HR commission condemns Saudi aggression crime in Al-Ma’afir

The National Commission for Human Rights has condemned, in the strongest possible terms, the heinous massacre committed on Monday by Saudi aggressor aircraft.

The attack involved the direct and deliberate targeting of an inhabited civilian home in the Al-Ma’afir District of Taiz Governorate, resulting in the deaths of three women and an elderly man, and injuring three other citizens—mostly women and children.

In a statement, the Commission noted that this massacre occurred just 24 hours after another massacre committed by Saudi aggressor aircraft, which targeted Taiz’s central market—crowded with civilians—leaving seven dead and 43 civilians wounded.

The statement described the targeting of a civilian home and a public market as a flagrant and deliberate violation of the rules of international humanitarian law.

The intentional killing of civilians constitutes a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population is a war crime under Article 8(b)(1); and intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects—such as a home and a market—violates the protection afforded to such objects under Article 52 of Additional Protocol I to the four Geneva Conventions. It asserted that the killing of women and an elderly man in his home constitutes organized state terrorism and a deliberate, serial criminal pattern of targeting civilians in Taiz. It held the Saudi aggressor fully and directly criminally liable for these two massacres, as well as for the resulting deaths, injuries, and destruction of property and civilian infrastructure.

The statement explained that the dual targeting—first a market, then a home—within a 24-hour period confirms the existence of premeditated criminal intent and a policy of systematic collective punishment against the people of Taiz. It called upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations to issue an explicit, immediate condemnation and to break the shameful wall of silence.

The Human Rights Authority called for the leaders of the aggression to be referred to the International Criminal Court, affirming that the blood of the three female martyrs and the elderly man in Al-Ma’afir, as well as that of the martyrs from the Taiz Central Market, will not be subject to a statute of limitations, and that the perpetrators will be pursued in all international forums.