Crimes targeting medics in Taiz reading in the light of the Geneva Art and the protocols attached to them Sofer | D. Jamal Muhammad Farah Al-Khubaishi What is happening in Taiz? Over the past few days, Taiz witnessed attacks against ambulances and paramedics, which, according to media reports, caused death and injuries, and exposed the lives of the wounded and sick to mortal danger, in addition to destroying ambulances or preventing them from reaching the wounded and sick and transporting them to hospitals. According to what was published, this was not limited to preventing some of the ambulances from carrying out their mission, but also extended to harming some of them while they were trying to reach the injured or transport them to health centers. This behavior constitutes a very serious violation of the rules that govern war and require the protection of the wounded, sick, medical staff and medical transport. This protection is not a grant granted by one party to the conflict to the other, and is not subject to a political or military mindset, but is a legal obligation imposed according to the rules of international humanitarian law. What is more dangerous is that the effects of attacks on paramedics and ambulances do not stop with the direct victims, but reach every wounded person waiting for help, every patient who needs urgent treatment and every family who fears losing a friend due to his inability to get to the hospital. When the paramedics are prevented from doing their duty, or the ambulances are targeted, the result can be the death of people whose lives could have been saved if they had been given the necessary medical care. The truth is that these violations were not just passing events, but came in the context of the ongoing suffering that Taiz has been experiencing for years. Local, regional and international media have reported over the past two days on painful scenes that sum up some of the human tragedy the city has experienced. Among these scenes is a picture of a grieving mother, Taiz, carrying her daughter, while her husband lies dead beside her, in a scene that shook the emotions of everyone who witnessed it. This scene is not just a painful image that summarizes the tragedy of a Yemeni family. Instead, it raises the fundamental question about the degree of respect for the rules of international humanitarian law, and about the fate of civilians, wounded and sick when ambulances, which are supposed to be a means of saving lives, become the target of an attack or are prevented from carrying out their humanitarian mission.