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Lebanon: Nasrallah Vows to Rebuild Southern Towns Destroyed by Israel

Members of Imam al-Mahdi scouts carry a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Members of Imam al-Mahdi scouts carry a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
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Lebanon: Nasrallah Vows to Rebuild Southern Towns Destroyed by Israel

Members of Imam al-Mahdi scouts carry a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Members of Imam al-Mahdi scouts carry a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon July 17, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made new promises on Wednesday to his supporters vowing to rebuild the southern towns destroyed by the border war ongoing since October 8 with Israel.
Nasrallah has made a similar pledge after the devastating war with Israel in 2006 that left swaths of southern Lebanon and the Beirut southern suburbs destroyed. Several Arab nations helped Lebanon rebuild these areas, including Saudi Arabia that provided aid worth half a billion dollars.
Many have criticized Hezbollah’s involvement in its war with Israel, which the party says has engaged in to support Gaza.
On Wednesday, in a speech marking the day of Ashura, Nasrallah criticized the opposition parties in Lebanon.
“To those scaring us off, the Israelis, the Americans, the Westerns and some inside Lebanon, we tell them that we are not scared of war. The most that war can bring about is death, and we are not scared of martyrdom”, said Nasrallah.
Moreover, Nasrallah denied having a ready-made agreement with Israel concerning the situation in south Lebanon. He said the front on the border will only be determined based on the outcomes of the battle.
“Ten months since the fighting began, Israel seems incapable of achieving its goals. It is covering its feebleness by committing the worst of crimes, killing children and women”, he said.
He stressed that the Lebanese and Gaza fronts will be linked until the Israeli war in the Palestinian territory stops.
He assured that the party will hit new Israeli targets if Israel keeps targeting civilians in Lebanon.

“Our front will not stop as long as the aggression continues in Gaza. Threats of war will not scare us off. The enemy’s targeting of civilians in Lebanon will only make the Resistance launch more rockets at new (Israeli) settlements that have never been targeted before”, he said.
The Hezbollah chief renewed vows to rebuild the border area in Lebanon saying, “we will rebuild our homes and villages more beautiful than before”.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Hezbollah announced a "support front" with Palestinians shortly after its ally Hamas attacked southern Israeli border communities on Oct. 7, triggering Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
The fighting in Lebanon has killed more than 100 civilians and more than 300 Hezbollah fighters, according to a Reuters tally, and led to levels of destruction in Lebanese border towns and villages not seen since the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.

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UN Expects Food Security to Worsen in Yemen's Houthi-Controlled Areas

Operational challenges limited WFP's ability to reach around 1.5 million people only in 32 districts by mid-March (UN)
Operational challenges limited WFP's ability to reach around 1.5 million people only in 32 districts by mid-March (UN)
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UN Expects Food Security to Worsen in Yemen's Houthi-Controlled Areas

Operational challenges limited WFP's ability to reach around 1.5 million people only in 32 districts by mid-March (UN)
Operational challenges limited WFP's ability to reach around 1.5 million people only in 32 districts by mid-March (UN)

The World Food Program (WFP) expects the food insecurity crisis in Houthi-controlled areas of northern Yemen to worsen in the coming months as a result of sanctions linked to Washington’s designation of the group as a foreign terrorist organization.

“Operational challenges limited WFP's ability to reach around 1.5 million people only in 32 districts by mid-March,” the agency said in its Yemen Food Security Update for March.

WFP said the inclusion of the Houthi militias on the US list of terrorist organizations impedes humanitarian work, limits the flow of essential commodities into Yemen, risks escalating the conflict and raises serious concerns about fuel availability and prices in Houthi-controlled areas.

According to the report, the prevalence of inadequate food consumption remains at alarming levels in Yemen, reaching 62% nationwide in February 2025.

This includes 66% in areas under the internationally-recognized government of Yemen (IRG) and 61% in areas under the control of the Houthis, with year-on-year increases of 15% and 20%, respectively.

Also, severe levels of food deprivation (poor food consumption) also rose from 25% in February 2024 to 36% in February 2025, with a higher proportion recorded in IRG areas (38%) compared to 35% in SBA areas.

All governorates in Yemen exceeded the “very high” threshold of 20% for poor food consumption, except for Sanaa City. The peaks were recorded in Al Bayda, Ad Dali', and Shabwah governorates, the UN agency said.

In IRG-controlled areas, WFP said it is currently assisting approximately three million people per each distribution cycle.

This includes 2.2 million with general food assistance (GFD), and 787,500 with cash-based transfers (CBT).

While food assistance has provided some relief to vulnerable households in the targeted districts of IRG areas, the persistent economic challenges continue to largely offset these gains, coupled with ongoing lean season effects, the WFP report noted.

It said that in Houthi areas, the second Targeted Emergency Food Assistance (TEFA) cycle of 2025 started in mid-February, targeting 2.8 million people in 70 districts.

However, due to operational challenges, WFP had only reached around 1.5 million people in 32 districts by mid-March.

Also, the report said the Yemeni riyal in IRG-controlled areas hit another record low against the US dollar in February 2025, depreciating by 26% year-on-year.

This currency depreciation has primarily driven local fuel and food prices to unprecedented levels in February 2025, further eroding households purchasing power, it noted.

WFP said that fuel imports in the first two months of 2025 saw a 14 drop via the Red Sea ports compared to the same time last year, while Aden and Mukalla ports experienced a 35% decline year-on-year.

It therefore warned that the fuel import ban through the Houthi-controlled ports, set to take effect in April 2025 due to the FTO designation, raises serious concerns about fuel availability and prices in areas falling under militia control.