DUBAI: Four mobile cranes have arrived in Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port, the United Nations said on Monday.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said thanks to the efforts of US government agencies, the UN World Food Program (WFP), the Coalition, and aid organizations on the ground in Yemen, the ship carrying four US-supported cranes has successfully reached its destination at the port. These mobile cranes would improve the port’s capacity for offloading critical supplies, such as food and medicine, for the Yemeni people, she said.
“No one should ever have to live the way the people of Yemen are living. We thank our partners who helped us make this delivery possible so that we can help the tens of millions of innocent people who wake up each day facing hunger and disease. We call on all sides of the conflict to allow full access for humanitarian and commercial supplies, including fuel, by keeping the country’s ports open and allowing humanitarian agencies to deliver aid without interference,” Haley said.
The US-funded equipment will help to replace four giant cranes disabled by coalition warplanes in an August 2015 raid that drastically slowed the unloading of food, medicine and fuel needed by a population riven with hunger and disease.
The WFP said in a statement that a ship carrying the cranes it bought with funds from the United States Agency for International Development had arrived at Hodeidah port and were expected to be operational immediately.
“With each of the mobile cranes able to handle up to 60 tons, they will significantly boost the discharge of humanitarian cargo and other relief items,” the statement said.
The WFP said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates facilitated the transfer of the cranes aboard the WFP-chartered vessel MV JUIST to Yemen.
The cranes are expected to help ease a humanitarian crisis. Hodeidah port handled around 70 percent of Yemen’s imports, including critically-needed food and humanitarian supplies.
The United Nations says that more than 22 million of Yemen’s 25 million population need humanitarian assistance, including 11.3 million who are in acute need — an increase of more than one million people since March 2017.
Cranes arrive in Hodeidah to boost flow of food aid to Yemen
Cranes arrive in Hodeidah to boost flow of food aid to Yemen
Israeli FM urges Jews to move to Israel a week after Sydney attack
- “Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Sunday for Jews in Western countries to move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism, one week after 15 were shot dead at a Jewish event in Sydney.
“Jews have the right to live in safety everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening, and we have a certain historical experience. Today, Jews are being hunted across the world,” Saar said at a public candle lighting marking the last day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said at the ceremony, held with leaders of Jewish communities and organizations worldwide.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have repeatedly denounced a surge in antisemitism in Western countries and accused their governments of failing to curb it.
Australian authorities have said the December 14 attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Western governments to better protect their Jewish citizens.
“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” Netanyahu said in a video address.
In October, Saar accused British authorities of failing to take action to curb a “toxic wave of antisemitism” following an attack outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in which two people were killed and four wounded.
According to Israel’s 1950 “Law of Return,” any Jewish person in the world is entitled to settle in Israel (a process known in Hebrew as aliyah, or “ascent“) and acquire Israeli citizenship. The law also applies to individuals who have at least one Jewish grandparent.zz
