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At least eight people, including guards, died and more than 170 were injured after a fire ripped through an immigration holding facility in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, the United Nations migration agency said.

The total death toll from the fire on Sunday, whose cause remains unclear, could be higher, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Carmela Godeau said in a Twitter post.

IOM was providing emergency healthcare for the injured, more than 90 of whom were in serious condition, and distributing food to those affected, Godeau added.

Associated Press news agency reported that the immigration detention centre, which is believed to be holding about 700 people, is run by the Houthi rebels – who control vast swaths of Yemen, including Sanaa since they overthrew the internationally recognised government in late 2014.

The Houthis said civil defence teams managed to extinguish the fire and investigations were ongoing to determine its cause.

A UN official said the fire broke out in a hangar close to the detention centre’s main building.

Most of the detained people were arrested in the northern province of Saada while trying to cross into Saudi Arabia, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorised to brief the media.

“This is just one of the many dangers that migrants have faced during the past six years of the crisis in Yemen,” said IOM’s Godeau.

It is believed thousands of refugees and migrants are stranded in Yemen, which has been wracked by a devastating six years of war.

The narrow waters between the Horn of Africa and Yemen have been a popular migration route despite the ongoing conflict.

Tens of thousands of migrants, desperate to find jobs as housekeepers, servants and construction workers, try to make their way through Yemen every year to the oil-rich Gulf countries.

Some 138,000 migrants embarked on the journey from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in 2019, a number that decreased to 37,000 last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 2,500 migrants reached Yemen from Djibouti in January this year, according to the IOM.

The UN has called Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 80 percent of the population reliant on aid.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has reaffirmed the United States’s opposition to an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, the White House said.

The call, the first between the two since Harris and President Joe Biden took office in January, followed the ICC’s announcement of the investigation on Wednesday.

The court determined in February that the occupied Palestinian territories fall under its jurisdiction, paving the way for an investigation of war crimes committed by Palestinians and Israelis.

Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has promised the inquiry will be conducted “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favour”.

Bensouda, who will be replaced by British prosecutor Karim Khan on June 16, said in December 2019 that war crimes had been or were being committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Bensouda named the Israel army and armed Palestinian groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.

During Thursday’s call, Harris and Netanyahu noted their governments’ “opposition to the International Criminal Court’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel,” the White House said.

A day earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said that Washington “firmly opposed and deeply disappointed”by the ICC decision.

“Israel is not a party to the ICC and has not consented to the Court’s jurisdiction, and we have serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel,” Blinken said in a statement.

Harris and Netanyahu also agreed to continue to cooperate on regional security issues, specifically Iran’s nuclear programme and its “dangerous” behaviour, the White House statement said.

Harris “emphasised the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” the statement added.

Biden’s bid to revive a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, however, sets him and Netanyahu on a potential collision course.

The Israeli prime minister opposed the nuclear deal and had applauded former President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon it in 2018.

Harris also congratulated Netanyahu on Israel’s coronavirus vaccine programme and they agreed to increase cooperation on the coronavirus, water, green energy and other initiatives, the White House said.

Israel has released the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, administering at least one dose to more than half its 9.3 million people and the required two doses to about one-third of its population in less than two months.

In contrast, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories have struggled to have their people vaccinated due to lack of access and financial means.

Critics contend that Israel is responsible for vaccinating the Palestinians under occupation.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) earlier condemned Israel’s plan to send coronavirus vaccines to far-away countries while ignoring the five-million-strong Palestinian population living kilometres away under its military occupation as an “immoral measure”.