"B2 Bombers Need To Visit Yemen": US Envoy Warns Houthis After Israel Strike
"We thought we were done with missiles coming to Israel, but Houthis just lit one up over us in Israel. Fortunately, Israel's incredible interception system means we go to the shelter & wait until all clear," Mr Huckabee posted on X.
"Maybe those B2 bombers need to visit Yemen!" he added.
The envoy's reference to B2 bombers came days after the US used its most advanced strategic weapons to strike Iran's three nuclear sites last month, as it joined Israel's military campaign against its major rival. The Houthi rebels in Yemen are also backed by Iran.
We thought we were done with missiles coming to Israel, but Houthis just lit one up over us in Israel. Fortunately, Israel's incredible interception system means we go to the shelter & wait until all clear. Maybe those B2 bombers need to visit Yemen!
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) July 1, 2025
The B-2 is capable of entering sophisticated air defenses and delivering precision strikes against hardened targets such as Iran's buried network of nuclear research facilities.
The bomber's range of over 6,000 nautical miles (11,112 km) without refueling enables global strike capabilities from continental US bases. With aerial refueling, the B-2 can reach virtually any target worldwide, as demonstrated in missions from Missouri to Afghanistan and Libya and now Iran.
Its payload capacity of more than 40,000 pounds (18,144 kg) allows the aircraft to carry a diverse array of conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber's internal weapons bays are specifically designed to maintain stealth characteristics while accommodating large ordnance loads, which could include two GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator), a 30,000-pound precision-guided "bunker buster" bomb.
The Houthi rebels have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
On Saturday, the Houthis said they fired a ballistic missile towards Israel, the first launch against Israel announced by the Houthis since the June 24 ceasefire between Israel and Iran which ended their 12-day war.
The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel broke the truce.
Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
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First Post
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Critics slam Israeli proposal to relocate Gazans to 'humanitarian city'
Last Monday, Defence Minister Israel Katz presented the idea during a press meeting. It anticipates creating a restricted zone in southern Gaza from scratch during a prospective 60-day cease-fire in Israel's war with Hamas, which is presently being negotiated in Qatar read more An Israeli proposal to relocate Gazans to a so-called 'humanitarian city' has sparked outrage, with opponents describing it as an expensive diversion at best and, at worst, a dangerous step towards pushing Palestinians off their land. Last Monday, Defence Minister Israel Katz presented the idea during a press meeting. It anticipates creating a restricted zone in southern Gaza from scratch during a prospective 60-day cease-fire in Israel's war with Hamas, which is presently being negotiated in Qatar. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD According to Katz, the territory would initially shelter about 600,000 displaced persons from southern Gaza and feature four humanitarian distribution facilities administered by foreign agencies. The entire civilian population of Gaza, more than two million people, would eventually be moved there. Critics have questioned the plan's viability and ethics, with Israel's opposition leader highlighting its exorbitant cost and one expert pointing to a lack of infrastructure in the region required to handle that many people. The proposed facility has been characterised as a 'concentration camp' by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, while the UK's minister for the Middle East and North Africa is 'appalled' by the concept. 'Palestinian territory must not be reduced,' said Hamish Falconer on X. 'Civilians must be able to return to their communities.' 'Extremist delusions' Nearly 21 months of war have devastated much of the Gaza Strip, displacing most of its population, creating dire shortages of food and other essentials, and killing 58,026 people, most of them civilians, according to the territory's health ministry. The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war led to 1,219 deaths, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures New arrivals to the proposed facility would undergo security screening to ensure they are not affiliated with Hamas, and once admitted, they would not be permitted to leave. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Israeli military would provide security 'from a distance', Katz has said. However, the criticism of the plan reportedly extends even to Israel's own security establishment. Local media reported that army chief Eyal Zamir lambasted the proposal at a cabinet meeting, arguing it would divert focus from the military's two core objectives: defeating Hamas and securing the return of hostages taken on October 7. The broadcaster Channel 12 reported that unnamed security officials viewed the plan as little more than a 'gigantic tent city', and warned it could pave the way for a return to Israeli military rule in Gaza. Such a move aligns with the long-standing goals of far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, key coalition partners of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir advocate the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, and have repeatedly called for the voluntary expatriation of Palestinians from Gaza. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The projected expense of the initiative – estimated between 10 and 20 billion shekels ($3–6 billion) – has further fuelled domestic outrage as the cost of nearly two years of war mounts. 'That money is not coming back,' opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X on Sunday. 'Netanyahu is letting Smotrich and Ben Gvir run wild with extremist delusions just to preserve his coalition. Instead of plundering the middle class's money, end the war and bring back the hostages.' 'Fantasies' The Palestinian Authority was scathing in appraisal of the proposed facility, with its foreign ministry saying: 'The humanitarian city has nothing to do with humanity.' That view was echoed by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which said the 'plan would de-facto create massive concentration camps at the border with Egypt'. A Palestinian official with knowledge of the ongoing ceasefire talks in Qatar told AFP that Hamas rejected plans to concentrate Palestinians in a small part of the south, viewing it as 'preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries'. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Amnesty International, which has accused Israel of genocide, warned that relocating Gazans within the territory or 'deporting them outside against their will would amount to the war crime of unlawful transfer'. On Friday, 16 Israeli scholars of international law sent a letter to Katz and Zamir also warning the scheme could amount to a war crime. Michael Milshtein, an Israeli former military intelligence officer, called the plan one of many 'fantasies' floated by Israel's leadership amid mounting public frustration with the war's trajectory and lack of a political solution. He also noted there was no existing infrastructure in the proposed zone, raising questions about provision of electricity and water. 'There is only sand and fields, nothing,' said Milshtein, who heads the Palestinian studies programme at Tel Aviv University. 'Nobody tells the Israeli public what is the price and what are the consequences of reoccupying Gaza, from the economic, political and security points of view,' he told AFP. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'I really think that if people understand that the purpose of the war is the reoccupation of Gaza, there is going to be a lot of social unrest in Israel.'
