Retaliatory strike on Hodeidah in July endangers supplies of food, aid and electricity

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Israeli airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah on the evening of July 20, 2024, appear to have been an unlawful, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attack on civilians that could have long-term consequences for millions of Yemenis who rely on the port for food and humanitarian aid, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Israeli strikes came a day after a Houthis drone attack on a residential neighborhood in Tel Aviv, which may amount to a war crime, killed one civilian and wounded four others. The Israeli airstrikes, which killed at least six civilians and reportedly wounded at least 80 others, hit more than two dozen oil tanks and two ship cranes in the port of Hodeidah in northwestern Yemen, as well as a power plant in the Salif district of Hodeidah. The strikes appeared to cause disproportionate damage to civilians and civilian objects. Serious violations of the Laws of War are committed intentionally, i.e. knowingly or negligently, War crimes.

“The Israeli strikes on Hodeidah in response to the Houthis' attack on Tel Aviv could have lasting effects on millions of Yemenis in Houthis-controlled areas,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “After a decade of conflict, Yemenis are already suffering from widespread hunger. These attacks will only worsen their suffering.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 people about the attack on Hodeidah, including a Houthi official in Yemen's oil industry and four UN agency officials with knowledge of the port. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite images of the attacked sites and photographs of possible weapons remnants collected by the nongovernmental organization Mwatana for Human Rights. Human Rights Watch sent its preliminary findings to Israeli authorities on July 31 and to the Houthis on August 7. Neither organization responded.

The Israeli strikes killed Ahmed Abdullah Musa Jilan, Salah Abdullah Muqbil al-Sarari, Abdul Bari Muhammad Yusuf Ezzi, Nabil Nasher Abdo Abdullah, Abu Bakr Hussein Abdullah Faqih and Idris Dawood Hassan Ahmed, all employees of the Yemen Petroleum Company. The Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed 50-year-old Yevgeny Ferder in a residential building.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said the Houthis' drone was an Iranian-made Samad-3 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The Samad-3's guidance and targeting capabilities are unclear, and the Houthis' target was uncertain, making it difficult to determine whether the attack hit the intended target. The Houthis did not indicate that they attacked a military target, but said they hit a “key target,” possibly referring to the nearby branch of the US embassy.

The Houthis' attack, which intentionally or indiscriminately harmed civilians and civilian objects, could be considered a war crime. In recent months, the Houthis have indiscriminately fired numerous rockets at the Israeli port cities of Eilat and Haifa.

Human Rights Watch found that Israeli forces damaged or destroyed at least 29 of the 41 oil tanks at Hodeidah port, as well as the only two cranes used to load and unload ships. The airstrikes also destroyed oil tanks connected to the Hodeidah power plant, putting the plant stop operation for 12 hours.

A remnant collected by Mwatana for Human Rights at the site bore the markings of the US manufacturer Woodward and matches remnants of the US company Boeing's GBU-39 series bomb collected in other contexts. The GBU-39, known as the “small diameter bomb”, is a guided air-dropped munition.

Human Rights Watch also wrote to Woodward and Boeing on August 14, but received no response

The port of Hodeidah is crucial for supplying food and other essential goods to the Yemeni population, which relies on imports. About 70 percent of Yemen's commercial imports and 80 percent of humanitarian aid pass through the port of Hodeidah, which is “critical for commercial and humanitarian activities,” according to Auke Lootsma, the permanent representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding, called the port a “lifeline for millions of people” that should be “open and operational.”

A UN official said about 3,400 people, all civilians, work at the port. The official said on July 30 that he had not seen “a single new ship enter the port since the attack, which is an alarming sign” for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Other Yemeni ports do not have the same capacity to handle imports, and the damage and destruction of oil tanks, loading cranes and general damage to port facilities would require significant resources and time to rebuild.

The Houthi oil industry representative said the early evening attacks were carried out “at a time when dozens of civilians were there, including the personnel who operate these tanks and truck drivers who wanted to collect oil from there and transport it to other governorates.”

Human Rights Watch found using satellite imagery that the oil tanks burned for at least three days, raising environmental concerns. Musaed Aklan, an environmental expert at the Sana'a Center, a Yemeni research group, said that “the toxic fumes produced by the burning of thousands of tons of fuel undoubtedly pose a serious threat to public health.” He said oil leaking from the tanks into surrounding areas “risks contaminating nearby water sources, soil, beaches and marine habitats.”

Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, described the target of the attack as “the port of Al Hudaydah, which is used by the Houthis as a main supply route for transporting Iranian weapons from Iran to Yemen.” He said the Israeli Air Force had “attacked dual-use infrastructure used for terrorist activities, including energy infrastructure. Israel's necessary and proportionate attacks were carried out to stop the Houthis' terrorist attacks.” The Israeli government has not provided any information to substantiate these claims.

Under UN Security Council resolution 2534 (2020), the UN Mission in Support of the Hodeidah Agreement is tasked with monitoring the city and port of Hodeidah to ensure that there are no military personnel or material there. An official from a UN agency that monitors the port said the agency has never found evidence of a Houthis' military presence in the port. He said another UN agency that inspects ships before entering the port has not found any weapons. Two UN officials working in Hodeidah noted that Houthi authorities pre-approve UN access and accompany UN officials during inspections.

The oil industry official said the oil tanks at the port are not owned by the Houthis but by “Yemeni businessmen who import the oil and resell it to gas stations and other institutions.” Aid organizations also own some of the oil and use it for their work. A WFP official said the organization lost 780,000 liters of fuel in the attack, which it used to “support hospital generators” and water and sanitation infrastructure across Yemen. The remaining oil is used for various other public purposes, the oil industry official and Mwatana said. Two UN officials said the oil at the port was imported from the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli airstrikes also hit the main power plant in Hodeidah. Two people familiar with Hodeidah said the plant is the city's main source of electricity, providing power to hospitals, schools, businesses and homes. The climate in Hodeidah province is among the hottest in Yemen, making electricity essential for fans, air conditioners and refrigeration systems.

The applicable laws of war prohibit deliberate, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects. An attack that is not directed at a specific military objective is indiscriminate. An attack is disproportionate if the expected casualties among the civilian population are disproportionate to the expected military gain of the attack. Port facilities, oil tanks and power stations can be valid military objectives when used by a military force or a non-state armed group.

There is no information that weapons or military supplies were stored or delivered to the port, or that oil and electricity, which are monitored under Resolution 2534, were diverted to the Houthi army. The Israeli attack would therefore have been unlawful and indiscriminate. However, even if the attack had been against valid military targets, the harm to civilians would likely have been disproportionate. In addition to the reported civilian casualties, the damage to the port facilities appears to be causing immediate and long-term disproportionate harm to large segments of the Yemeni population that rely on the port of Hodeidah for survival.

Israel’s allies, including the The United States and Britain should halt military aid and arms sales to Israel while its forces are systematically and widely violating the laws of war, including in Gaza and Lebanon, with impunity. Governments that continue to supply arms to Israel risk complicity in war crimes.