Al-Houthi: Naval Blockade on the Occupying Entity Resumes in Four Days if Gaza Aid Doesn’t Enter / Massacres Claim Hundreds in Syria’s Coastal Region as Jableh Comes Under Fire… Toward Somalisation

 March 08, 2025

The political editor wrote

As U.S.-Israeli threats of war on Gaza intensify, and the resistance reaffirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement, which stipulates a complete cessation of hostilities and a full withdrawal in exchange for the release of prisoners, Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has issued a four-day ultimatum for the resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza. He warned that if aid deliveries do not resume, Yemen will reinstate its naval blockade on trade to and from the occupying entity. This move comes despite the risks of escalating confrontation with the United States, whose President Donald Trump has designated Ansar Allah as a terrorist organisation, imposed further sanctions on its leaders, and threatened additional measures against the group.

In Syria’s coastal region, the security situation has deteriorated dramatically. Clashes that erupted two days ago between Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Coastal Military Council have spiraled beyond expectations, evolving into full-scale massacres against civilians. Hundreds have been killed as HTS, struggling to secure a decisive victory, enlisted volunteers to bolster its ranks. Shocking footage of mass killings, showing women, men, the elderly, children, and entire families slaughtered, has flooded social media, prompting international actors to issue only cautious calls for restraint and an end to the bloodshed. Notably, the only governments to voice explicit support for HTS and its administration were Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Meanwhile, international analysts have voiced deep concern over Syria’s future, openly discussing the country’s fragmentation and its descent into a failed state akin to Somalia. With the north and south already fractured, unifying Syria’s geography appears increasingly unattainable, as the one-color government pursues a rigid ideological agenda, U.S. sanctions remain in place, and the occupying Israeli entity continues its incursions into Syrian territory.

In Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes have escalated sharply, surpassing twenty strikes in a single day and extending across the entirety of southern Lebanon in an unprecedented violation of Lebanese sovereignty. This has raised pressing questions about what remains of the ceasefire agreement and whether diplomatic efforts to uphold it are anything more than an exercise in futility. The supposed overseers of the agreement seem utterly incapable of action, reviving the dead might be an easier task than mobilising them. Now, Lebanon faces a decisive moment: what course of action will the state and the resistance take? What level of coordination will emerge between them? The current situation is untenable, and waiting for an uncertain resolution that will never come only exacerbates the crisis. Finger-pointing and blame-shifting mean nothing in the face of this challenge. The only way forward is to acknowledge a national failure of immense magnitude and muster the courage to confront it at the scale it demands.