First Saudi planes land in cyclone-hit Socotra carrying humanitarian aid

Arab News

May 28, 2018

Jeddah, May 28: The first Saudi relief planes carrying urgent humanitarian aid arrived in the cyclone-hit island of Socotra on Sunday.

The general supervisor of the King Salman Center for Humanitarian Aid and Relief (KSRelief), Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, said that on the orders of King Salman and due to the concern expressed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help the cyclone-hit Yemeni brothers, KSRelief launched its relief activities. As part of these efforts, planes loaded with essential items and food accompanied by a specialized team to supervise the distribution of the aid have been dispatched to Socotra.

Al-Rabeeah said the KSRelief had started making preparations soon after receiving reports from the UN World Meteorological Organization predicting an increase in the cyclone’s intensity and that it would hit the Yemeni island.

The KSRelief chief thanked King Salman and the crown prince for this humanitarian initiative. He said that more planes loaded with relief goods would follow this batch. A schedule has been finalized in coordination with the Higher Relief Committee.

Socotra Gov. Ramzy Mahrous said on Sunday that the death toll on the island remained seven — five Yemenis and two Indian sailors. A further eight Indian sailors remain missing.

The southeastern part of the island remains cut off, but authorities are working to access the area and assess damage, Mahrous told AFP.

Around 1,000 families on Socotra, with a population of around 60,000, were evacuated after their homes were damaged.

The main road linking the airport to Hadibo, the island’s main city, has been reopened, Mahrous said.

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Israeli forces invade southwestern Syria, set up checkpoint in Quneitra

News Network

November 24,2025

Israeli forces have pushed over the Syrian frontier, erecting a checkpoint and stopping vehicles in the southwestern city of Quneitra, in yet another breach of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The violation took place on Sunday, when the troops made their way across the border, setting up the outpost near the Ain al-Bayda junction in northern Quneitra, Syrian outlets reported.

According to the al-Ikhbariya paper, an Israeli detachment positioned itself at the junction, halting cars and conducting searches.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three Israeli military vehicles then moved further into the northern countryside, deploying between the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the villages of Ofaniya and Ain al-Bayda. The agency added that a separate Israeli unit mounted a new incursion in the central region, approaching the villages of Umm Batina and al-Ajraf.

Residents said such activities have surged in recent months, pointing to Israeli advances onto farmland, leveling of extensive forested areas, arrests, and spread of mobile checkpoints.

The Israeli regime began markedly increasing its military aggression against Syria last year.

The escalation coincided with increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout the country by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad had confined to northwestern Syria. The HTS, however, managed to overthrow the government as the Israeli attacks would pummel the country’s civilian and defensive infrastructure.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has, meanwhile, been fraternizing the HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani amid the widely reported prospect of rapprochement with Tel Aviv.

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