Shoukry Stresses Need for Comprehensive Solution to Save Yemen

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Sergei Chirikov / EPA / March 16, 2016
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Sergei Chirikov / EPA / March 16, 2016
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Shoukry Stresses Need for Comprehensive Solution to Save Yemen

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Sergei Chirikov / EPA / March 16, 2016
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Sergei Chirikov / EPA / March 16, 2016

Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry underlined the need to reach a comprehensive political solution to the Yemeni crisis in order to avoid the dangers of sliding into an extended conflict.

His comments came during his meeting on Monday in Cairo with his Yemeni counterpart Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi.

Sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the meeting was held in light of the current political stalemate, despite the legitimate government’s readiness to resume negotiations with the Houthis and the supporters of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The sources stressed that the rebels in Sanaa have begun to “move away from the basic references to the settlement, namely the Gulf Initiative, the outcome of the Yemeni national dialogue and Security Council Resolution 2216.”

They added that the Egyptian foreign minister has voiced his concern over the deteriorating humanitarian and health conditions in the country.

Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson, Ahmed Abou Zeid, said that Shoukry stressed Egypt’s continuous support to Yemen’s unity and stability, highlighting the urgent need for a “comprehensive political solution that avoids the dangers of sliding into an extended conflict and alleviates the sufferings of the Yemeni people.”

For his part, the Yemeni foreign minister expressed his thanks and appreciation for the political support that Egypt has always provided to Yemen in various international forums.

He praised, in this context, efforts exerted by the Egyptian diplomacy to back the Yemeni file, particularly the efforts made by the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations in Geneva, which is currently heading the Arab group in the Human Rights Council.

The two officials also discussed issues related to the bilateral relations and the situation of Yemenis residing in Egypt.

Mekhlafi also briefed Shoukry on the latest developments in the Yemeni political and security scene and the results of his consultations with various regional and international parties.



The Latest Child to Starve to Death in Gaza Weighed Less than When She Was Born

Ahmed Abu Halib and his wife Esraa Abu Halib, left, mourn over the body of their 5-month-old baby, Zainab, who died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the family and the hospital, during her funeral outside the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP)
Ahmed Abu Halib and his wife Esraa Abu Halib, left, mourn over the body of their 5-month-old baby, Zainab, who died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the family and the hospital, during her funeral outside the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP)
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The Latest Child to Starve to Death in Gaza Weighed Less than When She Was Born

Ahmed Abu Halib and his wife Esraa Abu Halib, left, mourn over the body of their 5-month-old baby, Zainab, who died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the family and the hospital, during her funeral outside the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP)
Ahmed Abu Halib and his wife Esraa Abu Halib, left, mourn over the body of their 5-month-old baby, Zainab, who died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the family and the hospital, during her funeral outside the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 26, 2025. (AP)

A mother pressed a final kiss to what remained of her five-month-old daughter and wept. Esraa Abu Halib's baby now weighed less than when she was born.

On a sunny street in shattered Gaza, the bundle containing Zainab Abu Halib represented the latest death from starvation after 21 months of war and Israeli restrictions on aid.

The baby was brought to the pediatric department of Nasser Hospital on Friday. She was already dead. A worker at the morgue carefully removed her Mickey Mouse-printed shirt, pulling it over her sunken, open eyes. He pulled up the hems of her pants to show her knobby knees. His thumb was wider than her ankle. He could count the bones of her chest.

The girl had weighed over 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) when she was born, her mother said. When she died, she weighed less than 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds).

A doctor said it was a case of "severe, severe starvation."

She was wrapped in a white sheet for burial and placed on the sandy ground for prayers. The bundle was barely wider than the imam’s stance. He raised his open hands and invoked Allah once more.

Zainab was one of 85 children to die of malnutrition-related causes in Gaza in the past three weeks, according to the latest toll released by the territory’s Health Ministry on Saturday. Another 42 adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the same period, it said.

"She needed a special baby formula which did not exist in Gaza," Zainab's father, Ahmed Abu Halib, told The Associated Press as he prepared for her funeral prayers in the hospital’s courtyard in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatric department, said the girl had needed a special type of formula that helps with babies allergic to cow's milk.

He said she hadn't suffered from any diseases, but the lack of the formula led to chronic diarrhea and vomiting. She wasn’t able to swallow as her weakened immune system led to a bacterial infection and sepsis, and quickly lost more weight.

'Many will follow'

The child's family, like many of Gaza's Palestinians, lives in a tent, displaced. Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula.

"With my daughter’s death, many will follow," she said. "Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. We are just numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers." Her loose robe hid her own weight loss.

The arrival of children suffering from malnutrition has surged in recent weeks, al-Farah said. His department, with a capacity of eight beds, has been treating about 60 cases of acute malnutrition. They have placed additional mattresses on the ground.

Another malnutrition clinic, affiliated with the hospital, receives an average of 40 cases weekly, he said.

"Unless the crossings are opened and food and baby formula are allowed in for this vulnerable segment of Palestinian society, we will witness unprecedented numbers of deaths," he warned.

Doctors and aid workers in Gaza blame Israel’s restrictions on the entry of aid and medical supplies. Food security experts warn of famine in the territory of over 2 million people.

‘Shortage of everything’

After ending the latest ceasefire in March, Israel cut off the entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for 2 ½ months, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages.

Under international pressure, Israel slightly eased the blockade in May. Since then, it has allowed in around 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, Israel's Foreign Ministry said last week. Israel says baby formula has been included, plus formula for special needs.

The average of 69 trucks a day, however, is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day the UN says are needed for Gaza. The UN says it has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its arriving trucks.

Separately, Israel has backed the US-registered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which in May opened four centers distributing boxes of food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near those new aid sites, the UN human rights office says.

Much of Gaza's population now relies on aid.

"There was a shortage of everything," the mother of Zainab said as she grieved. "How can a girl like her recover?"