At 1:00am Tuesday morning, the bomb sirens were sounded in the greater Jerusalem area and Shfela region of Israel.
By Rachel Avraham
At 1:00am on Tuesday morning, bomb sirens were sounded in Kiryat Malakhi, Abu Ghosh, Beit Shemesh, Latrun, Mini Israel, Modiin, and other areas in the greater Jerusalem area and the Shfela region of Israel.
The IDF identified, shortly before 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory, adding that aerial defense systems are operating to intercept the threat, Arutz Sheva reported.
The IDF subsequently stated, “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF.” Arutz Sheva reported that the sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol.
Magen David Adom Spokesperson Zaki Heller said, “Following the missile launch from Yemen towards Israel, no calls were received at Magen David Adom’s 101 emergency dispatch center regarding missile strikes or casualties.” According to Arutz Sheva, the Home Front Command gave residents the all clear at around 1:13 a.m.
While the Houthis continue to fire rockets at Israel, the Khabar News Agency reported that “Yemen is enduring one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, with an estimated 85,000 children under five having died from starvation and malnutrition since the civil war began in 2014. The crisis, far worse than the hunger situation in Gaza, remains largely overlooked by the international community.”
A Yemeni source opposed to the Iran-backed Houthi movement told AP, “While Gaza has two million people, the Houthis impose a siege on 20 million in Yemen. This hunger is not collateral damage — it’s a deliberate tool for control and extortion.”
According to the Khabar News Agency, UNICEF’s August 2024 report warned of a “critical” rise in malnutrition in government-held areas of Yemen, particularly along the western coast near Houthi-controlled zones: “According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in these areas increased by 34% from 2023. Over 600,000 children are affected, including 120,000 with acute malnutrition. Some 223,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women were also severely malnourished last year.”
Despite the widespread suffering in their territories, the Khabar News Agency reported that Houthi leaders rarely acknowledge the crisis. In recent speeches, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi condemned the international community’s response to hunger in Gaza but has remained silent on Yemen’s internal famine.
Aid groups accuse the Houthis of deliberately blocking humanitarian aid and diverting supplies for their own use, the Khabar News Agency reported. “The Houthis turn international aid into a source of funding for their war effort by stealing supplies and imposing taxes on imports,” the Yemeni source said. “This has left millions vulnerable to starvation and disease.”
The Khabar News Agency reported that the Houthis also use hunger as punishment against tribes that resist their authority and forcibly recruit fighters, including children, exploiting Yemen’s ongoing conflicts and the war in Gaza. “This is the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our time, fueled by a political decision to destabilize Yemen and make it an Iranian proxy,” the source said. “The international community must act now to prevent food from becoming a weapon of war.”
