The United Nations on Monday expressed fears at what it called a "rapidly worsening" outbreak of cholera in war-ravaged Yemen, with more than 40,000 suspected cases since October, mainly in areas controlled by Houthis. "We are also deeply concerned about a rapidly worsening cholera outbreak. Forty thousand suspected cases and over 160 deaths have so far been reported—a sharp increase since our update last month," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said. 34,000 suspected cases have been reported in Houthi-controlled areas since October, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In comparison, 6,000 suspected cases have been reported in government-controlled provinces.
Israel's embassy to the Holy See issued a protest on Monday after a Yemeni Nobel Prize winner accused Israel of "genocide" in Gaza during an event hosted by the Vatican. The embassy said it felt "indignation and shock" over the comments rights activist Tawakkul Karman made on Saturday evening at a conference organized by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation created by Pope Francis. Karman, who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the Arab Spring protests, told an audience in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica: "The world is silent in front of the genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza."
The International Organization for Migration announced on Monday that more than 1,200 families have been displaced in Yemen since the beginning of this year. In its weekly report, the organization stated that its Displacement Tracking Matrix monitored the displacement of 47 Yemeni families (282 individuals from May 5 to 11). The organization indicated that the displacement cases originated from Al-Hudaydah, Taiz, Hajjah, and Al-Dhalea, Al-Hudaydah (16 families), and Al-Dhalea (2 families). It added that the total number of displaced people rose to 1,233 families, representing 7,398 individuals, from the beginning of this year until May 11.
Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza's northern edge on Monday to recapture an area where they claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago, while in the south, tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah. Israeli operations in Rafah, which borders Egypt, have closed a main crossing point for aid, which humanitarian groups say is worsening an already dire situation. Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee again after around half of Gaza's population took sanctuary there after being pushed south by fighting elsewhere.
