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Since the full-scale escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Turkey has emerged as a key supplier of defensive military equipment to Kyiv, and a newly revealed transfer of advanced air defence systems highlights the depth of this military cooperation. Multiple anonymous sources familiar with the deal told independent outlet Middle East Eye that Ankara shipped a batch of Turkish-made Korkut anti-drone air defence systems to Ukraine earlier in 2024, granting Ukrainian forces the opportunity to field-test the new hardware while strengthening Ukraine’s air defence capabilities against Russian aerial attacks.

For 41-year-old Palestinian father Adham Heriz, every day for nearly three years has carried the same heavy, unfulfilled weight: the need to find, recover and give a proper burial to the family he lost in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. That long, agonizing search reached a partial, bittersweet milestone last month, when civil defense crews recovered the remains of his 37-year-old wife Hiam — but the body of his 17-year-old eldest son Anas remains missing, swallowed by miles of collapsed concrete in eastern Gaza’s Al-Yarmouk neighborhood.

Hiam, Anas, and two of Heriz’s other daughters — 18-year-old Shahad and 15-year-old Dareen — were killed on October 25, 2023, when a massive wave of Israeli bombardment leveled the entire residential block where the family lived. The attack flattened 18 multi-story buildings holding roughly 175 occupied apartments, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Palestinian civil defense. Around 450 people, including doctors, academics, journalists, infants and children, were inside the structures when the strikes hit.

The intensity of the bombardment left an unprecedented scene of destruction. “There were people thrown by the explosion around 200 metres. Entire families were wiped out. Many dead bodies were completely disintegrated, leaving little or no trace behind because of the massive explosives used in the bombs,” Basal told Middle East Eye in an interview. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Israeli forces continued advancing and launching strikes on the area, leaving civil defense teams unable to conduct a full, systematic search. Most of their heavy machinery and excavation vehicles were also destroyed in the bombing, meaning crews could only recover 120 bodies in the initial response, leaving hundreds more trapped beneath thousands of tons of rubble.

Heriz, who lived with his seven-member family on the sixth floor of a seven-story apartment building, still carries sharp, searing memories of the day his life collapsed. The family had just finished lunch together; Hiam and two of their daughters had stepped into the kitchen to wash dishes when the first strike hit. “It was like a black cloud covering everything,” Heriz recalled. “I felt like I was flying and being thrown under the rubble with each strike. I could not hear anything. I could not breathe because of the bomb powder and dust.”

Though most of his bones were broken in the collapse, Heriz managed to pull himself free from the debris. He found his 8-year-old son Ahmed alive beside him, bleeding badly, and soon learned his two youngest daughters — 3-year-old Siwar and 10-year-old Dima — had also escaped, though both suffered serious injuries. Ahmed survived, but Hiam, Anas, Shahad and Dareen remained trapped. Heriz’s brother and his brother’s five family members were also killed in the strike. “People moved me to an ambulance while I was crying for my family under the rubble. ‘Forgive me, my children. I can’t pull you out. I can’t feel my hands; they are broken,’” he said.

Local search teams and residents were eventually able to recover the bodies of Shahad and Dareen, but the sheer volume of rubble left Hiam, Anas and dozens of other victims beyond reach. For years, Heriz and his relatives made repeated trips to the site, digging through debris by hand with no heavy machinery to move the larger chunks of concrete. He had largely lost hope of ever recovering his wife and son’s remains until last month, when Gaza civil defense launched a coordinated 20-day search operation in Al-Yarmouk, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, with excavation vehicles supplied by Egypt and fuel provided through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Over three weeks of digging, crews recovered the remains of 105 people from the neighborhood’s rubble, including Hiam, Heriz’s brother, and his brother’s entire family. Heriz described the devastating small discoveries the team made as they cleared debris: “We found a less-than-one-year-old child in his crib beneath the rubble, still holding his milk pacifier in his hand. When his father saw him and identified him by the clothes he was wearing, he collapsed from the shock.” Across the 20-day operation, Heriz said crews recovered 37 dead children from the ruins of his former apartment building alone. Still, after sifting through tons of concrete, Anas’s body was nowhere to be found.

For other survivors of the October 25 attack, the long-delayed recovery operation has dragged traumatic, vivid memories back to the surface. Just hours before the bombardment, 21-year-old Abd Al Rahman Heriz had been sitting with relatives and neighbors in Al-Yarmouk, talking about their hope that the ongoing conflict would soon end with a ceasefire. He had just returned home to help his younger sister with a primary school math lesson when the bombing began.

His home was only partially damaged, sitting just a short distance from the 18 buildings leveled in the strike. When he and his family rushed outside, they could barely recognize the neighborhood they had grown up in. “The sky was black with dust, rubble and fire. Injured and killed people were everywhere. Houses were destroyed. There were no trees, no signs of anything,” Abd Al Rahman said. Outside his building, he found the body of a neighbor cut in half by the blast, a bundle of bread still lying at his side. Most of the relatives and neighbors he had been sitting with just hours earlier were killed, their bodies trapped under the ruins.

