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HRW: Yemen’s Houthis Obstructing Aid, Exacerbating Cholera

A Yemeni government center for the treatment of cholera and diarrhea in Marib (local media)
A Yemeni government center for the treatment of cholera and diarrhea in Marib (local media)
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HRW: Yemen’s Houthis Obstructing Aid, Exacerbating Cholera

A Yemeni government center for the treatment of cholera and diarrhea in Marib (local media)
A Yemeni government center for the treatment of cholera and diarrhea in Marib (local media)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday accused the Houthis of obstructing aid work and exacerbating a deadly cholera outbreak across Yemen, and called on authorities in various regions to strengthen preventative measures against the epidemic.

The organization said the Yemeni government has quickly responded to the news of the outbreak in October 2023 by working with humanitarian agencies to set up clinics and procure necessary medicines.

“The cholera outbreak will continue to take lives so long as Yemeni authorities obstruct aid and authorities and the international community fail to adequately invest in prevention and mitigation measures,” the non-governmental organization said in a statement.

HRW called on Yemeni authorities to remove obstacles to aid delivery, including to public health information.

It again asked the Houthis to halt arbitrary detentions and release UN and civil society staff and aid workers.

The NGO said Houthis failed to take measures to prevent future cholera outbreaks and they also detained and threatened civil society staff, including humanitarian aid workers, in their recent arrest campaign.

Data collected by aid agencies indicate that between January 1 and July 19 there have been about 95,000 suspected cholera cases, resulting in at least 258 deaths, it showed.

“The obstructions to aid work by Yemen’s authorities, in particular the Houthis, are contributing to the spread of cholera,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “More than 200 people have already died from this preventable disease, and the Houthis’ detention of aid workers poses a serious threat to further limit the presence of lifesaving aid.”

Houthis Refuse to Announce Cholera Outbreak

The Yemeni government met with HRW and explained that many of their constraints in addressing the cholera outbreak were linked with a lack of funding, HRW said.

Government officials also provided information demonstrating the actions they had taken to inform the Yemeni public about the outbreak.

The organization said that several sources affirm that Yemen’s severely damaged healthcare infrastructure, the lack of safe drinking water, high malnutrition rates, and growing levels of vaccine denial and hesitancy from Houthi vaccine falsehoods have facilitated the spread and impact of cholera in Yemen.

According to a doctor working with a humanitarian aid organization in Houthi-controlled areas, though patients began showing signs of cholera starting in November 2023, Houthi authorities refused to acknowledge the crisis to humanitarian agencies until March 18, 2024, when there were already thousands of cases.

In March, the Houthis finally began providing information about cholera cases in Houthi-controlled territory, but they still have not announced the outbreak publicly, the doctor said.

Houthi authorities have also detained at least a dozen UN and civil society staff since May 31, with informed sources telling HRW that the number of those detained continues to grow.

The arrests have left many agencies questioning whether or how to continue safely providing humanitarian aid in Houthi-controlled territories, which has the potential to further exacerbate the current cholera outbreak, it said.

Government Responds to Outbreak

HRW affirmed that the Yemeni government quickly responded to the news of the outbreak in October 2023 by working with humanitarian agencies to set up clinics and procure necessary medicines.

Though they have continued to share information with humanitarian agencies since the start of the outbreak, an informed source told HRW that they have instructed aid groups not to use the word “cholera” in public statements, particularly in Arabic. This hinders people’s ability to take measures to prevent further spread of the disease.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), during the last cholera outbreak in Yemen from 2016 to 2022, Yemen had 2.5 million suspected cases, constituting “the largest ever reported cholera outbreak in recent history,” with over 4,000 deaths.

Despite that immense toll, HRW said the authorities failed to take measures to prevent future outbreaks.

The New-York based organization said the Houthis and the Yemeni government are obligated to protect everyone’s human rights in territory they control, including the rights to life, to health, and to an adequate standard of living, including food and water.

Their aid obstructions violate these obligations, it added.

Although limited resources and capacity may mean that economic and social rights can only be fully realized over time, the authorities are still obliged to ensure minimum essential levels of health care, including essential primary health care, HRW said.

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Arab World

Hamas OKs Draft Agreement of a Gaza Ceasefire and the Release of Some Hostages, Officials Say

Destroyed buildings are seen in North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Destroyed buildings are seen in North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Hamas OKs Draft Agreement of a Gaza Ceasefire and the Release of Some Hostages, Officials Say

Destroyed buildings are seen in North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Destroyed buildings are seen in North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, January 14, 2025. (Reuters)

Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, two officials involved in the talks said Tuesday. Mediators from the United States and Qatar said Israel and the Palestinian group were at the closest point yet to sealing a deal to bring them a step closer to ending 15 months of war.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the proposed agreement, and an Egyptian official and a Hamas official confirmed its authenticity. An Israeli official said progress has been made, but the details are being finalized. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.

