Houthis Accused of Exploiting Beirut Blast to Raise Donations for Hezbollah

A general view shows the damage at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A general view shows the damage at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Houthis Accused of Exploiting Beirut Blast to Raise Donations for Hezbollah

A general view shows the damage at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A general view shows the damage at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Yemeni activists accused Houthi militias in Sanaa of preparing to raise funds for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah against the background of the Beirut port explosion which struck the Lebanese capital and left around 100 people homeless.

On social media, Yemeni activists accused the Iran-backed Houthis of exploiting the Beirut blast to steal more funds from Yemenis and direct those funds into their war effort and financing the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. All this is taking place at a time Yemenis struggle to secure their daily meals.

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi had ordered the group’s leaders to arrange for a donations campaign. Consequentially, Houthis sent out SMS texts asking people to donate to a specific bank account.

Yemeni activists slammed the behavior of the Houthi group, saying that it does not fathom the size of the disaster lying ahead for Yemenis because of the ongoing war, famine and disease. While the payroll of Yemeni public servants remains frozen, Houthis are rushing to aid Hezbollah under the presumption that it is to help the Lebanese people.

This is not the first time Houthis raise donations for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. Last year, it raised around $132,000 through the Sam radio station after the international sanctions against Iran resumed.
Tehran’s funding of Hezbollah, since the sanctions, has been diminished significantly.

Yemeni activists say that the money gathered by the Houthi militias for Hezbollah confirms their involvement with Iran’s regional agenda.

The new Houthi campaign to collect donations for Iran angered residents of the capital, Sanaa, as many of them expressed to Asharq Al-Awsat their disdain for the group’s behavior, which is more keen on the interests of the Lebanese Hezbollah than for the benefit of Yemenis and alleviating their suffering.

“We are not surprised by the Houthi sectarian-inspired action to back its allies in the region,” a Yemeni activist in Sanaa said, adding that what is surprising is that those donation campaigns are being run while Yemenis are starving.



Israeli Forces Have Completed Encirclement of Gaza’s Rafah, Military Says

 Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Forces Have Completed Encirclement of Gaza’s Rafah, Military Says

 Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)

Israeli forces have completed the encirclement of Gaza's Rafah, the military said on Saturday, part of an announced plan to seize more areas of the enclave, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population.

The military has issued repeated evacuation warnings to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Rafah since it resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, forcing them into a diminishing space limited by the sea.

Israel said on April 2 that troops had begun seizing an area it called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have since fled Rafah, a 60 square km area that borders Egypt to the south.

"Over the past 24 hours, the 36th Division's troops completed the establishment of the Morag route, separating Rafah and Khan Younis," the military said on Saturday.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza was launched after Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 50,000 Palestinians have since been killed in the offensive, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

Israel restarted the offensive in March after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January. The campaign will continue, it says, until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Hamas is stamped out of Gaza.

Hamas says it will free hostages only as part of a deal that will end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms. A Hamas delegation was expected in Cairo over the weekend to discuss new truce proposals, according to a source in the group.