UN Reports Warn Floods Threaten Quarter of IDP Sites in Yemen

Yemeni women collect water from an irrigation pipe next to empty tanks on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)
Yemeni women collect water from an irrigation pipe next to empty tanks on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)
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UN Reports Warn Floods Threaten Quarter of IDP Sites in Yemen

Yemeni women collect water from an irrigation pipe next to empty tanks on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)
Yemeni women collect water from an irrigation pipe next to empty tanks on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned of floods threatening one-quarter of the Internally displaced persons' sites in Yemen.

There are more than half a million individuals in these camps.

Climate change and civil turbulences have widely impacted food item prices in Yemen and made millions become victims of food insecurity.

FAO prepared an update for the yearly National IDP Site Flood Hazard Analysis. In total, 571 (25 percent) of assessed IDP sites have a High Flood Hazard covering a total of 603,000 site residents.

The top 5 governorates with assessed IDP sites having High Flood hazards include Hodeidah (29 percent), Hajjah (27 percent), Al Jawf (22 percent), Marib (13 percent), and Taiz (9 percent).

“An estimated 77 percent of the 4.3 million people displaced in Yemen are women and children, while approximately 26 percent of displaced households are now headed by women, compared to 9 percent before the escalation of the conflict in 2015,” according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

“An estimated 8.1 million women and girls of childbearing age require help accessing reproductive health services, including antenatal care,” it added.

“One Yemeni woman dies every two hours during childbirth,” according to the Fund.

The UNFPA added: “Over 1 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are projected to experience acute malnutrition sometime in the course of 2022.”

“People in informal displacement sites are the worst affected, with women and girls, especially female-headed households, people with disabilities, and the elderly the most vulnerable to protection risks.

“Women and girls in the host community must walk more than two hours twice a day to collect drinking water. The journey can be unsafe, leaving them facing increased risks, including forms of gender-based violence (GBV), on the way to or at crowded water points.”



Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen in West Bank

Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen in West Bank
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Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen in West Bank

Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Teen in West Bank

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian hurling a rock at them in the occupied West Bank, the military said on Friday, and the Palestinian health ministry said the person killed was a 14-year-old boy.

There was no further comment from Palestinian officials about the fatal incident in the village of ⁠Al-Mughayyir. Official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the teen was killed during an Israeli military raid that led to confrontations, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military said its forces were called to the area after ⁠receiving reports that Palestinians were throwing stones at Israelis and blocking a road with burning tires.

The soldiers fired warning shots in an attempt to repel a person who was running at them with a rock, the military said, and then shot and killed him to eliminate the ⁠danger.

Violence has surged over the past year in the West Bank. Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have risen sharply, while the military has tightened movement restrictions and carried out sweeping raids in several cities.

Palestinians have also carried out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians, some of them deadly.


Israeli Strikes in South Lebanon Kill Two

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Sohmor, in southern Lebanon on January 15, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Sohmor, in southern Lebanon on January 15, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
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Israeli Strikes in South Lebanon Kill Two

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Sohmor, in southern Lebanon on January 15, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Sohmor, in southern Lebanon on January 15, 2026. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed one person on Friday, the health ministry in Beirut said a day after raids that Israel said had targeted Hezbollah.

Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting members of the group or its infrastructure.

In a statement, the health ministry said an "Israeli enemy strike" on a vehicle in Mansuri in south Lebanon killed one person.

According to AFP, it also said that a strike on Mayfadun in south Lebanon the previous night killed one person.

Israel said Thursday's attack killed a Hezbollah member it alleged "took part in attempts to reestablish Hezbollah's infrastructure in the Zawtar al-Sharqiyah area.”

The attacks come a week after Lebanon's military said it had completed disarming Hezbollah south of the Litani River, the first phase of a nationwide plan, although Israel has called those efforts insufficient.

On Thursday, Israel carried out several strikes against eastern Lebanon's Bekaa region, north of the Litani, after issuing warnings to evacuate.

United Nations peacekeepers, deployed in the south to separate Lebanon from Israel, said on Friday that an Israeli drone "dropped a grenade" on its troops.

On Monday, the peacekeeping force said an Israeli tank fired near its troops, and warned that such incidents were becoming "disturbingly common".


Syria's Leader Sharaa in Berlin on Tuesday, Says German Presidency

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
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Syria's Leader Sharaa in Berlin on Tuesday, Says German Presidency

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa will be visiting Berlin next Tuesday and meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German presidency said.

The office of Chancellor Friedrich Merz has yet to announce whether they would also hold talks during the visit, which comes at a time when the German government is seeking to step up repatriations of Syrians to their homeland.