Ain Center condemns Taiz market massacre, holds Saudi regime responsible

The Ain Al-Insaniyah Center for Rights and Development condemned in the strongest terms the horrific crime committed by the Saudi enemy by targeting commercial shops in the central Taiz market at Mafraq Mawiyah in Al-Ta’iziyah District in Taiz Governorate, which resulted, according to an initial toll, in the martyrdom of seven citizens and the injury of 40 others, including five children.

The center explained in a statement received by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that targeting a commercial market frequented by citizens and the fall of dozens of martyrs and wounded at a civilian site reveal a grave disregard for the lives of civilians and the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of military operations, and confirm that the Saudi escalation is no longer limited to alleged military targets, but has extended directly to markets, commercial facilities, the interests of citizens, and their sources of livelihood.

The statement pointed out that this crime acquires greater seriousness in light of the cumulative toll of victims of targeting markets since the beginning of the aggression on Yemen, which amounted, according to data documented by the center, to five thousand and 254 victims, including two thousand and 139 martyrs, among them 496 children, and three thousand and 115 wounded, among them 407 children.

It explained that these numbers reveal the scale of the heavy humanitarian cost paid by Yemeni civilians as a result of targeting populated areas and civilian objects, and confirm that markets, which are supposed to be places of life, work, and securing a living, have turned due to bombing into sites of falling victims and destroying families’ sources of livelihood.

It noted that killing civilians and injuring dozens inside a commercial market cannot be dealt with as merely a number in news bulletins; behind every martyr is a family that lost a loved one, behind every wounded person is a human being carrying the effects of this crime, and behind every destroyed shop is a family’s source of livelihood. As for the children who fell among the martyrs and wounded, targeting them represents a doubled humanitarian tragedy, and embodies the scale of the danger threatening civilians amid the continuation of the escalation.

The Ain Al-Insaniyah Center for Rights and Development held the Saudi regime fully responsible for this crime and for the totality of violations resulting from the ongoing escalation, calling on the United Nations and international and human rights organizations to document this crime and other crimes committed against Yemeni civilians, not to allow victims to be turned into forgotten numbers, and to work to ensure accountability for grave violations of international humanitarian law, including violations affecting markets and civilian objects.

The center affirmed that the continued targeting of markets, homes, and civilian facilities, and the fall of this growing number of women, children, and civilians, represents a dangerous escalation that requires a clear and firm international stance to protect civilians and stop attacks on civilian objects.

It explained that the blood of the martyrs will not be mere numbers, and that the wounded of these crimes will not be mere statistics, affirming that these violations will remain documented and witness to what Yemeni civilians have been subjected to from crimes during this escalation, and to the accumulated human losses left by the targeting of markets and civilian objects.