WHO says Yemen fighting killed 164 in a week, displaced 180,000

The World Health Organisation said it documented 164 deaths and 645 injuries in Yemen between September 19 and September 26, as fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemeni government forces continued. It said the latest violence has displaced more than 180,000 people.

In separate developments, a woman was killed and two other people were wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza City, according to hospital officials. In the West Bank, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich criticised a decision to freeze a controversial settlement project near Jerusalem until after the October 27 elections.

The WHO said the latest toll in Yemen brings the overall casualties since August 6 to 4,481, including 838 deaths. Earlier this month, the Houthis advanced down Yemen's coast and seized the key port city of Mokha and strategic Red Sea islands. The gains gave them higher ground from where they can monitor, and possibly attack, ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which about 12 per cent of the world's trade usually passes.

In Gaza, officials at Shifa Hospital said a woman was killed when an Israeli strike hit a rooftop in Gaza City. Her husband was wounded, and another person was also wounded and remained in critical condition. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago, with around half of them women and children. The ministry keeps detailed records that international organisations consider reliable.

In the West Bank, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the E1 settlement development project to be put on hold until after the October 27 elections so it would not "be used for election propaganda". The project was approved in August 2025 after decades of planning and delays, and a construction tender for about 3,000 housing units was issued earlier this year. Critics say the project would carve out a strategic section of the West Bank and destroy hopes for a viable future Palestinian state. Smotrich, the Cabinet minister in charge of settlement construction, said on X that Baharav-Miara was "interfering in the election campaign" and acting in the service of Netanyahu's political opponents.

The developments marked another day of conflict and political tension in the region, with fresh casualties reported in Yemen and Gaza and a renewed dispute in Israel over a long-delayed West Bank settlement plan.

With PTI Inputs

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