Houthis listed as terrorists by U.S. as Palestine calls for $15bn in aid

The U.S. designation of Yemen's Houthis as a terrorist group will not affect their operations to prevent Israeli ships or ships heading to Israel from crossing the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam confirmed.

Earlier on Wednesday the Biden Administration returned the Houthi militia to a list of terrorist groups, U.S. officials said, in the latest attempt by Washington to stem attacks by Houthi forces on international shipping in protest over Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

U.S. officials revealed the "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" listing was aimed at cutting off funding and weapons the Houthis have used to attack or hijack ships.

A Houthi spokesman told Reuters that attacks on ships heading to Israel would continue and the designation would not affect its position.

Aid  for Gaza arrives at Egyptian border

Aid destined for Israeli hostages and Palestinian residents in the Gaza Strip was delivered to Egypt on Wednesday for transfer across the border, following a deal brokered by Qatar and France.

Two Qatari planes arrived in El Arish in the north of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where supplies were unloaded and transferred to the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, Egyptian security and Red Crescent officials said.

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One of the planes was carrying medical packages for 45 of the 253 hostages Israel says were captured by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Qatar has said that supplies for Palestinian civilians that arrived on Wednesday would be distributed to parts of Gaza worst affected by the conflict.

$15bn needed to rebuild Gazan houses

At least $15 billion will be needed to rebuild houses in Gaza, the head of the Palestine Investment Fund said on Wednesday, underlining the scale of devastation caused by Israel's offensive.

Chairman Mohammed Mustafa said international reports indicated 350,000 housing units had been completely or partially damaged in Gaza. Assuming 150,000 of these would need to be rebuilt at an average cost of $100,000 per unit, "that's $15 billion for housing units," he said.

"We still didn't talk about infrastructure, we didn't talk about the hospitals that were damaged, the grids," Mustafa told the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The figure points to reconstruction costs that will dwarf previous bills for rebuilding Gaza after earlier conflicts, with the war not yet over more than three months since it began.

Following a 2014 war between Hamas and Israel, which lasted seven weeks and killed 2,100 Palestinians, Qatar spent over $1 billion on housing and relief projects in Gaza.

Israel has laid waste to much of the territory in a campaign which health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say has killed 24,448 people since October 7, when the Palestinian group ignited the war by storming Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 240 more, according to Israeli authorities.

Mustafa said the Palestinian leadership would, in the short-term, continue to focus on humanitarian aid including food and water but eventually the focus would shift to reconstruction.

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