claims that Abu Radwan in Yemen is now “supervising the revenues of the communications and Internet sector under the control of the Houthis.” But not only that, he has done this for years and was linked to Hezbollah for years. He is “directly linked to the leadership of Hezbollah and experts from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to finance military activities and arming the militias.”

The Palestinian Authority called on the United States to "intervene immediately" to prevent Israel from invading Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Israeli operation in Gaza's Rafah city a day after Hamas accepted a ceasefire deal marks another war crime by Israel, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said on Tuesday.

UN agencies said on Tuesday that the two main crossings into Gaza Strip remain shut, virtually cutting off the enclave from outside aid with very few stores stationed inside the enclave.

The global agency's humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke said at a Geneva press briefing that Israel had shut both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings as part of its Rafah military operation.

Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in numerous Israeli towns, moshavs, kibbutzes, and communities in the country's north on Tuesday afternoon.

Areas that had sirens included Kiryat Shmona, Ramot Naftali, and Iftach.

Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that Israel's incursion in Gaza's Rafah crossing aimed to undermine ceasefire efforts, after the Israeli army announced it took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing between Egypt and the strip.

The IDF took over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing early Tuesday morning, according to Israeli media reports. 

According to the army radio, troops of the 401st Brigade had taken full operational control of the crossing. 

On Tuesday morning, the IDF announced the deaths of two reservists killed via drone strike in northern Israel.

The soldiers were identified as Staff-Sergeant-Major (Res.) Dan Kamhaji, 31, from Kfar Oranim, and Staff-Sergeant-Major (Res.) Nachman Nathan Hertz, 31, from Elazar.

The US army claimed on Tuesday overnight to have destroyed a Houthi launched UAV above the Red Sea.

United States and Qatari officials are pressing Israel and Hamas to make a deal, a US source told The Jerusalem Post on Monday, after the terror group accepted a ceasefire agreement just as it seemed that the talks had collapsed in Cairo.

"Essentially, the talks fell through, they were on life support, which is what prompted [CIA Director] Bill Burns to get on a plane and go to Qatar,” the source said.

"Both the Americans and the Qataris, in a display of shared responsibility, engaged in heavy pressure and diplomacy, striving to breathe life back into the framework of an agreement." 

The American source further emphasized that the situation was at a very delicate and sensitive point in time, underscoring the mutual understanding of the situation.