Entisaf Organization: Blood of women, children reveals gravity of Saudi targeting of Civilians
The Entisaf Organization for Women and Child Rights condemned the Saudi enemy’s targeting of Al-Zahra Girls’ School and a health center in the Al-Qahaf sub-district of Jabal Habashi District, Taiz Governorate. The organization emphasized that the blood of women and children exposes the severity of Saudi Arabia’s targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
In a statement received by the Yemen News Agency (Saba), the organization described the targeting of the school and health center as a grave incident. Such aggression against educational and health institutions poses a direct threat to the lives of female students, patients, and staff, while undermining children’s right to safe education.
The statement noted that Saudi enemy raids resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to fifteen others. Attacks also struck schools, villages, and roads in various areas, as well as civilian homes in the Al-Haramiya and Milat Al-Dabab areas of Jabal Habashi District. These attacks injured two women one struck by a shell fired from a drone, and the other suffering wounds and fractures when her home was targeted in addition to the loss of livestock and damage to citizens’ property.
The statement further reported the deaths of nine members of the family of citizen Mubarak Dayel in Khabb wa ash-Sha’af District, Al-Jawf Governorate most of whom were women and children as well as the death of a boy and injuries to a man and a woman caused by Saudi forces’ fire in the Qahr Bani Al-Harith area of the border district of Baqim, Saada Governorate. The statement emphasized that the targeting of schools, health facilities, homes, roads, and residential neighborhoods necessitates a serious verification of compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the principles of distinction and proportionality.
It further affirmed that educational and medical institutions, as well as civilian objects, enjoy the protection mandated by international law. It noted that the cumulative toll of human casualties, along with material, psychological, and health-related damage sustained over years of aggression and blockade, calls for serious action to protect civilians, provide medical and psychological care to the wounded and affected, ensure a safe environment for women and children, and uphold their rights to education, healthcare, and a dignified life.
The statement warned that the continuation of the Saudi aggression absent effective investigations and serious accountability would exacerbate the suffering of Yemeni families, increase the risk of recurring violations, and leave long-lasting psychological and social impacts on women and children, who bear a significant share of the aggression’s consequences.
It demanded that the Saudi aggressor be held accountable for violations and crimes committed over the past 12 years, ensuring there is no impunity, and called for reparation for the material and moral damages suffered by victims and their families.
Finally, the statement called for urgent and effective measures to ensure the protection of civilians particularly women, children, students, and the sick and to respect the protections afforded to schools, health facilities, homes, and other civilian objects under international humanitarian law, while working to create a safe environment that prevents civilian lives and property from being placed at risk. He also called upon the United Nations, the international community, and human rights and humanitarian organizations concerned with children’s issues to take urgent action, fulfill their legal and humanitarian responsibilities, and implement practical measures to halt the escalation, aggression, and blockade against the Yemeni people. He urged them to press for effective protection for civilians, rather than merely issuing statements of condemnation that do not translate into tangible steps on the ground.