Saudi Arabia leads international efforts to save children in Yemen

March 6, 2017

Aden, Mar 6: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) has provided treatment for more than 250,000 children suffering from malnutrition in Yemen, amid reports of ongoing Houthi violations in the war-torn country.

The center also provided 12 million vaccines for Yemeni children against measles, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The news follows a UN report in February that detailed Houthi militias’ violations ranging from corruption and torture to breaches of international humanitarian law. In 2015, the UN verified 59 attacks against 34 hospitals in Yemen.

The health situation in Yemen, particularly that involving children, has seen a “deterioration” since the coup by Houthi militias and those loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, SPA reported.

This has led to a “considerable drop in the country’s general services, particularly in the health field,” SPA said, citing official reports.

Houthi and Saleh-aligned militias “dared to prevent the delivery of medical aid and destroyed a number of medical facilities and institutions,” it added. The Riyadh-based KSrelief has sent more than 58 trucks carrying more than 600 tons of medical and therapeutic supplies to all Yemeni provinces, starting with Aden and Marib, SPA reported.

In partnership with the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), KSrelief opened many centers as part of the therapeutic nutrition program, as well as providing medical treatment and following up cases of acute malnutrition. KSrelief has “deployed new mobile teams all over Yemen and provided treatment for 258,067 children suffering from acute malnutrition,” SPA reported.

The center has provided support for immunization, reproductive health services, antenatal care and postnatal care, in addition to doing scans of 1,221,811 children in order to ascertain the extent of their health complaints.

KSrelief also provided anti-measles vaccines for 261,000 Yemeni children, services for pregnant women and post-delivery care for 222,659 women.

KSrelief, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), also helped provide basic services such as diabetes and cancer medicines, and support the operation of emergency rooms through the provision of 1,300,000 liters of fuel for 88 hospitals and 19 health facilities in Yemen, SPA said.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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