Houthis strike Saudi cities after Hodeida raids raise Red Sea shipping fears

Cairo,UPDATED: Jul 25, 2026 19:58 IST

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Saturday that they fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi airstrikes on the strategic Red Sea city of Hodeida, in the latest escalation around key shipping routes in the Middle East. The development comes as tensions remain high over the Strait of Hormuz, where the United States and Iran are locked in a widening confrontation.

Brig Gen Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, 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 an apparent break after nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of US attacks.

The rising tension in the Red Sea has also raised fresh concerns over global shipping. The rebels have said they would close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping. The waterway, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is a vital shipping route. Around 12 per cent of global trade, including a quarter of container traffic, passes through it.

The Houthis had targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea earlier this week. In response, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said early on Saturday that it had carried out strikes on Hodeida late on Friday. Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry, said the strikes hit the city's port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two people.

The Saudi-led 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, in an interview published on Saturday in the state-run Iran newspaper, called for "diplomacy and dialogue" to solve the Yemen conflict without "military confrontations".

In Iran, Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the country's Health Ministry, posted on X: "Iran had a peaceful night." US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, unlike the previous 13 nights, it did not announce any new strikes.

After the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February, a fragile ceasefire that had halted major operations for several weeks appeared to have unravelled this month. The US accused Iran of striking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and responded by hitting dozens of targets in Iran. Iran then retaliated by firing at US-allied Gulf Arab states. The Strait of Hormuz has remained central to the conflict. On Friday, the US military fired on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Oman that it said was trying to breach its renewed blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran targeted US-allied countries in the region.

US embassies alerted American nationals in the Middle East on Friday that options to leave could become more limited. At the same time, Iran's Revolutionary Guard advised residents of neighbouring countries to stay away from bases with US troops. According to Iran's Health Ministry, the war has killed more than 3,400 people in Iran. Eighteen US service members, 24 civilians in Israel, and smaller numbers of civilians in countries across the region have also been reported dead. In Lebanon, more than 4,000 people have been killed, along with 38 Israeli troops, after the Iran-backed Hezbollah fired at Israel in support of Iran.

Overall, the latest Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia, the Saudi strikes on Hodeida, and the pause in overnight strikes in Iran underlined how tensions remain high across the region, with both Red Sea and Gulf shipping routes under growing pressure.

With PTI Inputs

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