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World Bank Grants Yemen $100 Mn to Expand Electricity Access

A view of the state-owned al-Haswa power station in Aden, Yemen (Reuters)
A view of the state-owned al-Haswa power station in Aden, Yemen (Reuters)
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World Bank Grants Yemen $100 Mn to Expand Electricity Access

A view of the state-owned al-Haswa power station in Aden, Yemen (Reuters)
A view of the state-owned al-Haswa power station in Aden, Yemen (Reuters)

The World Bank approved a $100 million grant to Yemen for the second phase of the Yemen Emergency Electricity Access Project, announced Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Waed Badhib.

Badhib said that the project aims to increase access to electricity in rural areas and cities' outskirts and plans to restore the capacity of the electricity sector.

He explained that this additional grant is provided by the International Development Association (IDA), the arm of the World Bank, to help the poorest countries around the world.

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will implement the project in partnership with local stakeholders.

The Minister confirmed that the new grant would provide many public service facilities with new or improved electricity services, helping Yemenis have better access to critical services.

It will also enable small and innovative businesses to gain access to solar systems, encouraging job creation and reaching the desired stage of economic recovery.

Earlier, the Yemeni Prime Minister, Maeen Abdulmalik, confirmed that the World Bank agreed to support government institutions and achieve economic recovery.

Abdulmalik said Yemeni officials met with World Bank and International Finance Corporation officials in Aden.

He explained that the meeting reached an agreement on boosting the Bank's presence in Aden to support partnership and cooperation, respond to humanitarian and development needs, and back state capabilities to achieve stability and recovery.

Abdulmalik stated that the meeting addressed the most prominent challenges and several important issues relating to the food security and energy sectors.

He stressed the need to shift to development in Yemen, suffering from the war against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.

He explained that the government agreed with the World Bank on several points to launch the next stage, focusing on balancing the emergency response to sustainability with development projects.

They also agreed to finance the productive sectors, fisheries, and agriculture and activate oversight over international organizations, namely projects funded through the World Bank.

The two asserted the need to support the private sector, and the premier stressed the importance of the Bank's contribution to maintaining capabilities within public institutions.

The PM praised the "unique experience" of the World Bank in Yemen, especially since the international organization has been a key and strategic partner since the sixties.

The World Bank is a partner in building effective institutions such as the Social Fund for Development and the Public Works Project, capable of implementing projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Through the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank funded several projects in many sectors in the last 18 months, including health, education, and emergency cash transfers, totaling more than $1 billion.

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Arab World

Israel Army Says Struck Suspected Hezbollah Fighters in Lebanon ‘Security Zone’

Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)
Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Army Says Struck Suspected Hezbollah Fighters in Lebanon ‘Security Zone’

Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)
Stray dogs walk past the rubble of flattened homes and businesses, destroyed by the Israeli military, in the southern Lebanese village of Tibnin on June 24, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike targeting suspected Hezbollah fighters who crossed into the so-called "security zone" it has created in southern Lebanon, the second such incident it reported within hours on Wednesday.

"A short while ago, a vehicle carrying suspects was identified crossing the security zone in the Ali al-Taher Ridge area, posing a threat to Israeli soldiers," the military said.

"Following the identification, the Israeli Air Force struck the suspects in order to remove the threat," it added, vowing that the military "would not allow Hezbollah" fighters to harm its troops.

Arab World

Who Is Wassim al-Assad, Who Used Syrian Regime Influence to Lead Captagon Trade?

Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
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Who Is Wassim al-Assad, Who Used Syrian Regime Influence to Lead Captagon Trade?

Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)

Wassim Badih al-Assad, a cousin of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, faces charges of forming and leading armed groups, suppressing civilians, involvement in wide-ranging abuses and illicit enrichment during the rule of the former regime.

He appeared in court on Wednesday to stand trial as Syria’s new rulers pursue transitional justice.

Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said: “The trial of Wassim al-Assad is only one stage in a comprehensive national process.”

