A mass funeral procession was held in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday for at least 43 people allegedly killed in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition, according to Saba news agency, which is run by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The victims were killed in a strike Saturday on six homes in Al-Shariya, a Yemeni village east of Sanaa, Saba said. Among the dead are 21 children and 10 women, the agency reported.
Footage aired on the Houthi-run Masirah TV showed large crowds gathered at a graveyard. Men carrying rifles were seen digging graves.
Ahead of the funeral, Masirah TV published graphic images showing children lying motionless, whom Houthi authorities said had been killed in the strike. The attack involved three consecutive raids that also hit ambulance crews and rescue workers, it said.
CNN has reached out to the Saudi government as well as the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen for comment.
Fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition reignited in July, shattering a 2022 UN-brokered ceasefire that had brought years of relative calm, after Saudi-backed forces struck Sanaa Airport in an attempt to block a Houthi plane arriving from Iran.
Houthi forces retaliated by launching an offensive and captured territory along Yemen’s western coast and near the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a key trade route.
Saturday’s attack comes as casualties surge in Yemen, where the years long conflict has dragged the country into a severe humanitarian crisis.
As of Tuesday, the total number of casualties in Yemen has reached 11,755 since October 31, including 2,098 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The daily average has increased considerably this month, according to the WHO count.
On Wednesday, Yemen’s Houthi-controlled parliament appealed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to intervene amid the intensifying fighting. The parliament claimed that hundreds of Saudi airstrikes over the previous five days had killed or wounded more than 300 people, most of them children, women and elderly people. CNN hasn’t independently verified the figure.
The Houthi-run Health Ministry also said Wednesday that at least 359 civilians had been killed and 780 wounded in what it described as the latest Saudi escalation. The ministry said most were women and children.
Saudi Arabia will have to respond to Houthi airport attack – but the choices are stark
The Houthi armed forces said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had carried out 93 airstrikes and missile attacks over the previous 24 hours, targeting sites including civilian and energy infrastructure across Houthi-controlled areas.
The rebel group, in turn, continues to target Saudi infrastructure, including the King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh, and oil facilities. In October, back-to-back attacks on the airport killed at least 20 people and wounded hundreds of others.
On Wednesday, the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two drones over Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. On Thursday, it intercepted another over Riyadh.
The Houthis denied targeting Mecca, calling the coalition’s claim “another lie.”
Over the weekend, a building belonging to Saudi oil giant Aramco in the financial district of Riyadh was damaged in a missile attack.
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq and Farida Elsebai contributed reporting.
