Rights Radar Slams "Hantous Massacre": Houthis Kill Quran Teacher, Detain 12 Family Members Including Children

Rights Radar, a human rights organization based in The Hague, has condemned the killing of 72-year-old Quran teacher Sheikh Salih Hantous in western Yemen's Rima province, during a violent Houthi raid on his home in the village of Bani Nafea. The attack also injured his wife and two of his nephews.

According to the organization, the Houthis used around 30 military vehicles in the operation, which was personally overseen by local Houthi leaders Faris al-Habbari, Hashid al-Habbari, and Faris Rouba, and carried out under direct orders from intelligence chief Ali Hussein al-Houthi.

Rights Radar described the attack as a "brutal crime" and a flagrant human rights violation. The organization stated that Sheikh Hantous was shot while climbing to the rooftop of his house and that his wife was blocked from reaching him, suggesting clear intent to execute him.

The organization reported that 12 of Hantous’s relatives, including several children as young as 10, were detained following the incident and their whereabouts remain unknown.

Rights Radar called on the international community and the United Nations to pressure the Houthis to release the detainees immediately and to end systemic abuses in areas under their control. It likened the group’s actions to those of the Israeli occupation in Gaza, criticizing their hypocrisy in claiming to support the Palestinian cause while committing atrocities in Yemen.

The organization concluded by highlighting that such abuses have been recurring in Houthi-controlled areas for years, citing prior incidents in al-Bayda, Taiz, and most recently Rima.

"What is happening in Yemen? What caused the war? And who ignited it?