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Pentagon Official at Center of Weapons Pause on Ukraine Wants U.S. to Focus on China
WASHINGTON—Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's top policy official, wants to refocus the U.S. military on countering China. That has put him at the center of the Trump administration's abrupt moves on providing weapons to Ukraine . It was Colby, a 45-year-old grandson of a former Central Intelligence Agency director, who wrote a memo to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in early June outlining how Ukraine's requests for U.S. weapons could further stretch already depleted Pentagon stockpiles. The memo didn't have a recommendation and was described by a defense official as a tool for assessing how arms deliveries would affect U.S. stockpiles. But some officials in the administration and in Congress say it figured in the Pentagon's decision to suspend some arms shipments to Kyiv, a move President Trump later reversed. The incident exemplifies Colby's push to make good on years of U.S. vows to boost its military position in the Western Pacific, his supporters say. But it also highlights the contrary pressures on an administration that, in its first months in office, has already launched major military operations against Iran and the Houthis in the Middle East while continuing military deliveries to Ukraine. Colby 'has been thinking very deeply about how the United States can best defend itself in an era of constrained resources,' said Dan Caldwell, a former adviser to Hegseth. 'A lot of policymakers have refused to accept that reality.' Colby has turned down interview requests about his views on helping Ukraine and in urging U.S. partners in Asia and Europe to step up their defense efforts. But in a social-media message Saturday, he said that he would continue to press allies to boost their military spending, even if some 'might not welcome frank discussions.' Some of those frank discussions have included pressing Japan and Australia to make clear what military steps they are prepared to take in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, according to a person familiar with the exchanges. Colby's efforts have surprised some officials in the region because the U.S.'s longstanding policy of 'strategic ambiguity' has avoided an explicit statement about what actions Washington might take if Chinese forces moved against Taiwan, and even Trump hasn't spelled out what he would do. Colby's discussions were earlier reported by the Financial Times. In arguing for doubling down on China, Colby is known as a 'prioritizer' who favors limiting U.S. obligations outside Asia to free up resources to counter Beijing. In so doing, he has differentiated himself from 'restrainers' who have urged that the U.S. pull back from overseas commitments, as well as traditional Republican hawks. Though presidents from both parties, starting with Barack Obama, have called for focusing U.S. national security strategy on China, putting the idea into practice has proven difficult, partly due to new threats that have emerged outside Asia and partly due to the Pentagon's longstanding commitments in Europe and the Middle East. Colby's calls to de-emphasize demands on U.S. forces other than in Asia have left him out of step with some Republicans. 'For many years, GOP 'prioritizers' have argued that the United States should not strike Iran or aid Ukraine because it must husband its resources for a possible war with China,' said Matthew Kroenig of the Atlantic Council, who was a national security adviser to the 2012 Mitt Romney and 2016 Marco Rubio presidential campaigns. 'President Trump, in contrast, believes 'America First' requires continued U.S. involvement in multiple regions of the world.' When Trump nominated Colby to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy in December, the fissures among Republicans over national security came to the fore. Colby received a hearty endorsement at his March confirmation hearing from Vice President JD Vance, who has long been a skeptical voice on providing billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine and has called Colby a friend. Colby was grilled by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) about his past statement that it was feasible to contain a nuclear-armed Iran. Colby amended his stance in that confirmation hearing, saying that Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that he would provide the president with military options to stop it from doing so. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against Colby's confirmation, lambasted him for promoting policies that could lead to 'geostrategic self-harm.' Colby has deep family connections to the foreign policy establishment through his grandfather, former CIA Director William Colby. 'Bridge,' as he is known in Washington, attended school in Japan, where his father worked for an investment bank, before graduating from Harvard University. Colby and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a Pentagon meeting with officials from Peru in May. At Yale Law School he was a housemate of Jon Finer, the former deputy national security adviser to President Joe Biden. Even then, Colby's contrarian foreign policy priorities were evident: He was a rare Republican who opposed the war in Iraq. Colby has written that the 2003 Iraq war and the lengthy U.S. occupation was a 'historic error' that squandered vast resources. He argued in a 2012 article against striking Iran's nuclear facilities, saying it would provide Tehran 'every incentive to reboot the program with greater vigor.' As a deputy assistant secretary of defense during Trump's first term, he played a major role in the drafting of the 2018 national defense strategy, which urged a shift from a focus on counterterrorism that the Pentagon adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to countering China and Russia. Colby's role wasn't without turbulence. Trump's defense secretary at the time, retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, was frustrated with Colby's emphasis on defending Taiwan, participants recall. 'I think Bridge did a really good job in managing the strategy formulation process,' said Frank Hoffman, a retired Marine colonel who was brought in by Mattis to help draft the strategy document. 