Sanaa IDPs Face Hunger After Houthis Seize Aid

A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
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Sanaa IDPs Face Hunger After Houthis Seize Aid

A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Sabri Moneef, an internally displaced Yemeni who left Hodeidah for Sanaa, voiced his deep concerns and fears towards relief agencies halving their aid as per their announcement last April.

Moneef says he dreads that his family, which is very dependent on food aid, will be cut off completely and left to starve.

As a father of eight children, Moneef complains that he is being denied his share of food baskets distributed by the UN after aid having come to a halt. Houthis in Sanaa claim that it was the UN that stopped the aid.

Moneef, 43, says the last time his family received any aid was in Ramadan. Even then the food basket they received was missing cooking oil and sugar. The impoverished refugee in Sanaa claims that Houthis had plundered the missing items given that they were in charge of aid distribution in the coup-held capital.

He also talks about hundreds of IDPs in Sanaa who have not received their food aid for over four months, as they face several Houthi obstacles that prevent them from obtaining aid allocated for them.

According to local statistics, there are more than 60,000 Yemeni families who have been displaced during the past years to Sanaa due to the Houthi-waged war.

The livelihood of these families mainly depends on the international relief aid provided to them.

A number of international donors, including the US, have cut aid to Yemenis as a result of their suspicions that their previous contributions were being seized and diverted to militia-controlled areas, instead of being distributed to the needy.

Relief officials said that they had faced many delays in the past in obtaining the necessary approvals and statements by the Houthi militias to deliver aid. They also added that their employees are exposed to abuse and detention by the group's militants.



Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Hezbollah said its fighters on Thursday fired missiles at a military base near south Israel’s Ashdod, the first time it has targeted so deep inside Israel in more than a year of hostilities.

Hezbollah fighters "targeted... for the first time, the Hatzor air base" east of the southern city, around 150 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, "with a missile salvo," the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

A rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man and wounded two others in northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The service said paramedics found the body of the man in his 30s near a playground in the town of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, after a rocket attack on Thursday.
Israel meanwhile struck targets in southern Lebanon and several buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Israel has launched airstrikes against Lebanon after Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' attack on Israel last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It is not known how many of those killed were Hezbollah fighters and how many were civilians.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s aerial attacks have killed more than 70 people and driven some 60,000 from their homes.