With civil defense teams blocked from entering the area by ongoing fighting, Abd Al Rahman and other local survivors used nothing but basic hand tools — hammers, shovels, metal cutters — to dig through rubble for days in search of survivors. “I remained for three days with many of my surviving neighbours, doing our best to help pull people out,” he recalled. The small team managed to pull two young sisters out alive; their father lay dead beside them, and the children cried for him as rescuers moved his body to an ambulance and tried to calm them. They also pulled a woman alive from the rubble after she had been trapped for three days. But as Israeli attacks intensified, the survivors were forced to flee, even as they could still hear voices calling for help from beneath the concrete.

“We could hear the voices of people who were still alive but trapped under the rubble, as well as the bodies of hundreds of others, including people of my extended family,” Abd Al Rahman said. The trauma of that experience has never faded. “I still have nightmares. I hear in my mind the voices of people calling for help: ‘Help us, pull us out.’ One girl was calling, ‘My sister is dead beside me. Pull her and me out.’”

Of the 105 remains recovered in the recent 20-day operation, 36 have not yet been identified. Basal, the civil defense spokesperson, explained that teams face enormous challenges identifying victims who have been buried for months. “They had reached an advanced stage of decomposition and their facial features were no longer recognisable. There is no DNA testing or any other means of identifying who they are,” he said.

The tragedy in Al-Yarmouk is just one small part of the broader humanitarian catastrophe unfolding across the Gaza Strip. Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza has killed approximately 75,000 people to date, and official estimates suggest roughly 8,000 more people remain missing, still trapped beneath rubble across the enclave.

At just 17 years old, Ibrahim can expertly handle a Kalashnikov rifle. Unlike formally enlisted troops in Yemeni government-aligned forces, he fights alongside his older brother and male cousins as an informal volunteer, driven by a single goal: defending his home from advancing Houthi forces. “When the Houthis approached our village, dozens of local residents picked up personal weapons to push back, and I was among them,” he explained in an interview with Middle East Eye. Grabbing his father’s stored rifle, Ibrahim joined a local resistance cell aligned with official government forces. Growing up in Yemen, firearm familiarity came early: “We’ve kept a Kalashnikov in our home for years, and I’ve fired it at weddings and community gatherings before, so I knew how to use it,” he said. For Ibrahim, this fight is temporary. He has no ambition for a long-term military career, and plans to lay down his arms once his village is retaken to resume his studies, with the dream of one day working as an automotive engineer.

Ibrahim’s story is far from unique. Since the latest outbreak of large-scale fighting between Houthi rebels and Yemeni government forces, the widespread use of child soldiers has reemerged as a devastating feature of the country’s decade-long conflict, with both major warring parties trading accusations of underage recruitment to front lines and support roles. Neither side publicly acknowledges recruiting minors, but independent verification from the United Nations, international media, and regional human rights groups has confirmed the practice persists on both sides of the conflict.

A 2025 report from the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict documented 564 verified cases of child recruitment and deployment in Yemen between 2021 and 2023. Of these confirmed cases, 345 were linked to Houthi forces, while 210 were attributed to Yemeni national armed forces and their affiliated armed groups. The remaining small number of cases were traced to unidentified actors and the Yemen-based affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The UN confirmed the children recruited ranged in age from 8 to 17 years old. Of the total, 293 were deployed directly to combat roles, while 187 served in support positions including checkpoint guards, informants, and military drivers. Twenty-seven of the children sent into active combat were younger than 15 years old.

Ahmed, Ibrahim’s 41-year-old cousin who fights alongside him, pushed back against claims that the teen serves on the front lines. He explained Ibrahim only carries out support duties behind frontline troops, a role suited to his current skills and physical size. “Frontline combat demands experience that most teenagers don’t have; it’s not a role anyone can step into,” Ahmed told Middle East Eye. “Even so, fighters like Ibrahim provide critical backup for our main forces, and that support makes a real difference when circumstances are this desperate.”

Recent cases of underage participation have drawn international attention. Last month, as fighting intensified around the embattled city of Taiz, the BBC broadcast an interview with a 16-year-old fighter aligned with government forces who claimed he had taken part in active frontline combat. In response to the report, Colonel Abdul Basit al-Bahr, deputy head of the Moral Guidance Department at the Taiz Axis Command, told Middle East Eye the teenager was only accompanying his father and was never enlisted as a combatant for government forces. “Our armed forces have an explicit policy banning child recruitment; it is strictly forbidden to accept children into our ranks or push them into military operations,” al-Bahr said. He did, however, acknowledge that government forces regularly encounter children on battlefields, some as young as 10 years old. “We follow appropriate legal and humanitarian protocols for these children, and refer them to relevant authorities to resolve their situations in line with Yemeni law,” he added, noting that minors captured while fighting alongside Houthi forces are treated as vulnerable children rather than adult enemy combatants.

