US military strikes on the Ras Issa Port in Hodeidah, Yemen, on April 17, 2025, caused dozens of civilian casualties and significant damage to port infrastructure, should be investigated as a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today, adding that it identified via satellite imagery multiple attack sites, analyzed it , reviewed photographs and videos of the attack site, and assessed data published by the Yemen Data Project, another nongovernmental group, and the independent research group Airwars which found that the strikes killed 84 civilians and injured over 150.
“The US government’s decision to strike Ras Issa Port, a critical entry point for aid in Yemen, while hundreds of workers were present demonstrates a callous disregard for civilians’ lives,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, adding “The recent US airstrikes in Yemen are just the latest causing civilian harm in the country over the past two decades,” Jafarnia said. “The Trump administration should reverse past US practice and provide prompt compensation to those unlawfully harmed.”
Based on satellite imagery and other sources, the attacks on Ras Issa took place between the morning of April 17 and the morning of April 18. They destroyed fuel tanks and considerable areas of port infrastructure. Two sources said that several berths, the customs area, and cargo unloading facilities had been severely damaged or destroyed. Both sources said that initially after the attack, the destruction had significantly reduced the port’s operations. Port operations are still limited.
US Central Command said in an April 17 statement about the attacks: “Today, US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years. … The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis.”
A United Nations spokesman stated that the secretary-general was “alarmed by reports of significant damage to the port infrastructure and of possible oil leaks into the Red Sea,” and that at least five humanitarian workers were reportedly injured. In a satellite image collected on the morning of April 18, long trails that appear to be fuel leaks are visible from the location of strikes and extending into the sea.
The applicable international humanitarian law during the fighting in Yemen prohibits deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian objects. An attack not directed at a specific military objective is indiscriminate. An attack is disproportionate if the expected civilian loss is excessive compared to the anticipated military gain. When used by an armed force or non-state armed group, port facilities and oil storage tanks can be valid military objectives.
However, attacking the port fuel depot because it is an “economic source of power of the Houthis” or provides them revenue would make virtually any entity that provided economic benefit subject to military attack.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 2534 (2020), the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement is mandated to oversee Hodeidah city and the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Issa, and Salif to ensure that no military personnel or material are present.
HRW concluded that the US should credibly and impartially investigate this and other attacks in Yemen with civilian casualties in apparent violation of the laws of war and provide prompt compensation or “ex gratia” payments to civilians harmed. These include an April 28 attack on a migrant detention center in Saada that killed dozens of migrants and asylum seekers.