At least thirteen civilians were killed and between 30 and 34 others injured when an airstrike or air defense missile hit the Furwa neighbourhood market during the evening of 20 April, 2025. Sources diverged on whether the US or Houthis were responsible.
Ibrahim Khalil Muhammad was killed, as was Ramzi Zakaria Fahim al-Badawi, Essam al-Arabi, Abdul Latif Yaqoub al-Qahwi, Dhiyab al-Hamati, Ramzi al-Khamisi, Salah al-Qahwi, Fouad Khalil al-Najjar and Muhammad Amin al-Haddah. A child, Zakaria Mahmoud Salem Khamis, was also killed.
In addition, several members of the Al-Kumaim family were killed: father Abdulkhaliq Ali Saleh al-Kumaim, his wife – who remains unnamed – and two of their sons, Abdulaziz Abdulkhaliq Ali Saleh al-Kumaim and Ali Abdulkhaliq Ali Saleh al-Kumaim. A third son, Moaz Abdulkhaliq Ali Saleh al-Kumaim, was injured. Saddam Ali Daif Allah al-Baydani was also reported wounded.
The initial casualty toll reported by @TvAlmasirah was three killed and 12 wounded, which then increased to 12 killed and 30 wounded, “including women and children”, with the latest toll updated to 13 killed and 34 wounded. Middle East Eye reported a toll of 12 civilians killed and 30 wounded, referring to heath officials as the source.
Facebook user Abdulbasset alkomaym, a cousin of Abdulkhaliq al-Kumaim, wrote a condolence message for the family, who “happened to be passing through the market when the missile arrived”. Asking that “God have mercy” on them, he also prayed that the injured Moaz would recover. Images posted by Mohammed Abdullah Al-Kumaim which reportedly show the members of the al-Kumaim include two very young children, likely Abdulaziz and Ali, and a man, likely their father.
Abu Hisham Al-Qahwi announced the “passing of […] Salah Ahmed Ali Al-Qahwi”, asking “God to have mercy on him and to inspire his family and relatives with patience and solace”. Attached was a photograph of Salah, sitting on a small refrigerator in a shop; he appears to be a teenager. Abu Hisham Al-Qahwi also shared news of the death of Abdul Latif Yaqoub, sending “condolences to the entire family of the deceased”. In a photograph, Abdul Latif can be seen as a young man in a black puffer jacket and blue top. Yahya Al-Omaisi Al-Omaisi remembered Abdul Latif’s “pure soul” and announced an Al-Fatihah – the first chapter of the Quran – on his behalf.
Nashwan Al-Joshi “thank[ed] God for [his] safety and the safety of the Sahri family and children” and prayed that “God have mercy on neighbour Zakaria Al-Khamisi’s son [Ramzi al-Khamisi] and all the dead” and hoped that God would “heal and cure all the wounded”.
Abdulrahman Saadan grieved the loss of Essam al-Arabi, who had just opened a grocery store in the market before the strike. Attached to the memorial was a photograph of Essam, a young man wearing a black leather jacket. Facebook user Raku ۦۦ, writing on 22 April, announced that “today [was] supposed to be the wedding of the martyr Essam El-Araby, but today we are at his funeral”.
Ibrahem Elayah remembered Ibrahim Khalil Muhammad, asking that “God have mercy on him and grant him paradise” and that his family be “reward[ed]”. In a photograph, Ibrahim appears as a young man or teenager, wearing a blue blazer.
Watan Private Schools shared a memorial for Muhammad Amin al-Haddah, likely a current or former student. His image has been superimposed against a backdrop of the Palestinian and Yemeni flags. Facebook user Ibrahim Al-Ansi Al-Ansi prayed for Muhammad’s father, asking that “God protect your hearts”.
Facebook user Khalid Zahwi, remembering Zakaria Mahmoud Salem Khamis, wrote that the child had been found “in pieces” and praised him for what he saw as a dedication to Palestine: “he called for the liberation of Palestine and believed in its freedom […] He consoled the children of Palestine”. A burial for Zakaria occurred two days later, on April 22nd, in the Al-Mashhad Cemetery. In a memorial poster, Zakaria can be seen as a young child.
Facebook user Tawfiq Ali Masoud Al-Marisi reported the injury of his neighbour, Saddam Ali Daif Allah Al-Baydani, who was “injured by shrapnel from an aircraft while he was passing by, a meter away, in the [Furwa] market”, and asked that “God heal him”.
Abdulrahman Saadan shared a photograph of Dhiyab al-Hamati, a young man in a white t-shirt, and asked that in his death, “God have mercy on him”.
Twitter/X user @yemen_sameer shared a video of funeral proceedings on 23 April, 2025. Saba News decried the killing of civilians, especially in an area known to be “among the most crowded and densely populated”: “A child went to buy bread for his family from a bakery in the [Furwa] market, only to be blown to bits by the bombing. Another went to buy some necessities for his family from a store next to his house, but his family found nothing of him except some of his charred limbs”.
Middle East Eye spoke to a man named Ahmed in his 20s who lost his brother in the attack: “My brother went to the bakery to buy us bread for dinner. The explosion tore him into pieces. Many others were killed and wounded in their homes and shops.” The same source also spoke with a 50-year-old survivor of the attack named Ali who described “I saw two charred bodies on a motorbike and a dead woman and a child on the ground. There was one dead person in a grocery store, another in a bakery, and one in a minibus. It was a heinous massacre, and no logical person on earth can justify it.”
