Mansour is a Bahraini judge who serves as a legal advisor to the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) which was set up in May by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman following an global outcry about the rising number of civilian casualties.
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The coalition airstrike came just two days after similar Saudi strikes hit a residential area near the Saudi border killing at least 19 people, a lot of them children in a school.
The strike, in which a member of MSF staff was also killed, was the latest in an increasing number of attacks targeting places commonly used by civilians, including hospitals where MSF doctors and nurses work.
A Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), formed from members of the coalition dominated by Riyadh and its Gulf Sunni Arab allies, said it was aware of the reports and “has urgently launched an independent investigation”.
The coalition had announced earlier it would allow humanitarian flights into Sanaa’s worldwide airport from Monday, after a closure of several days as hostilities flared around the rebel-held capital.
Sancristoval said that nothing “seems to be done to make parties involved in the conflict in Yemen respect medical staff and patients”.
MSF reported in May that since past year, aerial attacks on MSF-supported health institutions have killed at least 100 staff members and wounded another 130.
“Even with the recent United Nations resolution calling for an end to attacks on medical facilities and with the high level declarations of commitment to worldwide humanitarian law, nothing seems to be done to make parties involved in the conflict in Yemen respect medical staff and patients”, she said.
Beyond the immediate impact on civilians and children, the airstrikes are also having an impact on the health sector, according to UNICEF, which also supported the Abs Hospital.
Health officials in Sanaa confirmed the toll.
The country has become a proxy battleground between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
General Ahmed Assiri, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, has accused Houthi fighters of deploying military personnel in schools and hospitals, thereby building a narrative that justifies the strikes on civilian areas. United Nations -led peace efforts have failed to end the fighting.
“Najran is sad this evening”, the resident, who asked not to be identified told Reuters. 14 people were killed, most of whom were women. “We hear the screams of children in their schools when there is an airstrike”.
The coalition insists the target of the airstrikes was a militia training camp.
Doctors Without Borders aid has claimed it is not the first time a hospital supported by the group has been attacked in Yemen.
The strike – the fourth attack on an MSF facility in the previous year – took place yesterday afternoon, killing 11 people and injuring at least 19.
The organisation’s desk manager for Emergency Unit in Yemen, Teresa Sancristóval, said, “This is the fourth attack against a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) facility in less than 12 months”.
Salon has documented three previous coalition attacks on MSF medical facilities. “We do not want words, courtesies, promises which go undelivered”.
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Abs hospital, in Yemen’s northwestern Hajjah governorate, was hit by airstrikes on Monday.