'But in making Taiwan the hinge point of our military competition with China, he had a narrower focus than Secretary Mattis on what the strategy needed to do.' Colby elaborated on his views in his 2021 book, 'The Strategy of Denial,' in which he argued that the defense of Taiwan was vital because of its proximity to China, along with Japan and the Philippines, forming what Pentagon strategists refer to as the first island chain in the Western Pacific. His focus on China, he noted in the book, included arguing that Russia could be a 'potential collaborator' with the U.S. in an anti-Beijing coalition. And he warned against including Ukraine in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because the country was 'highly exposed' to a Russia attack 'while offering no meaningful advantage to the alliance that is remotely comparable to the costs and risk that their defense would impose on it.' But Colby's call for reprioritizing Pentagon strategy was tested after Russia invaded Ukraine the following year and turned to Beijing for help in expanding the Russian defense industry. Instead of dealing with China in isolation, Washington has faced the prospect of simultaneously deterring two geographically disparate adversaries that have been cooperating. Colby is playing a pivotal role in policy debate and the crafting of a new defense strategy that will set spending and force deployment goals for years to come. Some current and former officials who share Colby's goal of boosting American capabilities in the Pacific say he may be better at standing on principle than bringing allies along. Colby has irked Tokyo by urging that it commit to boosting military spending to 3.5% of its gross domestic product, they say. With policy disagreements over military spending and tariffs, Japan put off high-level talks with the U.S. that had been expected in July. A review Colby is conducting of a 2021 agreement—known as Aukus, under which Australia will get nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. while contributing several billion dollars to the U.S. defense-industrial base—has concerned Australian officials. In an interview with Australian television last year, Colby said it would be 'crazy' for the U.S. to provide attack submarines to Australia unless the Pentagon can be assured it would have enough for itself, adding that the U.S. would be 'lucky' to get to the 2030s without a conflict with China. But it was the classified memo that preceded the pause in arms deliveries to Ukraine that especially spotlighted Colby's views. It tallied the numbers of weapons sought by Ukraine along with how many the U.S. has in its stocks for training and warfighting around the world. Trump later told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he wasn't responsible for the pause in shipments that followed, which he has since lifted. Wess Mitchell, a former senior State Department official who once started a policy organization with Colby called the Marathon Initiative, said the Pentagon official's focus on making tough decisions to deter China is driven by concern that the U.S. is overstretched. 'Bridge has put his finger on the real problem and said 'Let's give priority to the main threat even if that means we have to accept trade-offs in the other regions,' ' Mitchell said. 'People may disagree with his approach, but it is driven by a legitimate concern, which is we don't currently have the resources for a three-front war.' Write to Michael R. Gordon at and Lara Seligman at
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill 43 as truce talks deadlocked
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled. Each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in Doha.(AFP) Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip. But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha. On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit. Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said. Israel's military blamed a technical problem for that strike, saying it had been targeting a member of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad. "As a result of a technical error with the munition, the munition fell dozens of meters from the target," a statement read. "The incident is under review." Reports of casualties were being examined, it added. Khaled Rayyan told AFP he was woken by the sound of two large explosions after a house was hit in Nuseirat. "Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble," he said. Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war. "What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough." - 150 targets in 24 hours - The Israeli military, which has recently intensified operations across Gaza, said in a statement that in the past 24 hours, the air force "struck more than 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip". It released aerial footage of what it said were fighter jet strikes attacking Hamas targets around Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, showing explosions on the ground and thick smoke in the sky. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties. The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27, the Israeli military says, are dead. Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The UN considers those figures reliable. UN agencies on Saturday warned that fuel shortages had reached "critical levels", threatening to worsen conditions for Gaza's more than two million people. On Sunday, the Handala -- a former Norwegian trawler loaded with medical supplies, food and children's equipment -- set off from Sicily. The pro-Palestinian activists on board hope to reach Gaza, despite Israel having recently detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel, the Madleen, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. - Forced displacement fears - Talks to seal a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal. Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 per cent of the territory. The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza "in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries". A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated an openness "to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement". Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms. Thousands of people gathered in Israel's coastal hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for the release of the hostages. "The window of opportunity... is open now and it won't be for long," said former captive Eli Sharabi.