“I believe we will get a ceasefire,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a speech Tuesday, asserting it was up to Hamas. “It’s right on the brink. It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” and word could come within hours, or days.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent the past year trying to mediate an end to the war and secure the release of dozens of hostages captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered it. Nearly 100 people are still captive inside Gaza, and the military believes at least a third are dead.

Any deal is expected to pause the fighting and bring hopes for winding down the most deadly and destructive war Israel and Hamas have ever fought, a conflict that has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

It would bring relief to the hard-hit Gaza Strip, where Israel's offensive has reduced large areas to rubble and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million, many at risk of famine.

If a deal is reached, it would not go into effect immediately. The plan would need approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet and then his full Cabinet. Both are dominated by Netanyahu allies and are likely to approve any proposal he presents.

Officials have expressed optimism before, only for negotiations to stall while the warring sides blamed each other. But they now suggest they can conclude an agreement ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, whose Mideast envoy has joined the negotiations.

Hamas said in a statement that negotiations had reached their “final stage.”

In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Around half those hostages were freed during a brief ceasefire in November 2023. Of those remaining, families say, two are children, 13 are women and 83 are men.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.

Israeli airstrikes on two homes in central Gaza killed at least 17 Palestinians late Tuesday and wounded seven more, hospital officials said, adding that some of the corpses had been dismembered. Earlier strikes killed at least 18 people, including two women and four children, according to local health officials, who said one woman was pregnant and the baby died as well.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel says it only targets fighters and accuses them of hiding among civilians.

A three-phase agreement

The three-phase agreement — based on a framework laid out by US President Joe Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council — would begin with the release of 33 hostages over a six-week period, including women, children, older adults and wounded civilians in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.

Among the 33 would be five female Israeli soldiers, each to be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 fighters who are serving life sentences.

The Israeli official said Israel assumes most of the 33 are alive.

During this 42-day phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from population centers, Palestinians could start returning to what remains of their homes in northern Gaza and there would be a surge of humanitarian aid, with some 600 trucks entering each day.

Details of the second phase still must be negotiated during the first. Those details remain difficult to resolve — and the deal does not include written guarantees that the ceasefire will continue until a deal is reached. That means Israel could resume its military campaign after the first phase ends.

The Israeli official said “detailed negotiations” on the second phase will begin during the first. He said Israel will retain some “assets” throughout negotiations, referring to a military presence, and would not leave the Gaza Strip until all hostages are home.

The three mediators have given Hamas verbal guarantees that negotiations will continue as planned and that they will press for a deal to implement the second and third phases before the end of the first, the Egyptian official said.

The deal would allow Israel throughout the first phase to remain in control of the Philadelphi corridor, the band of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas had initially demanded Israel withdraw from. Israel would withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, a belt across central Gaza where it had sought a mechanism for searching Palestinians for arms when they return to the territory's north.

In the second phase, Hamas would release the remaining living captives, mainly male soldiers, in exchange for more prisoners and the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, according to the draft agreement.

Hamas has said it will not free the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal, while Netanyahu has vowed in the past to resume fighting until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are eliminated.

Unless an alternative government for Gaza is worked out in those talks, it could leave Hamas in charge of the territory.

In a third phase, the bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza under international supervision.

Blinken on Tuesday was making a last-minute case for a proposal for Gaza's post-war reconstruction and governance that outlines how it could be run without Hamas in charge.

Growing pressure ahead of Trump's inauguration

Israel and Hamas have come under renewed pressure to halt the war before Trump's inauguration. Trump said late Monday a ceasefire was “very close.”

Thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night in support of a deal they have long encouraged. “This is not about politics or strategy. It’s about humanity and the shared belief that no one should be left behind in darkness,” said a hostage released earlier from Gaza, Moran Stella Yanai.

But in Jerusalem, hundreds of hard-liners marched against a deal, some chanting, “You don’t make a deal with the devil,” a reference to Hamas.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, families of Palestinian prisoners gathered as well. “I tell the mothers of the prisoners to put their trust in the almighty and that relief is near, God willing,” said the mother of one prisoner, Intisar Bayoud.

And inside Gaza, an exhausted Oday al-Halimy expressed hope from a tent camp for the displaced. “Certainly, Hamas will comply with the ceasefire, and Israel is not interested in opposing Trump or angering him,” he said.

A child born in Gaza on the first day of the war, Massa Zaqout, sat in pink pajamas in another tent camp, playing with toys. “We’re eagerly waiting for a truce to happen so we can live in safety and stability,” her mother, Rola Saqer, said.