Houthis hit Saudi oil sites after Hodeida strikes, Red Sea tensions rise

Cairo,UPDATED: Jul 26, 2026 01:54 IST

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Saturday that they had fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia after Saudi airstrikes on the strategic Red Sea city of Hodeida, escalating tensions around key shipping lanes in the Middle East. The developments came as the United States and Iran continue to compete for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Houthi military spokesperson Brig Gen Yahya Saree said in a prerecorded statement that the attack targeted Aramco facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan. Saudi Arabia’s civil defence said alerts sounded multiple times early on Saturday in both cities, but the kingdom did not comment further.

There were no reported strikes overnight in Iran, in what appeared to be a break after nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of US attacks.

The Houthis have said they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping in response to the kingdom’s blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa. Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi-led Supreme Political Council in rebel-controlled parts of Yemen, said: "Nothing short of ending the aggression and lifting the blockade, otherwise, it’s all illusion and mirage."

The Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12 per cent of the world’s trade, including a quarter of its container traffic, passes through it.

The Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week. In response, the Saudi-led coalition said it had struck Hodeida. Anees al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said the strikes late on Friday hit the port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two people. The coalition said it did not hit the port, but struck "legitimate military targets" in Hodeida province that "were linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea".

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for "diplomacy and dialogue" to resolve the Yemen conflict without "military confrontations", according to an interview published on Saturday by the state-run newspaper Iran.

Iran also said it had not come under attack overnight. "Iran had a peaceful night," Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran’s Health Ministry, wrote on X. US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment and, unlike the previous 13 nights, did not announce new strikes.

At the same time, Iran’s foreign ministry condemned what it described as a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying one person was killed and another injured and calling it an act of aggression. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that Ukraine had "achieved very strong results with long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea - including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran".

As mediation efforts between the US and Iran continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to travel to the United States next week and meet President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday, according to his office. The two last met in Washington in February, weeks before they launched the war.

A fragile ceasefire that had halted major operations for weeks appears to have weakened this month. The US has accused Iran of striking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and responded with strikes on dozens of targets in Iran. Iran then retaliated by firing at US-allied Gulf Arab states.

The US military has renewed its blockade of Iran’s ports, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has advised people in neighbouring countries to stay away from bases hosting US troops. Iran’s Health Ministry says the war has killed more than 3,400 people in the country. Across the region, 18 US service members, 24 civilians in Israel and smaller numbers of civilians, including foreign workers and mariners, have also reportedly been killed.

In Lebanon, more than 4,000 people have been killed since Iran-backed Hezbollah militants fired at Israel in support of the Islamic Republic two days after the war began, and Israel responded with strikes and ground operations. Thirty-eight Israeli troops have also been killed. Overall, Saturday’s developments underlined the widening regional fallout, from the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb to the Strait of Hormuz and the Caspian Sea.

With PTI Inputs

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