Armed groups operating under the Houthi banner attributed a series of overnight strikes along Yemen's northern border and western coastline to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. No comment from Saudi Arabia had been issued by the time the allegation surfaced. Alerts blared and detonations rattled the Saudi capital in the hours before the strikes were reported.
Broadcasts from al-Masirah satellite television on Tuesday indicated that two separate strikes landed on Kamaran, a Red Sea island under Houthi control, with a third targeting Qanawis district — located roughly 55 kilometres, or about 34 miles, to the northwest of the port city of Hodeida. Jawf province, which shares a border with Saudi Arabia, was also named in the outlet's airstrike coverage. The Houthi-affiliated broadcaster attributed the strikes to Saudi Arabia, though no supporting details were put forward.
The armed group additionally claimed to have brought down a Saudi drone above Saada, a province in northern Yemen that sits along the border with Saudi Arabia and serves as a stronghold for the group. No statement from Saudi Arabia had been put forward by the time of publication.
Explosion sounds reached residents of Riyadh on Monday evening, around the same time air raid sirens rang out across the capital — a sequence of events that preceded the strikes by only a matter of hours. In a separate statement, the Houthis announced they had launched a ballistic missile targeting King Khalid International Airport, a facility that has faced repeated strikes over the past several days.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministry operating under Houthi administration in Yemen put out an aviation notice classifying Saudi airports as presenting safety concerns for international carriers, while carving out an exception covering flights bound for the pilgrimage cities of Mecca and Medina. In a dispatch carried by the SABA news agency, which operates under Houthi authority, the ministry put forward the position that security, stability, and sovereignty are shared conditions — ones that either extend to all parties or ultimately benefit none.
Egypt's foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, called on Tuesday for an immediate halt to Houthi attacks targeting Saudi Arabia. Abdelatty conveyed to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that the attacks lacked any grounds for acceptance, while also pressing for a diplomatic path and a negotiated resolution to the Iran-US tension as a way to prevent further destabilisation across the region, per the Egyptian account of the exchange.
On Tuesday, the Qatari emir urged Gulf states to strengthen their collective security arrangements as fighting between Houthi forces and Saudi Arabia intensifies amid a broader period of regional instability that has drawn in Iran, the United States, and Israel. Protecting shipping lanes through the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, along with energy infrastructure that has drawn repeated attacks since the Iran-U.S. tensions escalated, was among the priorities Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani urged regional partners to address with greater urgency. Armed clashes in the region broke out on 28 February.
In a speech before the Shura Council, the emir put forward the position that actions carried out by Israel in Gaza amount to genocide — a characterisation that Israeli officials have consistently rejected. A demand for those in Israeli leadership positions to face legal consequences was also put forward by the emir.
World economic output through the first half of 2026 held firmer than forecasters had projected, the IMF announced Tuesday — yet the fund noted that stubbornly high energy and fuel prices continue to weigh on what households can actually afford to spend. According to the IMF's World Economic Outlook, consumer prices are forecast to climb to 4.7 per cent across the current year, then pull back to 4.1 per cent by 2027.
The IMF projected that global growth would ease to 3.1 per cent in 2026, down from 3.5 per cent the previous year, before recovering to 3.4 per cent in 2027, while its statement noted that a drawn-out stalemate or deepening conflict in the Middle East carried the potential to push energy and food prices higher and more volatile, reignite inflationary pressures, strain fiscal and external balances, and drag on economic output.
