SANAA, Yemen

Yemen’s presidential council warned Thursday of a humanitarian catastrophe due to Israel's takeover over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.

This statement was made by council member Abdullah Al-Aleemi during his meeting with the US Ambassador to Yemen, Steven Fagin, in the Saudi capital Riyadh, according to Yemen’s official news agency SABA.

“The Yemeni government condemns the brutal and terrorist Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people,” said Al-Aleemi.

He also warned of “a humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the Israeli control over the Rafah crossing.”

The Palestinian group Hamas said Monday that it had accepted a Gaza cease-fire proposal drawn up by Egypt and Qatar.

But Israel said the truce offer accepted by Hamas did not meet its key demands and decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah to apply "military pressure on Hamas with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims.”

Israel has killed more than 34,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 78,500 others following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year which claimed 1,200 lives.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in the enclave.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio