WEAPONS supplied by the United Kingdom and the United States to the Saudi-led coalition in war-torn Yemen killed at least 839 civilians and wounded 1,775 others in just over a year, a new report said on Wednesday.
The report by the Oxfam charity revealed that the Saudi-led coalition used weapons supplied solely by the UK and the US in hundreds of attacks targeting civilians in the Arab country between January 2021 and the end of February 2022.
The 43-page report authored by Martin Butcher, Oxfam’s policy advisor on arms and conflict, stated that an analysis of attacks showed the Saudi-led forces used Western-supplied weapons in hundreds of ‘relentless’ attacks against civilian targets in Yemen during this 14-month period.
Of all the attacks by the Saudi-led coalition during the 14-month period, airstrikes alone killed at least 87 civilians and wounded 136, according to the report.
The coalition attacks, 19 of which targeted medical institutions and ambulances, during this period included airstrikes by jet fighters as well as artillery, missile and drone attacks, in addition to casualties from land mines, road bombs and light arms.
‘It’s just so relentless,’ Butcher said. ‘People just find it so hard to escape the violence and the killing.’
The report also found that in the attacks the coalition used western-made cluster munitions, ‘weapons banned by international convention and customary law’.
Butcher called on Western governments, namely the US and the UK, to ‘immediately cease arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen’, and to promote a permanent cease-fire and negotiations for a long-term settlement through its position as a member of the UN Security Council.
‘They’ve (the governments) really been not only arming Saudi Arabia but are also very reluctant to use their position in the Security Council to push for peace,’ he said.
The US and Britain are the main suppliers of weapons to Saudi Arabia, selling tens of billions of dollars of arms to the leaders in Riyadh.
The US State Department has approved its first major arms sale to Saudi Arabia under US President Joe Biden with the sale of 280 air-to-air missiles valued at as much as 650 million dollars.
The oil-rich Western ally has historically played an outsized role in foreign military sales for the US and Britain.
For decades, Saudi leaders have been the lead importers of US-made and UK-manufactured weapons.
Riyadh purchased a huge chunk of all the weapons sold by the two countries between 2017 and 2021, according to peace groups monitoring international arms deals.
Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states, launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015.
The objective was to crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen, and reinstall the Riyadh-friendly unpopular regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to achieve any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Last week, a Yemeni rights group reported that more than 3,000 civilians, including women and children, have been killed or injured in the airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen in the year 2022.
The ‘Eye Humanity Centre for Rights and Development’ said the total number of casualties was 3,083 during last year’s war on Yemen, which included the death of 643 citizens and the wounding of 2,440 others.
- Political divisions and infighting appear to be deepening between new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet and the opposition, with Israeli media reporting exchanges of accusations and calls by incumbent officials for arrests of opposition leaders.
According to the Mafzak Live website, Knesset member Zvika Fogel called on Tuesday for the arrest of former Israeli minister of military affairs Benny Gantz and former prime minister Yair Lapid on ‘charges of treason’.
Gantz and Lapid had criticised the new cabinet’s policies, saying that Netanyahu would be responsible for the breakout of an internal war.
The Israeli media source said that disputes among political rivals in the Israeli regime especially escalated after thousands took to streets in Tel Aviv in the occupied territories on Saturday against Netanyahu’s extremist cabinet.
Meanwhile, Almog Cohen, another Knesset member, told Israeli channel 13 in an interview that ‘if Lapid and Gantz do not stop dividing, inciting, and calling for bloodshed on the streets, they will be arrested.’
In response to the statement, Gantz addressed Netanyahu directly, saying, ‘Israel needs broad consensus, not continued division, incitement, and rifts.’
For his turn, Lapid said, ‘We will not allow them to step on us.’
Last week, Gantz called on Israeli settlers to take to the streets in protest at a set of contentious changes to the Israeli judicial system that Netanyahu’s administration proposed.
On Saturday, protesters flooded the streets and denounced the so-called reforms as a vehicle for Netanyahu to circumvent the repercussions of his long-running corruption scandal.
Some protesters held up a large banner reading ‘crime minister’, in a reference to Netanyahu, who was indicted for receiving bribe, fraud, and breach of trust, during the twilight of his previous mandate as premier in 2019.
Others brandished signs with slogans, including, ‘Together against fascism and apartheid.’
The head of the Arab Movement for Renewal, Ahmed al-Tibi, said, ‘What Israel is going through are pivotal events.’
Tibi told al-Mayadeen TV channel that Netanyahu seeks to ‘weaken the judicial system and annul the lawsuit filed against him in court,’ adding, ‘The demonstrations against the Netanyahu regime show the world the extent of the fascism of the Israeli government.’
Earlier this week, the regime’s new ‘justice’ minister Yariv Levin announced a reform programme, including a ‘derogation clause’ that allows the Knesset to override the decisions that are made by the Supreme Court.
Also, Tibi pointed out that ‘the Israeli supreme court which has become filled with extremist right-wing judges will become more extreme towards the Palestinians if it approves the judicial amendments,’ pointing to ‘Israel’s concern about the change in the international community’s view of the judicial system.’
Last week, a human rights advocacy group issued a report, asserting that the new far-right Israeli cabinet will consolidate occupation, racism and discrimination against Palestinians.
In the report, the rights group said that the agreements made among the new Israeli cabinet’s parties in order to enable their coalition, promote expansion of the regime’s illegal settlements across the 1967-occupied West Bank as well as Galilee and Negev regions.
The report also pointed out that the cabinet will ‘transfer the supervisory authority over planning and construction laws to the ministry of internal security, which will likely dramatically increase demolition orders against thousands of Palestinian houses …’
The ministry of internal security is run by far-right Israeli official Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has since the inauguration of the new cabinet created international uproar by storming the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound – Islam’s third-holiest site.