The rocket attacks marked the first time the Houthis targeted a civilian area in Saudi Arabia since the Saudis and a larger Arab coalition commenced airstrikes against the rebels last month.
The Jordanian officials said the Scuds, if utilized, could endanger Saudi Arabia and potentially disrupt the global oil market.
Palestinian With Terrorist Past Wants Israel Booted From FIFA
A Palestinian previously convicted of multiple terrorism charges is the official currently leading the dialogue with a prestigious international soccer federation from which the Palestinian Authority is seeking to get Israel expelled.
If the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA, suspends or boots the Jewish state, the move would have a dramatic impact on Israel’s ability to compete in international soccer competitions.
As part of a larger boycott movement against Israel, the PA’s Palestinian Soccer Association has filed a formal complaint with FIFA to have Israel’s membership suspended.
The PA’s main complaint is that Israel does not allow freedom of movement for Palestinian soccer players to travel from the West Bank to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip through Israel.
The Israeli government says it would be a security risk to allow any Palestinian soccer player to travel freely from the West Bank or Gaza within Israel, explaining terrorists could easily take advantage of any such accommodation.
The PA further wants FIFA to suspend five Israeli soccer clubs located in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim for a future state. The five clubs play in the third and fourth FIFA divisions.
The PA’s Palestinian Soccer Association chairman is Jibril Rajoub, a former top aide to the late PLO leader Yasir Arafat and the past leader of several major Palestinian militias. Rajoub has been serving as the point man between the PA and FIFA.
In 1970, Rajoub was sentenced by Israel to life in prison after he was arrested and convicted of throwing a grenade at an Israeli army bus near Hebron.
He was released from incarceration in 1985 as part of a prisoner exchange with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which had kidnapped three Israelis.
Less than two years after his release, Rajoub was arrested and convicted two more times on terrorism-related charges, including membership in Fatah terrorist cells and planning attacks.
He was deported to Lebanon in 1998, where he quickly became a top adviser to Fatah deputy leader Khalil al-Wazir, who at the time was coordinating an anti-Israel intifada.
After Wazir’s death, Rajoub became a close associate and adviser to Arafat. Rajoub returned with Arafat to the West Bank after the signing of the 1994 Oslo Accords, which established cantons of territory to be governed by Arafat’s PLO.
Rajoub became head of Arafat’s Preventive Security Force, which was repeatedly implicated in attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Many members of the Preventive group doubled as members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Fatah’s military wing.
The brigade is a terrorist organization responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, and other deadly attacks on Jews.