Independent Yemeni human rights group SAM Organisation for Rights and Liberties has documented an even larger scale of recruitment: the group recorded 11,310 cases of child recruitment across Yemen between 2014, when the current conflict escalated, and February 2023. More than half of those children – 6,269 – were between 8 and 11 years old, an age group developmentally unprepared for any form of conflict participation.

SAM president Tawfeeq al-Homaidi explained that the years-long economic collapse sparked by ongoing war has created fertile ground for armed groups to exploit vulnerable children and their families. “When a family loses all income, when the breadwinner stops getting paid, when a child is forced out of school because the conflict has closed education facilities, the small sum of cash, bag of food, or monthly stipend an armed group offers stops being a choice – it becomes a matter of basic survival for the whole family,” al-Homaidi said. In a September 2026 joint statement signed by 266 Yemeni human rights and civil society organizations, the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedom condemned the Houthi movement for weaponizing extreme economic hardship to force minors onto the battlefield. “Children have borne the worst of these violations: forced recruitment, deployment to active battlefields, and exploitation of their needs and their families’ socioeconomic desperation through ideological and military indoctrination,” the statement read.

Yet al-Homaidi cautioned against reducing child recruitment solely to poverty, noting a wider range of driving factors. “Ideological mobilization, exploitation of school and summer camp programs, social and tribal pressure, the lure of status, personal weapons, and steady pay, interrupted schooling, and in some cases direct physical coercion – all of these play a role,” he explained. A recent Al Jazeera English investigation from Houthi-controlled northern Yemen revealed how armed groups lure children with tangible incentives: promises of a personal Kalashnikov rifle, a month of military training, and a monthly stipend equal to roughly $94 USD.

Al-Homaidi added that recent UN briefings on Yemen have repeatedly raised urgent alarms about Houthi-run summer camps, where thousands of children are exposed to military training and sectarian ideological indoctrination ahead of deployment. While Houthi forces have faced the majority of international scrutiny for the practice, al-Homaidi stressed that child recruitment is not limited to Houthi-held territory. “The UN has documented cases among government forces and their affiliated armed groups as well, even if the numbers are far smaller, and coercion is far less common,” he said.

As of 2026, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates more than 22 million Yemenis – nearly two-thirds of the country’s population – require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection, including 5.2 million people internally displaced by years of fighting. The latest resurgence of full-scale conflict has only created new openings for armed groups to draw children into fighting, whether through formal enlistment, informal local resistance cells, family pressure, or the overwhelming force of economic desperation. Under UN definitions, child recruitment extends far beyond formal military enlistment, encompassing any use of minors in combat or support military roles.

For Ibrahim, however, these formal definitions mean little. He does not see himself as a child soldier; he sees himself as a young Yemeni defending his home. “I’m here to take back our village,” he says. For the sake of Yemen’s children and the country’s future, human rights advocates warn, ending this cycle of exploitation will require both a ceasefire to end ongoing fighting and coordinated international action to address the economic collapse and systemic vulnerability that drive recruitment. (Note: All names of minors featured in this report have been changed at the request of sources to protect their safety.)

At just 17 years old, Ibrahim possesses a skill that no teenager should ever need to master: he can operate a Kalashnikov rifle with confidence. Though he is never formally enlisted in Yemeni government-aligned troops, he stands alongside his older brother and male cousins to fight against Houthi forces that advanced on his home village.

When Houthi fighters moved toward the community, Ibrahim grabbed his father’s personal rifle and joined local pro-government resistance ranks. Growing up in Yemen, he says familiarity with firearms is common, even for young people. “We keep a Kalashnikov at home, and I have fired it at weddings and other local gatherings,” Ibrahim explained in an interview with Middle East Eye. Unlike many adult combatants, he has no ambition to build a military career. For Ibrahim, this fight is strictly temporary: once his village is retaken, he plans to lay down his rifle and return to school to pursue his dream of becoming an automotive engineer. “We joined only to take back our home,” he said. “Once that goal is met, we will stop fighting.”

Ibrahim’s story is far from unique. Since the latest round of conflict erupted in Yemen, child combatants have reemerged on front lines across the country, with both major warring parties repeatedly trading accusations that the other illegally recruits and deploys minors. While neither side has formally admitted to recruiting underage fighters, independent investigations, United Nations data and international media reports have consistently confirmed that the practice occurs on both sides of the conflict.

