Yemen Condemns Houthis for Obstructing Food Shipments from Aden

A truck loaded with flour fell on a bumpy road while on its way to the Houthi-besieged city of Taiz (Twitter)
A truck loaded with flour fell on a bumpy road while on its way to the Houthi-besieged city of Taiz (Twitter)
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Yemen Condemns Houthis for Obstructing Food Shipments from Aden

A truck loaded with flour fell on a bumpy road while on its way to the Houthi-besieged city of Taiz (Twitter)
A truck loaded with flour fell on a bumpy road while on its way to the Houthi-besieged city of Taiz (Twitter)

The Yemeni government on Sunday condemned Houthis for obstructing the delivery of food and goods shipments coming from the port of Aden and the liberated areas, saying the militias’ behavior is part of an economic war staged against the government and an attempt to force merchants to divert their imports to the port of Hodeidah.

Yemeni commercial sources said dozens of trucks loaded with food, iron, wood and other goods are still banned from passing towards Houthi-controlled areas and are stopped at militia checkpoints.

On Sunday, Yemen’s Ministry of Industry and Trade denounced with the strongest words the Houthi militias for deliberately starving the besieged population of the city of Taiz and other militias-controlled regions.

“We have been following with deep concern the suffering of citizens in the Houthi-controlled regions due to the militias' illegal and immoral policy,” the Ministry said in a statement to the Yemeni News Agency (Saba).

It added that the Houthi measures have further exacerbated the Yemenis’ humanitarian misery.
“Houthi militias further tightened their blockade on Taiz, obstructing the arrival of trucks loaded with food,” the Ministry stressed.

Houthi militiamen have been holding 180 trucks loaded with wheat flour for nearly one month in the region of Arrahida, the southern entrance of Taiz governorate, where Houthis staged a checkpoint to impose illegal levies and blackmail traders and raise food prices.

“Preventing the trucks from delivering food to the militia-controlled regions is a war-crime against humanity. Therefore, the international community must intervene, mount its pressures on Houthis to stop them from using food as a weapon instrument against the Yemeni peoples,” the Ministry affirmed.

Separately, Yemen’s Minister of Information, Cultural and Tourism Muamar al-Eryani warned of a new humanitarian tragedy in Marib, where Houthis’ military escalation has caused a fresh wave of displacement from the Harib district, south-east the province.
In a statement to Saba, al-Eryani said the Executive Unit for Managing Displacement Camps published new statistics, revealing that 2,198 civilians, mostly women, children and elderly people, were displaced from the Harib district due to the Houthi shelling.

He said militias ignored all calls for appeasement in the district and for not further complicating the humanitarian conditions, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

Al-Eryani demanded the international community, the UN and US envoys to take serious steps to stop the Houthi military escalation, particularly that the militia group is shelling houses and villages in the district with rockets and mortars.



24 Killed as Israeli Airstrikes Hit Northeastern Lebanon

People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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24 Killed as Israeli Airstrikes Hit Northeastern Lebanon

People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country’s news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.

It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah escalated last month.

Israel’s military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure.

Lebanon’s state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country’s northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.

Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.

The death toll from Friday's strikes in the northeast was expected to increase further, reports said.

Earlier, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on a mountain town overlooking Beirut has killed three people and wounded five.

The ministry gave no further details about the early Friday airstrike on the edge of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut.

An Associated Press journalist who visited the scene said the strike was closer to the nearby village of Ein al-Rummaneh, adding that it caused minor damage to an apartment on the first floor of a building.

On Oct. 6, an Israeli strike in Qamatiyeh killed six people, including three children, the Health Ministry said.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,897 people and injured 13,150 in Lebanon, with 30 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said on Friday.

‘New wave of displacement’

Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian aid coordination agency warned of a new “wave of displacement” in Beirut after the Israeli army issued new orders for people to leave.

Spokesman Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, citing local officials, said the new displacement orders for the capital’s southern suburbs were followed shortly afterward by heavy airstrikes.

He told reporters in Geneva that other recent displacement orders from the Israeli military spurred an estimated 50,000 people to leave the eastern city of Baalbek and head mostly toward the northern Bekaa Valley.

“We are working to access civilians who remain in hard to reach areas. To date, 15 convoys have successfully been organized to reach areas” in four Lebanese cities, including Baalbek, Laerke said. “But the insecurity has an impact on what we can do.”