In an escalation that reflects the expansion of the Houthi targeting of civilians and vital facilities in southwestern Yemen, the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms documented 164 crimes and violations committed by the group within 48 hours in the governorates of Taiz and Lahj, which included the launching of about 450 projectiles at populated areas, killing 28 civilians and wounding 57 others, coinciding with the targeting of a health center in Lahj and a popular market in Taiz, in a development that called for condemnations. Governmental, legal and European.
This Houthi escalation comes at a time when humanitarian pressures on the population are increasing, especially in Taiz Governorate, which faces an ongoing siege and restrictions on the arrival of supplies and aid, while military confrontations are expanding along the fronts in the south and west of the governorate, and civilian and medical facilities are turning into targets for attacks.
The network said, in a report issued on Tuesday, that the death toll reached about 28 civilians, including 5 children and 3 women, while 57 others were injured, including 14 children and 6 women, in addition to 10 health sector workers among the injured.
According to the report, Houthi violations included killing and injury from shelling and sniping, committing two massacres against civilians, kidnapping and detention, targeting residential neighborhoods, public roads, ambulance crews and private vehicles, in addition to attracting marginalized youth and subjecting them to recruitment programs.
Bombing a health center
The most prominent incidents documented by the human rights network were the Houthis targeting Al-Saqya Health Center in the Al-Mudaraba District of Lahj Governorate, on Monday, with a ballistic missile, in an attack that killed and wounded medical workers, and sparked a wave of official condemnations as a direct attack on a facility providing humanitarian services to civilians.
The Ministry of Public Health and Population announced that the attack resulted, in a preliminary toll, in the killing of 5 people, including 3 members of the medical team working at the center, and the injury of 15 others, including 7 health workers.
The Ministry said that targeting the center represents a flagrant violation of humanitarian and international laws and norms that guarantee the protection of medical facilities, their workers, patients and those who visit them, warning of the serious repercussions of such attacks on the already limited ability of health facilities to continue providing their services.
It called on the United Nations, the international community and humanitarian organizations, most notably the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to condemn the attack, investigate it, hold those responsible accountable, and work to provide the necessary protection for health facilities and medical and ambulance teams.
In Taiz, the network documented the targeting of a popular market on Monday, as part of the two massacres that it said occurred in the two governorates. It also indicated that 51 homes and health facilities were damaged, including 10 homes that were completely destroyed, in addition to 12 private vehicles being damaged.
According to the report, the damage extended to Al-Misrakh District and the villages of Dibba and Adud in Sabr Al-Mawadim District, while the group carried out kidnapping campaigns in the areas of Al-Hawban, Al-Turbah, and the Western Coast, which resulted in the detention of 16 citizens and their transfer to unknown destinations.
Government move
For his part, Yemeni Prime Minister Shaye' Al-Zindani described the targeting of Al-Saqya Center as a "full-fledged terrorist crime" and a violation of international humanitarian law, considering that the attack reveals a pattern of targeting civilian and medical facilities and assaulting citizens' right to life and treatment.
Al-Zindani said, during a call with the Governor of Lahj, Murad Al-Halmi, that targeting a health facility that plays a humanitarian role in saving lives represents a crime against the entire community, warning that treating these attacks as passing events encourages their perpetrators to persist and undermines the rules for protecting civilians.
The Yemeni Prime Minister linked the attack on the health center to the ongoing violations in Taiz, including the targeting of medical facilities and the siege and continuous bombing of residential neighborhoods, stressing that the recurrence of attacks in Lahj, Taiz and other governorates calls for a firm national and international stance.
He directed the local authorities, health and security authorities in Lahj to intensify medical care for the injured, follow up on the needs of the families of the dead, document the crime and collect the necessary evidence to prosecute those responsible.
European condemnation
In light of the escalating Houthi attacks, the European Union issued a strongly worded position on the military and humanitarian developments in Yemen, calling on the Houthis to immediately stop all their military operations and open an urgent humanitarian corridor in the city of Taiz, to ensure that aid reaches the besieged civilians.
In a statement issued by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaya Kallas, on behalf of member states, the Union expressed its condemnation of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, especially those targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, stressing its solidarity with the Kingdom, the Yemeni government and the peoples of the two countries.
