Arab Coalition to Launch UN-Sponsored Initiative for Children Affected by Yemen War

Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki. (Reuters)
Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki. (Reuters)
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Arab Coalition to Launch UN-Sponsored Initiative for Children Affected by Yemen War

Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki. (Reuters)
Arab Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki. (Reuters)

The Saudi-led Arab coalition will launch a UN-sponsored global initiative to support children affected by the war in Yemen, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said that efforts are underway between Saudi Arabia, the UN and some members of the alliance to launch the initiative this month.

It will focus on reintegrating children affected by war into society, he told a press conference in Riyadh.

Moreover, he underscored the memorandum of understanding signed last month between the Arab coalition and UN to protect children affected by Yemen’s war.

Maliki said that the agreement was a product of the cooperation between the alliance and UN to protect Yemen’s children.

He stressed that the coalition was still taking the necessary measures to avoid children being dragged into the armed conflict. The Iran-backed Houthi militias, on the other hand, are recruiting children by force or by luring them in return for material rewards.

According to UN rights reports, the Houthis are accused of recruiting more than 24,000 children, he charged.

He revealed that 113 children affected by the Yemen war have been rehabilitated by the coalition and returned to their families through the legitimate Yemeni government and the International Committee of the Red Cross.



UN Says 875 Palestinians Have Been Killed Near Gaza Aid Sites

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Says 875 Palestinians Have Been Killed Near Gaza Aid Sites

Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip are pictured at sunset from a position across the border in southern Israel on July 15, 2025. (AFP)

The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led fighters loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.

"The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The United Nations has called the GHF aid model "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted" by Hamas or criminal gangs.

The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israeli army by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Program said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by "hungry civilian communities".