A/HRC/33/38
strikes. The staff and patients managed to escape the hospital before the second air strike
hit. According to Médecins sans frontières, the hospital was providing vital care to
approximately 200,000 people in the region and its location coordinates had been shared
with the parties to the conflict.
46.
On 11 November 2015, Thawra hospital, one of the main health-care facilities in
Taizz, was allegedly shelled by members of the Popular Committees (see figure IX),
resulting in the killing of a civilian and the injury of eight others, including a medic, and
also in structural damage. According to eyewitness accounts, three missiles were launched
from Al-Harer hill, which at time of the incident was under the control of the Popular
Committees.
Figure IX
Structural damage incurred by Thawra hospital in Taizz
47.
On 2 December 2015, a clinic run by Médecins sans frontiers in Houban, Taizz, was
hit by a coalition forces air strike, which killed one civilian and wounded nine others,
including two children and one woman. On 5 January, an air strike by the coalition forces
reportedly hit the Dar al-Noor children’s rehabilitation centre for the blind in Safia, a
neighbourhood in Sana’a city, injuring three civilians, including children. Attacks on
medical units may amount to war crimes and may constitute a violation of the right to
health.16
16
See rule 25, on medical personnel, and rule 28, on medical units, of customary international
humanitarian law described by ICRC, which provide a higher threshold of protection under
international humanitarian law.
15
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