He announced his intention to increase his assistance to the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government, including supporting reforms, strengthening governance, and confronting the economic, humanitarian and human rights deterioration, revealing the allocation of an additional 25 million euros for emergency humanitarian aid, bringing the total European humanitarian support to Yemen during the year 2026, to 110 million euros.
The statement warned that the military escalation, along with the shortage and high cost of basic goods, food insecurity, and limited access to health care and potable water, exacerbates the humanitarian crisis, noting that more than 22 million people in Yemen need aid.
The Houthis also called for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained humanitarian workers, including 70 UN staff in Sanaa, ensuring the safety of humanitarian workers, and opening roads for relief to reach those in need without obstacles.
On the political side, he called on Iran to stop providing any military support to the Houthis, considering that a military solution will not end the conflict, and reiterated his support for the efforts of the UN envoy to reach a comprehensive and sustainable political settlement with Yemeni leadership and ownership, in accordance with Security Council resolutions, most notably Resolution 2216.
At a time when the Yemeni armed forces are making progress on various fronts, the latest of which is the Al-Jawf front, the Presidential Command Council and the government are intensifying their political and administrative movements in support of the “Yemen Dawn” operation, by appointing two governors for Al-Jawf and Al-Bayda, and carrying out a limited ministerial reshuffle.
A military expert believes that these decisions go beyond changing office holders; It prepares a local leadership capable of supporting the battle and mobilizing popular support in two important governorates towards Sana’a.
The Presidential Command Council renewed the move forward with Operation “Yemen Dawn” until it achieves all its goals of ending the coup, restoring institutions, and extending state authority over its entire territory, according to the official news agency (Saba).
In this context, a decision was issued to appoint Major General Hussein Al-Aji Al-Awadi as Governor of Al-Bayda, while Major General Amin Ali Al-Okaimi was appointed Governor of Al-Jawf and commander of its military axis.
In parallel with the local changes, the Presidential Leadership Council carried out a limited ministerial reshuffle, which included the appointment of Salem Thabet Al-Awlaki as Minister of Information, Judge Akram Nasib Al-Amiri as Minister of Civil Service and Insurance, and Ahmed Saleh Al-Awlaki as Minister of Local Administration.
Brigadier General Yasser Saleh, a military and strategic expert, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the two appointments represent “a military necessity in the first place, and a tribal necessity in the second place,” given the importance of the two governorates in the course of operations towards the capital, Sana’a.
He added that Al-Okaimi and Al-Awadi enjoy - according to his estimation - wide respect and tribal weight in their governorates, considering that the selection of the two leaders reflects a reading of the mood of the population, which may help strengthen the popular incubator for the military operation.
He said that this incubator is “a fundamental pillar of military decision-making that takes into account the population,” and that its absorption may facilitate mobilizing support for the operation.
Saleh pointed to the strategic importance of Al-Bayda Governorate, and what he described as the presence of a population incubator that rejects the Houthi project, considering that the timing of appointing a governor for it enhances preparation for the next stage.
Al-Bayda Governorate stands out as one of the most important geographical nodes in the conflict, and a point where the movement of battle lines may have an impact that extends beyond its borders to 8 Yemeni governorates.
A strategic study prepared by the “Advant Center for Research and Study of Transformations” indicated that the importance of Al-Bayda does not stem from its exceptional economic or demographic weight, but rather from its location, which makes it an “operational and social node” between the regions of northern, eastern and southern Yemen.
Brigadier General Saleh believed that the impact of these decisions will appear in their ability to support the forces on the ground, and create the conditions for launching a broader operation in Al-Bayda, in addition to supporting the ongoing battles in Al-Jawf.
The Presidential Command Council renewed its call on residents of areas under the control of the Houthis not to throw their children into fighting, to refuse to cooperate with the group’s military and security activities, and not to respond to mobilization campaigns, stressing that “the door to safe return is open” to those who abandon their weapons and stop fighting, in accordance with the announced procedures.
The Houthi group has expanded the scope of its recruitment campaigns to compensate for its increasing human losses on the battle fronts, this time targeting members of the security services, prisoners and detainees in the kidnapped Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and other governorates, in an indication of the expanding crisis of fighters within its ranks and the faltering of its attempts to attract new elements from society.