According to Abdul Qader Al-Shater, Fouad Khalil al-Najjar who was from the city of Hababah was “walking on his way to his home in the Naqam neighborhood” when the missile hit the market, killed him. Facebook user Magdy Abdullah Al-Asimi, in a condolence post for a Fouad Khalil al-Najjar, reported he was a “Mujahid”. For this reason, al-Najjar’s civilian status is currently contested.
Facebook user Hussein Sand Al-Hayashi reported that the damage was wrought by a “missile launched from the air defense system” on its “return” to the market. Facebook user Bashar Yousef Al-Salmi also reported an “air defense missile”, including a video purporting to show the strike. The missile, the source claimed, “was launched from Mount Attan” and was “an interceptor missile”. Twitter/X user @Naif_Alemad3 agreed, writing that the bombing of the popular “[Furwa]” market in the Shu’ub district was the result of a missile launched from the Houthi air defense site in “Beit Adhran,” west of the capital”. Facebook users Fouad Ahmed Saleh, Qasim Al-Qadi and Mujahid Awad also claimed the strike was perpetrated by Houthi leaders. Quoting “Sheikh Jamal Al-Maamari’s page” – a Yemeni Sheikh previously held in Houthi-run jails – these sources wrote that “Houthi leader Ali Sahir requested the activation of a missile battery to intercept American aircraft. One of his advisors told him, ‘Sir, the first one is enough for the sake of blood. We fear it will fall on civilians’. He replied, ‘Go for it. It will fall wherever it falls. They are all hypocrites’. (He meant civilians.)”. Fouad Ahmed Saleh stated that Houthi leaders Hashem Yahya Hashem al-Kabsi, Ismail Hassan al-Kabsi and Hashem Fida al-Din al-Ghaili were directly responsible, and wrote that the information came from “a former Republican Guard hero in Houthi-controlled areas of Sana’a”. Attempts to frame the strike as perpetrated by the US military, the sources stated, were “a complete lie and slander”. Photographs of coordinates where the missiles were purportedly launched were attached. Facebook user Mohammed Abdullah Al-Kumaim also blamed the Houthis and the “Iranian revenge project cloaked in slogans of religion and patriotism”. The Houthis had “killed [civilians] with an Iranian missile” and then ignored the suffering: “the stab wound wasn’t just in their treacherous killing, but in the ugliness of what followed: The militia didn’t send an ambulance. They didn’t offer condolences to their families. They didn’t even offer a word of respect for the bodies of the members of a tribe known for its chivalry”.
Yemen News reported that the “US military denied involvement in the airstrike”. Quoting Reuters, Yemen News reported that “US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban [said] that the damage and losses at the archaeological site were not the result of a US strike […] noting that the closest US strike was 5 kilometers from the explosion site”. Dave Eastburn, another US Central Command spokesman speaking to The New York Times, stated that the belief that the strike was caused by Houthi air defence was the result of “local reporting, including videos documenting Arabic writing on the missile’s fragments at the market”. The Times noted that their “initial review” found “a video showing a missile fragment with Arabic writing posted to social media, however it was from a different location from the market in Sana’s Old City”. A Houthi Politburo member, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, told The Times that “the American denial was an attempt to smear the Houthis”.
Most other sources blamed the US military for the strike, alleging that the strike was a “US aggression” while @TvAlmasirah decried “American and Israeli aggression”. Source Almasirah News claimed the “American ugliness” was the result of “B2 stealth aircraft”.
Video shared by @TvAlmasirah showed infrastructural damage and firefighters hosing down destroyed buildings. Evidence of fire can be seen in a photograph shared by Facebook user Bakil Muhammad Al-Dhahabani. One scene in the @TvAlmasirah video shows an injured man on a stretcher being carried into an ambulance; later, blood and mud are visibly mixed on the street. In graphic photographs shared by the same source, a man holds up what appears to be shredded human remains; he holds this body part from the bone. Later photographs show an elderly man with blood dripping from his head, another man is breathing through an oxygen mask, while another young man can be seen with a bandaged arm and hand. A fourth photograph shows a young man, heavily covered in blood and dirt, whose lower body has been severely injured. He can be seen in later photographs with a bandaged leg.
A later video also shared by @TvAlmasirah showed a dead child; a woman’s screams are audible. The caption censured the attack – “America’s bombs make reality worse than nightmares” – and wrote that the strike resulted in “a child’s remains and a mother’s dreams shattered”.
An onlooker, quoted by Almasirah News, spoke of the aftermath: “I left my house when I heard the airstrike, and I saw the crime in its first moments… a woman cradling her child on the side of the road, martyred, a motorcycle carrying two charred citizens, two there, two there, some in the grocery store, and some in the bakery”. A rescue worker had similar sentiments: “Children are playing in the streets, safe, and people are shopping safely, and then American planes come and bomb them”. Another grieved his brother’s death in the strike: “My little brother went down to buy us groceries, and the strike landed next to the grocery store, and he was martyred”. The same source spoke to a wounded elderly man who had “blood streaming from his head” but refused to leave his simple shop where he sells “empty boxes.”
Additional images posted by @TvAlmasirah show a destroyed vehicle, a destroyed motorbike, a destroyed truck, damage to the windows of the building, and a huge crater in the dirt. The day after the strike, @TvAlmasirah also published images of the marketplace in the daylight, including images showing hundreds of people congregated in the streets around the market where visible damage can be seen to the exterior of the market and a destroyed truck is still seen in the street.