Egypt's top security body said on Sunday it would give Saudi Arabia "all necessary and possible forms of support" against escalating attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. The pledge came as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) condemned the strikes and as fighting inside Yemen displaced more than 233,000 people. Egypt's National Defence Council, chaired by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, gave no details of what the support would involve. Sissi has asked parliament to authorise deploying troops and equipment abroad. Lawmakers held an emergency session on Sunday but postponed a decision by two days, according to reports. Egypt's constitution requires approval from the council and two-thirds of parliament before combat troops are sent abroad.
The Houthis have attacked Saudi airports, oil facilities and Red Sea tankers with drones and missiles, some of which can change course in flight and are hard to intercept. Last Saturday's strike on Riyadh's international airport killed 13 people and wounded about 300. Overnight, the Saudi-led coalition said it had shot down drones near Riyadh and in the oil-rich Eastern Province, and intercepted two ballistic missiles fired towards Khamis Mushait in the south. On Sunday, two Saudi officers died when a reconnaissance helicopter crashed in the Najran region near the Yemeni border, the first military deaths Riyadh has reported since the conflict reignited. The coalition blamed a technical malfunction; the Houthis claimed they shot it down. A projectile also wounded six people in a residential area of Najran.
Meeting in Manama, Bahrain, GCC foreign ministers said an attack on one member affects all six and backed Saudi Arabia's right to defend itself. They urged stricter enforcement of the UN arms embargo and called on states to designate the Houthis a terrorist organisation. Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman also met UAE leaders in Abu Dhabi. The two Gulf states have had tense relations in recent years, after backing different factions in Yemen. Egypt's Al-Azhar, a leading institution of Sunni Islam, called for an urgent Arab and Islamic mediation committee to end regional conflicts.
Inside Yemen, the war has returned after a truce that had held since 2022 collapsed in July. The Houthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, recently captured territory along the Red Sea coast and near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping route and an alternative for Saudi oil exports since the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted. Houthi negotiator Mohamed Abdulsalam blamed Riyadh for the escalation, while a Saudi diplomat said the rebels refused talks in Oman. The Houthi-run health ministry said an airstrike killed at least nine people in Saada, and blamed Saudi Arabia, which did not comment.
Civilians are suffering most. In Taiz, a city in south-western Yemen, the UN says 121,000 people have been displaced. Residents report cooking gas has run out, food prices have risen fivefold, and the World Health Organization says hospitals have fuel for four more days amid a cholera outbreak.
The developments matter because Egypt's military is among the region's largest, yet its role in the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 has largely been limited to securing Red Sea navigation. Any shift towards direct involvement would widen a conflict already linked to the wider Iran war.