In the most recent of these movements, the group pushed hundreds of officers and individuals from the traffic police and road security in Sanaa and Dhamar and Ibb governorates to the fighting fronts in Taiz, Lahj, and the western coast, after withdrawing them from their work sites, assembling them in the capital, and distributing weapons to them, in preparation for transferring them in batches to the front lines.
In a parallel path, the group tried to attract hundreds of prisoners and detainees in the Central Correctional Facility in Sana'a, by exchanging their release for joining its ranks and fighting on the Taiz, Al-Jawf, and Western Coast fronts, but it only obtained, according to local and human rights sources, the approval of about 42 prisoners out of the total targeted, with the vast majority rejecting the offers and the pressures accompanying them.
Local sources reported to Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthi security leaders supervised recruitment operations among members of the General Traffic Department in Sanaa and its offices in the Dhamar and Ibb governorates, led by the leader Bakil Al-Barashi, who is impersonating the Director-General of the Traffic Police, and Najib Al-Asadi, appointed as the General Director of Traffic in the kidnapped capital.
An attempt to fill the gap
In light of this polarization, informed sources in Sanaa said that the Houthi group withdrew hundreds of members from their work sites in the streets and roads, before assembling them in one of Sanaa’s squares and distributing weapons to them, in preparation for transferring them to the fronts of Taiz, Lahj, and the western coast, in an attempt to fill the growing shortage in the ranks of its fighters as a result of successive human losses.
These movements are not limited to the traffic police and road security, as the group had previously sent, over the past weeks, batches of members of the so-called “traffic control units,” a new security faction run by the leader Abdul Karim al-Houthi, appointed Minister of the Interior in the unrecognized government, to the fronts of Al-Dhalea, Ma’rib, Taiz, Al-Jawf, and the Western Coast.
According to the sources, the group had used these units to suppress and intimidate citizens and blackmail vehicle drivers and passers-by, before transferring its members from the streets to confrontation sites, in a move that reflects the widening circle of attrition, to include security sectors that were performing roles linked to tightening their grip on the areas under their control.
These developments coincide with the continuing human losses incurred by the group on the fighting fronts, especially in the governorates of Taiz and Lahj, where a source close to the Houthi ruling circle in Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the militias are facing unprecedented human exhaustion on various fronts, and that the extent of their losses in recent months has exceeded their ability to compensate fighters, despite ongoing recruitment and mobilization campaigns.
The sources added that the group began arranging to enroll those who agreed to intensive and rapid military courses, in preparation for their transfer in batches to the Taiz, Al-Jawf and Western Coast fronts, without taking into account their conditions or the extent of their eligibility to participate in the fighting.
In an attempt to expand the response circle, Houthi elements exerted pressure on those who refused, including threatening penalties, ill-treatment, and denial of visits, in addition to exploiting the living conditions of their families by providing limited financial aid in exchange for their acceptance to join the fronts, according to human rights activists in Sanaa.
Forced recruitment
Human rights activists considered these practices a form of forced recruitment, stressing that using detention and deprivation of basic rights as a means to force prisoners to fight represents a serious violation of legal and humanitarian rules.
A former prisoner in the Central Correctional Facility in Sanaa said that the detainees do not face real offers for their release, as much as they are exposed to a process of blackmail that has previously affected other prisoners during the past months.
He added, "The Houthi militias want them to go to the fronts in exchange for their release, and whoever refuses faces further restrictions and penalties," noting that those detained in connection with various cases do not want their judicial files to turn into a means to force them to fight.
For his part, a relative of a detainee in the same prison expressed his fear that the release of prisoners would turn into a gateway to throwing them into battles instead of returning them to their families. He said that families had become afraid of their children leaving prison to the front lines instead of returning to their homes.
A human rights activist from Sanaa considered that what is happening represents a dangerous form of forced recruitment, explaining that “these are not voluntary consents, but rather decisions extracted under duress and psychological and humanitarian pressure,” and that exchanging freedom for fighting turns prisons into tools for providing fighters and deprives detainees of their most basic legal and human rights.
