Yemeni PM Declares War on Corruption at Land, Air, Sea Ports

The Yemen PM meets with ministers and officials on Sunday. (Saba)
The Yemen PM meets with ministers and officials on Sunday. (Saba)
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Yemeni PM Declares War on Corruption at Land, Air, Sea Ports

The Yemen PM meets with ministers and officials on Sunday. (Saba)
The Yemen PM meets with ministers and officials on Sunday. (Saba)

Faced with a new drop in the value of the Yemeni rial, Prime minister Maeen Abdulmalik said land, air and sea ports are among the arteries of the national economy and that the government will activate all anti-corruption systems to control state revenues.

On Sunday, the exchange rate of the Yemeni rial stood at 850 to the dollar in government-controlled areas. The dip follows the war-torn country’s currency having registered a slight recovery after the newly formed government arriving in the interim capital, Aden.

Yemeni bankers blamed the policy adopted by the Iran-backed Houthi militias on fighting the circulation of new banknotes for the deterioration of the rial’s price.

The Houthis’ outlawing of the use and possession of crisp new rial bills issued by the legitimate government is a form of economic vandalism, they said.

What the national economy is passing through requires building a real economy that does not depend only on conventional revenues, Abdulmalik said at a meeting on national ports in Aden.

The meeting gathered the concerned ministries and thrashed out the relationship between them and local authorities and discussed means of improving local and state revenues.

It approved the formation of a joint committee tasked with field visits to all ports and crossings to address problems and assess performances in a way which guarantees improving port operations, unifying revenue collection measures and putting an end to overlapping powers.

According to the Saba News Agency, the joint committee will be composed from representatives of the ministries of finance, interior, transport and defense.
Attendees at the meeting put forward a number of proposals to assist the joint committee in performing its work within an integrated approach between ministries and concerned authorities.

They also focused on ways for developing a healthy relationship with the local authorities without giving way to violations, such as smuggling.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.