In a post on X, he pledged that “justice will remain a firm approach, and state institutions will move with confidence and resolve toward building a state of law and institutions.”

Wassim al-Assad was born in Qardaha, in the countryside of Latakia, in 1980. His name has appeared on sanctions lists over his alleged role in drug smuggling and support for the former regime.

Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad in June 2025 during a security operation carried out by the General Intelligence Service in cooperation with units from the ministry.

He was lured from Lebanon to Syria in an intelligence operation and arrested in an ambush as part of a campaign to pursue people accused of committing crimes during the rule of the former regime.

Wassim al-Assad’s name emerged in Syria in the first years after the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad, when he became known as one of the commanders of militias auxiliary to the former regime’s forces.

He led the “Military Security Shield” militia, later known as the “Assad Shield,” and also led and formed groups affiliated with the Baath Brigades and the National Defense militia.

Those groups were active mainly in the provinces of Latakia and Tartous, as well as the cities of Qardaha and Jableh. They pursued and arrested opponents of the Assad regime and fought as auxiliary forces alongside regime troops in other Syrian provinces.

Noah Zaiter (R) and Wassim al-Assad. (Facebook)

The groups were also active at ports and crossings on the border with Lebanon in the Tal Kalakh area of rural Homs, facilitating the smuggling of Captagon and fuel.

The political and security cover he enjoyed enabled him to use his influence to impose payments on merchants along the coast and run cross-border smuggling networks. The names of those militias were linked to killings, kidnappings, extortion and theft.

Wassim al-Assad did not hide his ties with drug traffickers in Lebanon. He appeared in photos on social media with notorious drug baron Noah Zaitar, who has been detained in Lebanon for drug and arms trafficking.

Unlike other leaders of militias auxiliary to the former regime’s forces, Wassim al-Assad flaunted his lavish lifestyle, cars and apartments in Latakia and Tartous in videos on social media. In those videos, he called for opponents of Bashar al-Assad to be stripped of Syrian nationality.

According to international reports, Wassim al-Assad oversaw Captagon shipments from manufacturing facilities in Syria to the Lebanese border, as well as to Gulf Arab states and Europe, all under the protection of security networks affiliated with the former regime.

In 2023, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Wassim al-Assad, citing his role in supporting the former regime through Captagon smuggling and the regional drug trade.

The European Union also listed him, along with other Assad family members, for his active participation in organized networks for the manufacture and export of drugs, and for illegal and criminal activities and cross-border money laundering.

In his last public security activity, Wassim al-Assad announced in early 2024 the formation of “special support and protection groups,” pledging to pay monthly salaries of $300 to volunteers from the coastal region who supported the former regime, in an attempt to counter the Deterrence of Aggression Operation led by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which succeeded in ousting Bashar al-Assad.

Arab World

Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank Raid, Palestinians Say

Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank Raid, Palestinians Say

Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a house raid in a town in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry, a paramedic and a local resident said.

The health ministry said that the Palestinian body in charge of coordinating with Israeli authorities had notified it of the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Zayed, who was "shot dead by the occupation (Israeli) forces in Yamun".

The ministry added that Israeli forces had kept Zayed's body.

The military told AFP it was looking into reports of the man's death.

Sanad Abu Toul, a local resident whose family owns the house raided by Israeli forces, said the raid occurred around 12:30 pm local time (0930 GMT) and Zayed was killed as he tried to escape the premises the army had surrounded.

"Zayed tried to flee the house, but the soldiers shot him at close range in the yard of the house, even though they could have arrested him," Abu Toul told AFP.

Murad Khamayseh, a Palestinian paramedic who was dispatched to the scene, told AFP that the Palestinian Red Crescent received a call about the raid around 1:00 pm local time, and sent teams who were blocked by the army from reaching the besieged house.

"About an hour and a half after we arrived, we heard gunfire, and then local residents found traces of blood on the ground in the yard of the house," said Khamayseh.

Violence has escalated in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,083 Palestinians since then, including both gunmen and civilians, per an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, according to which 71 people were killed in 2026.

Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.