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Houthis Prepare for New Mass Executions in Sanaa

Defendants are lined up before their execution by a Houthi firing squad in a public square in Sanaa on September 18 (Reuters)
Defendants are lined up before their execution by a Houthi firing squad in a public square in Sanaa on September 18 (Reuters)
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Houthis Prepare for New Mass Executions in Sanaa

Defendants are lined up before their execution by a Houthi firing squad in a public square in Sanaa on September 18 (Reuters)
Defendants are lined up before their execution by a Houthi firing squad in a public square in Sanaa on September 18 (Reuters)

Parallel to a military escalation that Houthi militias are staging in Yemen's Shabwah governorate, human rights sources warn that the Iran-backed guerrillas are planning to stage mass executions in the capital, Sanaa.

According to human rights groups, Houthis will execute 11 civilians, including two women, whom they are accusing of espionage.

A few days ago, Houthis were internationally condemned for putting to death nine civilians, including a minor, in central Sanaa's Tahrir square.

The internationally recognized government also condemned the brutal killings and said they amounted to a war crime.

Yemeni human rights sources stated that the militias, through a court under their control, issued an order to execute 11 people on charges of espionage, and to confiscate their money to its treasury.

According to the sources, those threatened with execution are: Muhammad al-Maliki, Ali Muhammad al-Shahdhi, Hanan Mutahar Ahmad al-Shahdi, Altaf Yahya al-Matari, Najib Ali al-Baadani, Samir Mosad al-Ammari, Issam Muhammad al-Faqih, Abdullah Abdullah Muqraish, Nabil Hadi al-Ansi, Abdullah Ali al-Khayyat and Abdullah Muhammad Sawar.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Muammar al-Eryani revealed that Houthis had asked the families of the nine civilians executed on September 18 to leave their homes and assets and to pay.

More so, Houthis are demanding each family pay a court fee of 3 million Yemeni rials for the unfair trials it held for their now-deceased relatives.

In a post on Twitter, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Muammar al-Eryani said the executions had been carried out in "cold blood".

The Houthis handed over the bodies to the victims' families "with the stipulation that they be buried silently and not [prayed for] in mosques," nor could the families attend their funerals or receive condolences for them, he said.

Eryani considered "the punitive practices pursued by the terrorist Houthi militia against the families of the victims a blatant challenge to the international community, which has condemned and continues to condemn this heinous crime, and a flagrant violation of international laws and covenants, foremost of which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

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EU Ministers Discuss Deal with Israel to Increase Gaza Aid

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
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EU Ministers Discuss Deal with Israel to Increase Gaza Aid

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

The European Union is seeking updates from Israel on implementation of a new deal to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to Kaja Kallas, the bloc's foreign policy chief.

Foreign ministers from the EU's 27-member nations are meeting Tuesday in Brussels in the wake of a new aid deal for Gaza largely forged by Kallas and Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, The AP news reported.

Saar met with EU leaders on Monday after agreeing last week allow desperately needed food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people who have endured more than 21 months of war.

“We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it’s not about the paper, but actually implementation of the paper," Kallas said before the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.

“As long as it hasn’t really improved, then we haven’t all done enough,” she said, before calling for a ceasefire.

Details of the deal remain unclear, but EU officials have rejected any cooperation with the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund over ethical and safety concerns. Opening more border crossings and allowing more aid trucks into Gaza is the priority, but officials say eventually they’d like to set up a monitoring station at Kerem Shalom crossing.

Kallas said the ministers will also discuss Iran’s nuclear program, concerns over developments in Georgia and Moldova, and new sanctions on Russia. The EU is readying its 18th package of sanctions on Russia, with holdouts within the bloc arguing over the keystone policy of capping oil prices to cut into Moscow’s energy revenues.

European nations like Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain have increasingly called for the EU's ties with Israel to be reassessed in the wake of the war in Gaza.

A report by the European Commission found “ indications ” that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in the agreement governing its ties with the EU — but the block is divided over what to do in response.

That public pressure over Israel's conduct in Gaza made the new humanitarian deal possible even before a ceasefire, said Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch foreign minister. “That force of the 27 EU member states is what I want to maintain now," he said.

“The humanitarian deal announced last week shows that the Association Agreement review and use of EU leverage has worked," said one European diplomat.

Spain's Foreign Minister José Manual Albares Bueno said details of the deal were still being discussed and that the EU would monitor results to see if Israel is complying with those.

“We don’t know whether it we will know how it works,” he said. “It's very clear that this agreement is not the end — we have to stop the war."

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023 on October 7. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

The EU has observed some aid trucks entering Gaza, but “not enough,” said Hajda Lahbib, the EU Commissioner for humanitarian air and crisis management.

“The situation is still so dangerous, so violent, with strikes still continuing on the ground, that our humanitarian partners cannot operate. So, this is the reality we need to have a ceasefire," she said.