Coalition air raid kills Yemeni judge and his family

A senior Yemeni judge and seven members of his family were killed in a Saudi-led coalition air raid on their home in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, a relative said Monday.

"Judge Yehia Mohammed Rubaid, his son, three women, and three children were killed when a missile hit their home," his nephew Ahmed Mohammed told reporters.

Speaking in front of the debris of the destroyed house in central Sanaa, Mohammed said the attack was carried out overnight by coalition jets, which have been pounding the capital almost daily since March last year.

He said his uncle had presided over a court specialised in "terrorism cases" which tries suspects accused of links to al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Monday called for an investigation into an attack on one of its hospitals in Sadaa, northern Yemen, which killed at least six medical staff and patients.

The medical aid charity also known as Doctors Without Borders has had three of its medical facilities and an ambulance destroyed in the past three months, mostly by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.

MSF has requested that the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), which investigates allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions carry out an independent inquiry.

"The way war is being waged in Yemen is causing enormous suffering and shows that the warring parties do not recognise or respect the protected status of hospitals and medical facilities," said Raquel Ayora, MSF Director of Operations.

"Nothing has been spared - not even hospitals, even though medical facilities are explicitly protected by international humanitarian law."

MSF said that the Saudi-led coalition and its western supporters have been attempting to minimise the gravity of attacks on medical facilities by claiming that they were made in error, which the group described as "offensive and irresponsible" logic.

"Is this the new normal: an MSF hospital bombed every month? How many other hospitals are being attacked in Yemen and other conflict zones, run by medical staff who do not have the platform that MSF does to speak out? We refuse to accept that this trend continues with a total lack of accountability," said MSF president Joanne Liu.

"We urgently need guarantees from warring parties that functioning hospitals are never a legitimate target."

The Saudi-led coalition launched a campaign against Houthi rebels and forces loyal to deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh in March 2015 after rebels advanced on the southern city of Aden, where Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi had taken refuge before fleeing to Riyadh.

The rebels continue to control the capital, which they overran in 2014, but loyalists have recently captured areas east and northeast of the capital.

More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since last March, about half of them civilians, according to the United Nations.