Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms Documents 133 Houthi Crimes and Violations in Taiz Governorate over the Past 73 Hours, Including the Firing of Approximately 216 Projectiles at Residential Areas
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms has released its periodic report, stating that its field team documented 133 crimes and violations against civilians and civilian objects committed by the terrorist Houthi militias in Taiz Governorate over the past 73 hours. The team also recorded the firing of approximately 216 projectiles at residential neighborhoods and populated areas, amid an escalation accompanied by the continuing siege and tighter restrictions on civilian movement and access to essential supplies.
In its report issued today, Monday, November 9, 2026, the Network stated that ongoing Houthi attacks killed 33 civilians, including ambulance driver Abdulraqeeb Abdu Ahmed Al-Jaradi, who was killed when the terrorist Houthi militia targeted an ambulance in Sabir Al-Mawadim. The Network described the attack as an appalling crime reflecting the brutality of Houthi violence. Its field team also documented injuries to 58 civilians, including two children and three women, who sustained various wounds as a result of indiscriminate shelling of populated neighborhoods and direct sniper attacks across Taiz Governorate.
The Houthi militias also perpetrated a horrific massacre at Al-Hadharah popular market in Al-Wazi’iyah District, western Taiz Governorate, on Friday, November 6, 2026. The attack killed approximately 30 civilians, including women and children, injured 45 others, and damaged approximately 13 homes.
According to the report, indiscriminate Houthi shelling damaged 19 homes and civilian facilities, as well as four privately owned vehicles. The militias also carried out a widespread abduction campaign in Al-Misrakh District and the Al-Hujariyah area. Six civilians, including elderly people, were abducted and taken to unknown locations.
The report stated that Houthi militias raided 12 private homes in Souq Al-Rubou in Al-Maqatirah District, looted their contents, destroyed belongings, and terrorized women and children because some members of those families serve in the National Army and the Popular Resistance.
The militias also targeted an ambulance transporting a wounded person from Al-Aqroodh in rural Taiz, killing the patient and his father and injuring a paramedic. This was the third attack on ambulances in the area.
According to the Network’s field team, Houthi militias have converted several health centers in districts under their control into storage facilities for weapons, ammunition, and drones, as well as command-and-control operations rooms. The report stated that this was intended to exploit the facilities’ civilian character to shield them from airstrikes by the Yemeni Armed Forces. The militias also forcibly recruited medical personnel and used ambulances to transport weapons and supply their fighters on various fronts, in clear violation of international laws and treaties.
The Network stressed that using health centers and ambulances for military purposes undermines their humanitarian function, deprives thousands of residents of medical care, and endangers patients and healthcare workers at a time when continuing attacks are increasing the need for medical and emergency services.
The report documented sustained shelling and sniper attacks against neighborhoods and villages across Taiz Governorate, including Al-Najadah village in Sabir Al-Mawadim District, the Old Airport area, Wadi Al-Bir in Sabir Al-Mawadim, Al-Arous, Qahmah village in Mishra’ah subdistrict of Mishra’ah Wa Hadnan District, and Qahfat Al-Sarm village in Al-Aqroodh, southeast of Taiz. In Qahmah village, six-year-old Hilal Abdulmajeed Qasim Abdullah Mohammed was injured above his left eyebrow by a fragment from a ricocheting sniper bullet fired by a terrorist Houthi militia sniper.
The Network stated that the continuing escalation since early September in Taiz and neighboring areas—including attacks on neighborhoods, villages, and markets, the tightening of the siege, and the cutting of supply routes—is exacerbating displacement, depriving residents of basic necessities, and exhausting the ability of families and healthcare facilities to cope with the crisis.
It explained that shortages of fuel, cooking gas, food, and medicine threaten the continuity of essential services and hospital operations. Hospitals continue to receive wounded people and patients with limited resources, while ambulance crews face growing obstacles in reaching victims and transporting them for treatment. These conditions have a particularly severe impact on people with cancer and kidney failure, whose lives depend on regular treatment, access to medication, and dialysis sessions, as well as children, women, and older people.
The Network highlighted deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the villages of Al-Aqroodh, Kahlan, and Al-Najadah, where besieged families face acute food shortages and fears of supplies running out, alongside a lack of cooking fuel, including gas and firewood, and the absence of humanitarian assistance. Most solar panels in the affected villages have also been damaged by bullets and shrapnel, leaving residents in darkness at night amid continuing shelling and compounding the suffering of children, older people, and those with chronic and serious illnesses.
The Network affirmed that targeting civilians, civilian objects, and medical facilities, as well as conducting indiscriminate attacks, is prohibited under international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes. It stressed that abduction, detention and any accompanying enforced disappearance, and the recruitment of children constitute grave violations requiring investigation and accountability. Some documented acts may amount to crimes against humanity if established as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population and if all other legal elements are met.
The Network held the Houthi militias responsible for the documented attacks and their humanitarian consequences. It called for independent investigations encompassing those who planned, ordered, and carried out the attacks, and all others whose responsibility is established, including under command responsibility where its requirements are met. It emphasized that continued impunity enables the recurrence of crimes and deepens victims’ suffering.
The Network called on the United Nations, the international community, and bodies concerned with civilian protection to unequivocally condemn the documented attacks, including those against Al-Suqya Health Center and the popular market. It urged effective pressure to halt attacks on civilians, populated neighborhoods, medical facilities, and ambulance crews; end the use of healthcare facilities and medical transport for military purposes; and support documentation, investigation, and accountability efforts.
It also issued an urgent appeal for practical measures to protect residents of Taiz and affected areas in Lahj, lift the siege and restrictions obstructing civilian movement and access to food, medicine, and fuel, facilitate humanitarian access and the evacuation of wounded people and patients, disclose the whereabouts of abductees, ensure their safety, and release those arbitrarily detained.
The Network warned that continued shelling, sniper attacks, abductions, and expanding attacks on healthcare facilities and civilian gatherings threaten to cause further casualties, displacement, and deprivation. It stressed that protecting civilians requires urgent, tangible measures to stop the attacks and ensure accountability for those responsible, and that expressions of concern alone leave besieged families exposed to further killing and terror.
Issued by the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms
Monday, November 9, 2026