Yemen’s four-year truce collapsed in July after a strike on Sanaa airport runway
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s war resumed in July after a strike on the runway at Sanaa International Airport, ending about four years of calm under a United Nations-brokered truce.
The strike, on July 13, was meant to stop an Iranian aircraft from landing in the Houthi-held capital.
Responsibility for it is disputed. Yemen’s internationally recognised government said it carried out the attack, according to Al Jazeera. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia.
The aircraft was to collect a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said in a July 15 analysis.
The plane landed instead at another airport under Houthi control.
The Houthis then declared the ceasefire with the government and Saudi Arabia over, Reuters reported on July 23.
A senior Houthi figure had threatened a siege of Saudi Arabia the day after the airport strike.
The group fired ballistic missiles at Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted them.
On July 20 the Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, effective immediately.
Their statement said they were answering a blockade with a blockade, and escalation with escalation. It accused Saudi leaders of nearly 12 years of siege on Yemen’s ports, airports and resources.
Saudi Arabia bombed Houthi targets in Hodeidah on July 24, after Houthi strikes on Saudi oil tankers, Reuters reported.
Two days later the group struck the Jizan oil refinery and the port city of Yanbu.
The United States reimposed its naval blockade on Iran on July 14, France 24 reported. A senior Houthi official said the group was prepared to close Bab al-Mandab.
Reuters reported on July 16 that Iran had asked the Houthis to be ready to close the strait if the United States struck Iranian power infrastructure.
The Houthis began striking government forces across Yemen with missiles and drones on August 6, according to the Long War Journal.
The fighting moved onto the ground in September.
A Houthi offensive in Taiz on September 3 sought to cut the road to Mokha, Al Jazeera reported. The Presidential Leadership Council answered with a counter-offensive in Al-Jawf and Al-Bayda.
The council said on September 4 that it had retaken the al-Khazan and al-Makahna hills in Jabal Habashi.
Yemeni forces launched a wider counteroffensive on September 8 and said they would retake Sanaa.
The Houthis captured the districts of Hays and Al Khawkhah and the Hanish Islands in the days that followed, the Jerusalem Post reported on September 10.
They also seized the Red Sea port of Mocha and widened their hold on the Bab al-Mandab strait, according to Al Jazeera.
The government said on September 11 that its forces had withdrawn from Perim. Reuters reported that the Houthis had reached the island at the mouth of the shipping lane.
Al Jazeera reported the seizure of Mayun Island on September 13.
Government forces regained a position in the ash-Shamaytayn district of Taiz on September 23, Anadolu reported.
The Houthis control much of northern and western Yemen. The government holds the south and east.
Houthi drones and missiles hit Khamis Mushait, Abha, Jizan and Najran between September 6 and 8, The Associated Press reported. Accounts at the time put the number wounded at 73 and said several oil sites were damaged.
Death tolls for the September fighting conflict. Arab News reported on September 7 that the toll had passed 300. Sources cited by Agence France-Presse put it above 500 the next day. The Presidential Leadership Council has given a figure of 278.
Saudi Arabia backs the internationally recognised government.
Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman has pointed to the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed in August. Pakistan and Türkiye are increasing their support, Al Jazeera reported.
France said on September 25 that it was sending troops to guard the Yanbu oil terminal. It said it was not joining the conflict.
The United States has made no pledge of military involvement.
The government accuses the Houthis of using Iranian air defence weapons. Iran denies a role, and President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Houthi actions are not connected to Iran.
The cost so far is counted mainly in displacement.
UNICEF said at least 146,000 people were displaced in three weeks, most of them from or within Taiz. Akhil Iyer, the agency’s representative in Yemen, gave the figure in late September.
The agency also recorded at least 15 children killed, 14 injured and three missing since early September.
The International Organization for Migration put displacement at a minimum of 76,000 on September 12.
More than 3,000 people crossed to Djibouti in early September, Djiboutian state media said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says more than 22 million people in Yemen need aid and protection.
It puts the number facing acute food shortages at 18.3 million, and the number of acutely malnourished children under five at 2.2 million.
No negotiations are under way.
Iran offered a ceasefire on September 25 covering Yemen and Lebanon, and tied it to conditions involving the United States. President Donald Trump rejected the offer.
The 2022 truce was never turned into a permanent settlement.
Yemen Herald could not independently verify battlefield claims made by either side.
Bab al-Mandab carried 7.4 million barrels of oil a day in June, according to figures from the data firm Kpler.
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