A March 2025 report from the UN Secretary-General focused on children and armed conflict documented 564 verified cases of child recruitment and deployment in Yemen between 2021 and 2023. Of these confirmed cases, 345 were linked to Houthi forces, while 210 were attributed to Yemen’s official armed forces and their affiliated armed groups. The remaining small number of cases were assigned to unidentified actors and the Yemen-based affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The UN confirmed that recruited children range in age from 8 to 17 years old. Of the verified cases, 293 children were deployed directly in combat roles, while 187 served in support positions including military checkpoint guards, informants, and drivers. Twenty-seven of the children used in active combat were under the age of 15.

Ahmed, Ibrahim’s 41-year-old cousin, pushed back against claims that the teen serves in frontline combat. He explained that Ibrahim carries out support duties behind the main line of troops, a role his physical size and experience allow him to fill. “Frontline fighting requires real combat experience — it is not something any untrained person can step into,” Ahmed told Middle East Eye. “Young fighters like Ibrahim provide critical backup to main force units, and their contribution matters a great deal in these desperate circumstances.”

Weeks prior, as fighting between Houthi and government-aligned forces escalated in the Taiz region, a BBC investigation broadcast an interview with a 16-year-old pro-government fighter who claimed he had participated in active frontline combat. In response to the BBC report, Colonel Abdul Basit al-Bahr, deputy head of the Moral Guidance Department at the Taiz Axis Command, told Middle East Eye that the teenager was only accompanying his father and was never enrolled as an official combatant for government forces.

“We in the armed forces maintain a clear policy on child recruitment: it is strictly forbidden, and children are never accepted into our ranks or forced to take part in military operations,” al-Bahr said. Even so, he acknowledged that government forces regularly encounter children on battlefields, some as young as 10 years old. “We implement appropriate legal and humanitarian measures for these children, and refer them to relevant authorities to resolve their situations in line with Yemeni law,” he added, noting that minors captured while fighting alongside Houthi forces are treated as vulnerable children rather than adult enemy combatants.

Independent Yemeni human rights group SAM Organisation for Rights and Liberties has documented a far larger scale of child recruitment: between 2014, when full-scale conflict resumed in Yemen, and February 2023, the group recorded 11,310 cases of recruited children, more than half of whom — 6,269 — were between the ages of 8 and 11.

SAM president Tawfeeq al-Homaidi explained that years of catastrophic economic collapse have created fertile conditions for armed groups to exploit children and their families. “When a family loses its only source of income, when the breadwinner stops getting a salary, when a child is pulled out of school because no one can pay fees, the small cash payment, food ration, or monthly stipend an armed group offers becomes a matter of basic survival, not a free choice,” al-Homaidi said.

In a joint public statement released September 26, 2026, the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedom joined 266 Yemeni human rights and civil society organizations to condemn the Houthi movement’s exploitation of children. The statement emphasized that armed groups have weaponized extreme economic hardship to force minors onto battlefields, noting that “children bear the worst of these violations: forced recruitment, deployment to active battlefields, and exploitation of their own needs and their families’ poverty through ideological and military indoctrination.”

Even so, al-Homaidi warned against framing child recruitment as solely a product of poverty, noting a broader web of driving factors. “It is wrong to reduce this problem only to poverty,” he said. “There are many other causes: ideological mobilization, exploitation of school and summer camp programs, social and tribal pressure, the allure of status, weapons and cash, interrupted education, and in some cases, direct physical coercion.”

A recent Al Jazeera English investigation from Houthi-controlled northern Yemen revealed how armed groups lure children to front lines with tangible incentives: promises of a personal Kalashnikov rifle, a one-month military training course, and a monthly stipend worth roughly $94 (50,000 Yemeni riyals). Al-Homaidi added that recent UN statements have raised sharp alarms about Houthi-run summer camps, where thousands of children are exposed to military training and sectarian ideological indoctrination.

While Houthi forces have faced the bulk of international scrutiny for child recruitment and indoctrination, the practice is not limited to their ranks. “Child recruitment is not confined only to areas under Houthi control,” al-Homaidi stressed. “UN data confirms cases among government forces and their affiliated armed groups too, though the numbers are far smaller, and coercion is rarely used.”

According to 2026 estimates from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 22 million Yemenis — over two-thirds of the country’s population — still require urgent humanitarian assistance and protection services, including 5.2 million people internally displaced by years of conflict. This ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, paired with newly intensified fighting, has created new openings for armed groups to draw children into conflict, whether through formal recruitment, local militia mobilization, family pressure, or economic desperation.

The UN’s definition of child recruitment extends far beyond formal military enlistment, encompassing any use of children in combat or support roles. For Ibrahim, however, these technical labels hold little meaning. Regardless of formal status, he carries a rifle, and he says he is fighting only to take back his home.

To protect the identities of vulnerable minors, the names of child soldiers featured in this reporting have been changed at the request of sources.