Houthis Deprive Locals of Healthcare in Sanaa

Sanaa, EPA
Sanaa, EPA
TT

Houthis Deprive Locals of Healthcare in Sanaa

Sanaa, EPA
Sanaa, EPA

Healthcare sources based in Yemen’s Sanaa, which is overrun by coup militias, revealed that Houthis have deprived locals from primary and secondary healthcare.

Sources added that the Iran-backed Houthi militias loot state assets and employ them to their war effort.

Houthis have marginalized and banished cadres and employees who do not believe in their adopted Khomeinist ideals. Those expelled were replaced by Houthi followers from Saada, a Houthi stronghold.

The replacements were found to be devoted to looting properties of citizens and merchants, unrightfully imposing royalties and taxes and shuttering projects and companies that refuse to donate to the Houthi war effort.

Houthis, according to sources, worked to collapse the health system, staging armed attacks against hospitals, where they seized medical equipment and drugs.

More so, in areas under their control, Houthis prevent the entry of medical supplies and life-saving drugs, especially those used to treat patients with chronic diseases.

Houthi practices have left millions of citizens with no access to basic healthcare, humanitarian relief and food.

The number of health institutions and facilities either affected or totally shuttered by Houthi actions reached 600, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The sources, speaking under the conditions of anonymity, also accused Houthi leaders of inhibiting the maintenance of medical devices and equipment.
Militia leaders, for their part, considered maintenance not a priority for the stage.

Medical sources indicate that there are 40,000 cancer patients who do not receive adequate medical care in the group's control areas.

At least 50% of the patients are dying as a result of the disruption of the radiation apparatus for oncology, and the lack of medicines due to the group preventing a number of drugs and confiscating most of the aid.

Sources at Al Thawra Modern General Hospital (TMGH) revealed that Houthis have restricted healthcare privileges to its own fighters and loyalists mainly.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.