By Al-Fassel | 2025-04-07

The Iran-backed Houthis have killed hundreds of Yemeni civilians, including dozens of children, in deliberate and accidental missile strikes, mortar attacks and home demolitions, since their September 2014 coup.

Meanwhile, the group has systematically blocked efforts to document the mounting civilian toll, per multiple human rights organizations and news reports.

The group controls the Sanaa-based Ministry of Telecommunication, and has cut internet and phone services where attacks occur, effectively blocking documentation, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported in February.

The Houthis have blown up 713 homes in total, according to American Center for Justice statistics cited in a March 2024 report by Geneva-based SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties.

Al-Bayda, Taez and al-Jawf provinces have borne the heaviest losses.

In March 2024, the Houthis leveled eight private homes with explosives, killing up to 20 civilians -- most of them women and children -- and injuring many more, per SAM and HRW.

"The lack of legal accountability has caused the Houthis to continue their policy of demolishing homes as a collective punishment of the population," said SAM president Tawfiq al-Hamidi.

This constitutes "a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law," he said, and also "violates the rights of individuals to safety, shelter and their rights to housing.”

On December 1, a Houthi drone hit a marketplace near Um al-Qura School in Taez's Maqbana district, killing six civilians and wounding eight, SAM reported.

Mortar fire tore through the same district December 23, killing 6-year-old Dheeb and 5-year-old Shaima.

The siblings died from shrapnel wounds en route to medical care, while their 9-year-old sister and 7-year-old cousin playing nearby survived their injuries.

Policy of impunity

Missiles fired by the Houthis have failed to hit their intended targets on a number of occasions, veering off course and putting civilian lives in danger.

In September, four ballistic missiles crashed into villages north of Sanaa. One struck a gas trailer, and an entire family perished in the inferno, Al-Wasl al-Yamani news website reported.

Between November 2023 and April 2024, eight missiles intended for ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden veered off course, with one carving a three-meter-deep crater in a vacant lot near Mocha.

The next misfire could devastate civilian gatherings, News Yemen warned.

"The Houthis have shown little limit to the harm they cause for Yemeni civilians," said Human Rights Watch researcher Niku Jafarnia.

"These attacks on civilians reflect a policy of impunity," SAM emphasized in December, calling for "serious steps to bring the perpetrators to justice."