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WHO-World Bank Partnership Prevents Collapse of More Than 100 Hospitals in Yemen

Only half of Yemen’s health facilities are fully functional and accessible due to the war that Houthi started (UN)
Only half of Yemen’s health facilities are fully functional and accessible due to the war that Houthi started (UN)
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WHO-World Bank Partnership Prevents Collapse of More Than 100 Hospitals in Yemen

Only half of Yemen’s health facilities are fully functional and accessible due to the war that Houthi started (UN)
Only half of Yemen’s health facilities are fully functional and accessible due to the war that Houthi started (UN)

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, in partnership with the Yemeni government, are working on an initiative to strengthen the resilience of hospitals to climate change.

Since the start of Yemen’s protracted crisis, this partnership has helped prevent the collapse of more than 100 hospitals where over 3.9 million people received health care, WHO said in a statement on its website.

The initiative focuses on developing hospitals that are safer, greener and more capable of responding to emergencies.

The Organization also plans to expand the pilot initiative to more hospitals, improving emergency preparedness, operational efficiency and health system resilience.

According to WHO, hospitals provide lifesaving medical care to people suffering from severe illness, injuries, complications from chronic diseases and other critical medical conditions.

In Yemen, it said, when people need health care, they often turn first to the nearest hospital.

Between November 2023 and June 2024, WHO said over 3.9 million people received health care at supported hospitals: 1.1 million people were treated in emergency rooms, 324,000 received inpatient care and 206,000 surgeries, 93,000 deliveries and 38,000 caesarean sections were performed.

WHO support in 2024 has included the procurement of $7 million of essential commodities, including insulin and other diabetic and cardiovascular medicines, intravenous fluids to treat infections, including cholera, and diagnostic laboratory kits.

The Organization also distributed 66,374 cylinders of oxygen to 37 facilities and 3.7 million liters of fuel to 143 facilities.

“These essential investments not only save lives but stabilize Yemen’s entire health infrastructure amidst the prolonged crisis, ensuring essential services reach those in need,” said WHO Representative to Yemen Dr. Arturo Pesigan when explaining the impact of WHO’s partnership with the World Bank.

“Without these resources, the system would be at risk of collapse,” he added.

In recent years, in accordance with the humanitarian-peace-development nexus approach, WHO has complemented its provision of lifesaving support with efforts to improve the quality of care in supported facilities and strategic action to guide future investments.

In addition to clinical and technical training, WHO has focused on often overlooked areas, including human resources, finance and hospital management, to ensure that facilities are equipped to effectively manage everyday health services and respond to emergencies.

WHO said it guided the development of Yemen’s first-ever hospital sector profile, and in 2024 initiated work on the country’s first hospital sector strategy with the goal of improving planning and implementation of people-centered hospitals, strengthening preparedness and emergency response and supporting the monitoring and evaluation of hospital sector performance.

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Arab World

Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Residents of Syria's Quneitra are Frustrated by Lack of Action to Halt Israeli Advance

Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles in the Syrian city of Quneitra, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 13 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

A main road in the provincial capital of Quneitra in southern Syria was blocked with mounds of dirt, fallen palm trees and a metal pole that appeared to have once been a traffic light. On the other side of the barriers, an Israeli tank could be seen maneuvering in the middle of the street.
Israeli forces entered the area — which lies in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel — soon after the fall of President Bashar Assad last month in the country's 13-year civil war.
The Israeli military has also made incursions into Syrian territory outside of the buffer zone, sparking protests by local residents. They said the Israeli forces had demolished homes and prevented farmers from going to their fields in some areas. On at least two occasions, Israeli troops reportedly opened fire on protesters who approached them.
Residents of Quneitra, a seemingly serene bucolic expanse of small villages and olive groves, said they are frustrated, both by the Israeli advances and by the lack of action from Syria’s new authorities and the international community.
Rinata Fastas said that Israeli forces had raided the local government buildings but had not so far entered residential neighborhoods. Her house lies just inside of the newly blocked-off area in the provincial capital formerly called Baath City, after Assad's former ruling party, and now renamed Salam City.
She said she is afraid Israeli troops may advance farther or try to permanently occupy the area they have already taken. Israel still controls the Golan Heights that it captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, with the exception of the US, regards it as occupied.
Fastas said she understands that Syria, which is now trying to build its national institutions and army from scratch, is no position to militarily confront Israel.
“But why is no one in the new Syrian state coming out and talking about the violations that are happening in Quneitra province and against the rights of its people?” she asked.
The United Nations has accused Israel of violating the 1974 ceasefire agreement by entering the buffer zone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said troops will stay on "until another arrangement is found that will ensure Israel’s security.” He was speaking from the snowy peak of Mount Hermon, Syria’s tallest mountain known as Jabal al Sheikh in Arabic, which has now been captured by Israeli forces.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the matter, said the military will remain in the area it has taken until it is satisfied that the new Syrian authorities do not pose a danger to Israel.
The new Syrian government has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council about Israeli airstrikes and advances into Syrian territory.
The country’s new de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has also publicly said Syria is not seeking a military conflict with Israel and will not pose a threat to its neighbors or to the West.
In the meantime, residents of Quneitra have largely been left to fend for themselves.
In the village of Rafid, inside the buffer zone, locals said the Israeli military had demolished two civilian houses and a grove of trees as well as a former Syrian army outpost.
Mayor Omar Mahmoud Ismail said when the Israeli forces entered the village, an Israeli officer greeted him and told him, “I am your friend.”
“I told him, ‘You are not my friend, and if you were, you wouldn’t enter like this,’" Ismail said.
Locals who organized a protest were met with Israeli fire
In Dawaya, a village outside the buffer zone, 18-year-old Abdelrahman Khaled al-Aqqa was lying on a mattress in his family home Sunday, still recovering after being shot in both legs. Al-Aqqa said he joined about 100 people from the area on Dec. 25 in protest against the Israeli incursion, chanting “Syria is free, Israel get out!”
“We didn’t have any weapons, we were just there in the clothes we were wearing,” he said. “But when we got close to them, they started shooting at us.”
Six protesters were wounded, according to residents and media reports. Another man was injured on Dec. 20 in a similar incident in the village of Maariyah. The Israeli army said at the time that it had fired because the man was quickly approaching and ignored calls to stop.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Dec. 25 incident.
Adel Subhi al-Ali, a local Sunni religious official, sat with his 21-year-old son, Moutasem, who was recovering after being shot in the stomach in the Dec. 25 protest. He was driven first to a local hospital that did not have the capacity to treat him, and then to Damascus where he underwent surgery.
When he saw the Israeli tanks moving in, “We felt that an occupation is occupying our land. So we had to defend it, even though we didn’t have weapons, ... It is impossible for them to settle here,” al-Ali said.
Since the day of the protest, the Israeli army has not returned to the area, he said.
Al-Ali called for the international community to “pressure Israel to return to what was agreed upon with the former regime,” referring to the 1974 ceasefire agreement, and to return the Golan Heights to Syria.
But he acknowledged that Syria has little leverage.
“We are starting from zero, we need to build a state,” al-Ali said, echoing Syria's new leaders. “We are not ready as a country now to open wars with another country."