[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] on Friday condemned [press briefing] a recent string of rocket and mortar attacks against residential areas and markets in Taizz, Yemen, from June 3 to June 8. The attacks, perpetrated just weeks before Ramadan, killed 18 civilians and injured 68 others. While there is no official record of from whom and where the attacks came, it is believed that attacks were directed by the Popular Committees associated with the Houthis and other groups loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh [BBC profile], who are currently in control of Tabat Al-Sofitel hill. The attacks continued in the Al Ta’iziyah and Al-Qahirah districts from June 4 to June 6, and later culminated in the shelling of Al-Thawrah hospital, where five people were killed on June 8. The hospital had been sheltering individuals attempting to find safety from the recent violence. The press briefing later went on to discuss recent killing of four Israelis in Tel Aviv.

The rapidly deteriorating situation in Yemen has sparked significant international concern. In March UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein criticized [JURIST report] the Saudi Arabian coalition forces in Yemen for the more than 3,000 civilian casualties resulting from the conflict in just the past year. Also in March UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned [JURIST report] that the use of cluster bombs by the Saudi-led coalition against neighborhoods in Yemen may amount to a war crime. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said [JURIST report] that the civilian death toll in Yemen had reached nearly 2,800. In January the UN World Food Programme appealed to all the parties involved in the Yemen conflict to allow the safe passage of food [JURIST report] to the city of Taiz. In October Amnesty International called for [JURIST report] an independent investigation into possible war crimes surrounding the destruction of a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Yemen.