Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed a missile strike on the southern Saudi city of Jizan on July 25, 2026, opening a fiery new front in the region as Saudi coalition forces struck Hodeida.
Red Sea Blockade Triggers Coalition Strikes on Hodeida
The maritime flashpoint widened significantly when Saudi coalition warplanes targeted military targets belonging to the group on Friday. A Yemeni security source told Agence France-Presse that a naval base in the Yemen port city of Hodeida and a military camp on Kamaran island were among the Saudi targets hit. The Saudi-led coalition said it hit Houthi sites and destroyed targets that were threatening commercial vessels, in response to attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, said in a statement that the Saudi strikes focused solely on legitimate military targets that the terrorist Houthi militia uses to threaten commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The military action followed the Houthis declaring a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia on Monday, threatening to cut off the kingdom’s oil exports through the Red Sea after claiming attacks on two Saudi oil tankers earlier in the week.
The Houthis had accused US ally Riyadh of a dangerous escalation
after it struck military targets belonging to the group on Friday. The rebels accused Saudi Arabia of a dangerous escalation
and said its actions will not go unanswered
.
Missiles Target Jizan and Yanbu Oil Infrastructure
Retaliation from Yemen arrived swiftly on Saturday. Yemen-based Houthi rebels claimed a missile attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Saturday, after vowing retaliation against the kingdom for attacks this week. Riyadh did not immediately comment on the Houthis’ Ansarollah media post on Telegram on Saturday that a Yemeni missile strike
had sparked fires in the port city of Jizan.
Simultaneously, air defense systems in Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles from Yemen targeting oil refineries in Yanbu, Greek security sources told Reuters. An air defense system operated by Greek military personnel in Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles launched from Yemen on Saturday, news agency Reuters cited Greek security sources as saying. Reuters reported that the interception was the second time that Greek military personnel had operated the system. Since 2021, a bilateral defense agreement to protect Saudi Arabia’s critical energy infrastructure has seen Greece deploy a US-made Patriot air defense battery, operated by Hellenic Air Force personnel. Earlier in the morning, the Saudi Civil Defense had alerted residents of Yanbu about a potential danger
in the governorate, without giving any further details. It later advised the public that the said danger had passed.
Washington Weighs Tipping Point as Middle East War Widens
The widening conflict intersects directly with the broader U.S. military campaign against the Islamic Republic, following 13 nights in a row hitting military targets there. The US military broke its daily announcement of fresh strikes on the Islamic Republic on Saturday. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would hold Iran responsible for further attacks by the Houthis, after the militant group said it had struck the Saudi tankers.
If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,
he said in a Truth Social post. US forces “disableda merchant vessel that attempted to circumvent the US blockade on Iranian ports, military sources told the Associated Press news agency. US Central Command spokesperson Tim Hawkins told AP that the M/T Lavine was
disabled” in the Gulf of Oman on Friday, after the vessel had reportedly attempted to circumvent the US blockade four times.
Donald Trump said he had not decided on whether to launch major strikes on Iran, hours before the conflict widened across the region with Yemen’s Houthi rebels claiming a missile attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan. Trump threatens Iran and Houthi rebels with ‘major military punishment’. The flare-up marks a new front in a war that has engulfed the region following US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in February, and comes on top of Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Riyadh’s only other maritime route.
