Houthi Targeting of Civilians in Taiz Constitutes a Systematic Assault on Civilian Objects

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) condemns the recent military escalation by the Houthi militia against villages and residential neighborhoods across Taiz Governorate, which has resulted in civilian casualties, including children and women, in recent days.

Field documentation indicates that the Houthi militia has committed a series of grave and interconnected violations. These include the shelling of a civilian home in Al-Sarm village, Al-Misrakh District, which killed five members of the same family, as well as artillery attacks on areas in Wadi Al-Dhabab and Jabal Habashi that resulted in the deaths of children, including an infant. Sources have also documented the killing of a civilian inside his home in the southern part of the governorate after he refused to surrender his house for conversion into a military sniper position.

These practices reflect a deliberate pattern by the Houthi militia of treating civilian objects as expendable and exploiting residential areas for military purposes. Forcing civilians at gunpoint to abandon their homes so that those homes can be booby-trapped or militarized, together with incursions into villages in Al-Shamayatayn and Jabal Habashi where no military presence has been documented, points to a clear strategy of collective punishment aimed at triggering waves of forced displacement and emptying these areas of their original inhabitants.

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) emphasizes that such conduct by the Houthi militia constitutes a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the principle of distinction between civilians and combatants, and amounts to war crimes warranting international criminal accountability.

The ACJ calls upon the human rights community and relevant United Nations mechanisms to adopt firm positions that go beyond condemnation and to take effective measures to activate protection mechanisms for civilians in Taiz. It further calls for ensuring that those responsible for these violations, including Houthi leaders, are held accountable and that no perpetrator is permitted to evade justice.

Issued by
American Center for Justice (ACJ)
6 October 2026