Five Million Yemenis Receive Less Than Half of Daily Food Needs

 Weather conditions exacerbated burdens of the displaced. (official media)
Weather conditions exacerbated burdens of the displaced. (official media)
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Five Million Yemenis Receive Less Than Half of Daily Food Needs

 Weather conditions exacerbated burdens of the displaced. (official media)
Weather conditions exacerbated burdens of the displaced. (official media)

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revealed in a recent report a new reduction in food rations distributed to millions of needy people in Yemen.

By the end of June, the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) remained under-funded, forcing aid organizations to reduce or close critical assistance programs, the report showed.

As of June 30, the 2022 HRP secured only 26% of the requested $4.27 billion to provide lifesaving assistance and protection services to 17.9 million people.

With the funding cut in June, five million people will now receive less than half of their daily needs, while eight million people will receive less than one-third of their daily needs.

The report also revealed that the lack of funding has forced the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the sole provider of reproductive health medicines and is leading reproductive health service provision in Yemen, to scale back humanitarian operations by 25% since the beginning of the year.

Only 13% of a $100 million appeal has been funded so far.

In 2021, UNFPA reached 1.6 million women and girls with reproductive health services, assisting 151,000 safe deliveries and averting 344,000 unintended pregnancies, with support to 127 health facilities and payments to 2,065 health workers.

It warned that of the 41 major UN programs, 26 have been scaled back or closed. Unless funding is received, 15 will be either further reduced or closed in the coming months.

The report mentioned that hunger now is worse than ever, yet the World Food Program (WFP) was forced to cut rations for millions of people several weeks ago as it and other aid agencies are dangerously underresourced.

Similar cuts across all sectors are sadly costing lives, the report stressed, noting that it is the second major cut in six months only.

On June 26, the WFP announced scaling back its support in Yemen following critical funding gaps, global inflation and the knock-on effects of the war in Ukraine.

This came at the time when an estimated 19 million people are facing acute food insecurity or worse, with more than 160,000 in catastrophic food needs.

In December 2021, WFP was forced to reduce food rations for eight million people due to funding gaps, and it had to introduce another round of cuts in May.

Resilience and livelihood activities, as well as school feeding and nutrition programs will cease for four million people, leaving assistance available for only 1.8 million people.

The report further warned that if immediate action is not taken, millions of people will face severe food insecurity, avoidable diseases, displacement and death.

Millions more will not be able to rebuild their shattered livelihoods.

Despite a sever funding shortfall, aid agencies in Yemen delivered life- saving assistance and services to an average of 12.6 million people per month during Q1 2022, reaching 70% of the targeted 17.9 million people through the 2022 HRP.

Some 25% of the number of people reached were women and 49% were children.



Report Says Israeli Settlers Used Grazing to Grab Swathes of West Bank Land

20 July 2022, Israel, Barkan: Right-wing settlers march to build a settlement in the West Bank near Barkan. (dpa)
20 July 2022, Israel, Barkan: Right-wing settlers march to build a settlement in the West Bank near Barkan. (dpa)
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Report Says Israeli Settlers Used Grazing to Grab Swathes of West Bank Land

20 July 2022, Israel, Barkan: Right-wing settlers march to build a settlement in the West Bank near Barkan. (dpa)
20 July 2022, Israel, Barkan: Right-wing settlers march to build a settlement in the West Bank near Barkan. (dpa)

A report by Israeli settlement watchdogs says settlers have used grazing to seize control of 14 percent of the occupied West Bank through the establishment of shepherding outposts in recent years.

In their report, "The Bad Samaritan", Israeli NGOs Peace Now and Kerem Navot said that in the past three years, 70 percent of all land seized by settlers was "taken under the guise of grazing activities".

Settlers in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, use herding to establish a presence on agricultural lands used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according to the report.

To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, "with the backing of the Israeli government and military", the watchdogs said.

"Israeli authorities make living conditions very difficult, but settler violence is really the main trigger why people leave lately -- they have nothing to protect themselves", said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of international NGOs.

"People get very worried about their families and their safety", and have no recourse when settlers start occupying their lands, she told AFP.

Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to around 490,000 Israelis living in settlements and outposts considered illegal under international law.

Around three million Palestinians live in the West Bank.

On Friday, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that "Israeli settlers injured 23 Palestinians in one week, mainly in Bedouin and herding communities".

That same week, between March 11 and 17, "two Palestinian families were displaced, and at least two houses, eight vehicles and 180 Palestinian-owned trees and saplings were vandalized" in incidents involving settlers.

More than 60 entire Palestinian shepherding communities throughout the West Bank have been expelled using such methods since 2022, the report added.

These communities are overwhelmingly in the West Bank's Area C, which under the Oslo Accords signed in the 1990s falls under full Israeli control.

In recent months, several Israeli far-right politicians including some in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have suggested taking advantage of the friendly US administration under President Donald Trump to annex part or all of the West Bank in 2025.

"The systematic and violent displacement of Palestinians from hundreds of thousands of dunam of land in recent years has undoubtedly laid the groundwork to facilitate such ambitions", the new report said of annexation, using a traditional measure of land area equivalent to 1,000 square meters.