News - Yemen: The organizing committee called for a wide participation on Monday, the tenth of Muharram, to commemorate Ashura and in support for the Palestinian people in the capital, Sana'a, and the governorates.

Millions of Muslims around the world mark Ashura, the 10th day of the Muslim month of Muharram.

Ashura is when Imam Hussein (AS), a grandson of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him), and his 72 companions were martyred in the Battle of Karbala, in southern Iraq, in 680 AD after fighting courageously for justice against the much larger army of the Umayyad caliph, Yazid I.

Muharram is one of the most sacred months in the Islamic calendar because of the sacrifices that were made by the family of Prophet Muhammad to establish the message of humanity. The first ten days of the month hold the most significance during which the battle took place. The rituals around the world during these ten days differ with local traditions and customs, but lamenting over the martyrdom is common everywhere.

The wearing of black clothes and beating the chest to the songs of lamentation to symbolize mourning is practiced among Shia Muslims. They mark the occasion to remember the unimaginable sufferings of the 72 martyrs and their families in the desert battlefield.

The caravan was on its way from Saudi Arabia to Iraq where people had declared allegiance to Imam Hussein. The massive army of the tyrant of the time, Yazid, stopped them in the plains of Karbala where Imam Hussein and his companions chose to fight to their last breath rather than pledge allegiance to caliph Yazid.

Ashura renews in Muslims grief and reminds them of the great affliction, ignites in their hearts enthusiasm to start in the line of Hussein (AS) and to join his faith in rejecting oppression and tyrants.

Meanwhile, Yemen has condemned the Israeli regime's crimes and aggression against the Palestinian people amid the inaction of international organizations.

Tensions have soared across the coastal enclave and the occupied territories since Friday, when the Israeli regime carried out a massacre against the Gaza Strip, killing scores of people and hitting a series of what it said were military targets.

Palestinian authorities said that 650 housing units have been damaged in the first 24 hours of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has targeted several residential towers.

Israel stopped the planned transport of fuel into Gaza before it struck on Friday, crippling the territory's lone power plant and reducing electricity to around eight hours per day and drawing warnings from health officials that hospitals would be severely impacted within days.

In response to the brutal Israeli airstrikes Palestinian resistance forces fired more than 400 rockets at Israel, setting off air raid sirens and sending settlers running to bomb shelters.

The Islamic Jihad called the retaliatory barrage only an “initial response” to the Israeli bloodbath, with the Palestinian resistance movement's Secretary General Ziad al-Nakhalah saying the Israeli enemy must expect a "non-stop" confrontation in the wake of the aggression.