Houthis Kidnap, Forcibly Recruit Yemeni Minors

A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)
A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)
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Houthis Kidnap, Forcibly Recruit Yemeni Minors

A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)
A Yemeni boy poses with a Kalashnikov at a Houthi rally in Sanaa in July 2017. (AFP)

R. M. A., a 13-year-old Yemeni boy, was not aware that his Houthi-run neighborhood was no longer a safe place for a minor his age. On September 1, Houthi militiamen specialized in kidnapping and recruiting children had nabbed him off the streets of Yirim city, north of Ibb governorate.

According to family members of the minor who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat under the conditions of anonymity, R.M.A had left his house in Yirim seeking public transportation to reach his father’s village but was abducted by gunmen before he even made it to his ride.

The Houthi gunmen had blindfolded the boy and threatened to kill him if he yells or screams at military and police checkpoints. He then was thrown onto a bus heading towards Sanaa.

A few kilometers into his journey, the kidnapped boy mustered the courage to yell for help when he felt the bus stop at a checkpoint where police under Houthi control where at the checkpoint. They answered the boy’s call for help and released him after hearing his story.

The culprits, however, were also freed after having successfully identified themselves as Houthi militants.

Two other accounts of child abductions were simultaneously recorded in Sanaa.

The incidents invoked the horrid memories of repeated waves of child kidnap that swept Yemeni cities and villages over the last years.

Human rights activists accuse Houthis of abducting children and driving them to secret hideouts where the minors are indoctrinated and trained to use weapons, before they are ultimately used as cannon fodder.

An anti-Houthi security officer based in Sanaa, speaking under the conditions of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran-backed Houthis have established a specialized taskforce focused on hunting down eligible minors for recruitment purposes.

The officer revealed that each militant receives a $500 payment in cash for every teenager they bring in to Houthi boot camps.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms published a report covering the period from January 1, 2015 to August 30, 2019, in which it documented over 65,000 accounts of violation of children’s rights across 17 Yemeni governorates.



94 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Including 45 People Waiting for Aid

A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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94 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Including 45 People Waiting for Aid

A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza overnight, including 45 while attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Israel’s military did not have immediate comment on the strikes, The Associated Press reported.

Five people were killed while outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population, while 40 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes that pounded the Strip Wednesday night and Thursday morning, including 15 people killed in strikes that hit tents in the sprawling Muwasi zone, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and a strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has passed 57,000, including 223 missing people who have been declared dead. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death count but says that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The deaths come as Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible ceasefire that would end the 21-month war.

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. But Hamas’ response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.

The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because it operates from populated areas. The military said it targeted Hamas members and rocket launchers in northern Gaza that launched rockets towards Israel on Wednesday.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of people hungry.