‘Unidentified Corpses’ Raise Doubts about Houthi Killing of Detainees

Houthis bury unidentified bodies in mass graves (Houthi media)
Houthis bury unidentified bodies in mass graves (Houthi media)
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‘Unidentified Corpses’ Raise Doubts about Houthi Killing of Detainees

Houthis bury unidentified bodies in mass graves (Houthi media)
Houthis bury unidentified bodies in mass graves (Houthi media)

Houthi militias in Yemen announced a few days ago that dozens of bodies were buried in mass graves in Sanaa. The Iran-backed group claimed that those laid to rest were “unidentified.”

Houthis currently face grave accusations of torturing detainees to death, hiding their bodies for some time and then burying them in mass graves across different Houthi-run governorates.

Public Prosecution in Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis, has launched alongside the International Committee of the Red Cross the first phase of burying 28 unidentified corpses, reported the Houthi version of the official Saba news agency.

While Houthi media did not disclose any other details related to the identity of these bodies, a source close to the group’s ruling department in Sanaa revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that there are three women among the 28 getting buried.

According to the source, who requested anonymity, the unidentified bodies were placed in airtight bags so that none of the parties involved in the burial would recognize them.

Reports prepared by the internationally-recognized government reveal that more than 300 abductees who were forcibly kidnapped by the militias had died under torture.

Activists and local human rights organizations had previously accused the militias of digging mass graves for dozens of civilians who died under torture in their detention centers.

Houthis, however, claim that those buried were unidentified individuals found in hospital mortuaries in several cities under their control.

In 2020, the Iran-backed militia buried 232 bodies out of a total of 715 in graves across Sanaa, Hodeidah, and Dhamar. Houthis also claimed that the corpses were unidentified. The burials took place over three phases.

Irada Organization for Combating Torture and Enforced Disappearance, a human rights NGO, had accused Houthis of torturing detainees to death and hiding their bodies.

In a statement, the organization called for an international investigation into the Houthis’ burial of hundreds of unidentified bodies, blaming the militias for the lives of all those killed.



Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
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Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza's civil defense agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.

The army said in a statement that it struck the militants "inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity", and separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA building housing a medical clinic".

The army said that "the compound was used by Hamas's Jabalia Battalion to plan terror attacks", and accused Hamas of "exploiting the civilian population as a human shield".

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the "massacre at the UNRWA clinic in Jabalia", calling for "serious international pressure" to halt Israel's widening offensive.

The Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hamas ally, called the bombing a "blatant war crime".

Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after UNRWA said six of its staff were among the 18 people reported killed.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.

Israel resumed major airstrikes on the Palestinian territory on March 18, after talks on next steps in a six-week truce broke down.

It also conducted airstrikes on southern and central Gaza on Wednesday that the civil defense agency said killed at least 15 people, including children, in the city of Khan Yunis and Nuseirat refugee camp.

Since then, at least 1,042 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures last updated by Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday.

In total, 50,399 people have been killed since the start of the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack, according to the ministry's figures, which the United Nations views as reliable.