A projectile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck Saudi Arabia's Jazan region on Saturday night, wounding two people and causing material damage to a mosque, several buildings, and a number of vehicles, Saudi Civil Defence authorities said. The incident occurred in the al-Tuwal governorate, a district near the Saudi-Yemeni border in the kingdom's southwest. Civil Defence officials described the targeting of civilian infrastructure as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and confirmed that emergency procedures had been activated. Authorities also issued a precautionary alert for the nearby Khamis Mushait governorate, which was later lifted.
The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, claimed the strike was aimed at a military base in Sharurah, a city in Saudi Arabia's southern Najran province. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the attack used ballistic missiles and drones and hit "weapons depots and command and control centres" he described as directing operations against Yemen. He did not specify when the attack took place and warned that further Saudi military actions would provoke larger and deeper strikes inside the kingdom. The divergence between the Houthi claim of a military target and Saudi reports of civilian damage underscores a persistent pattern of disputed narratives in the conflict.
Saturday's strike is the latest in a series of Houthi attacks on southern Saudi cities. Earlier in the week, strikes on Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, and Najran wounded 73 people, including women and children. The Houthis have also declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports. Meanwhile, the US news site Axios reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman twice requested American military strikes against the Houthis last week, a request that was rejected. President Donald Trump acknowledged speaking with the Saudi leader but told reporters he expected the situation to resolve peacefully.
The cross-border strikes come amid a broader escalation in Yemen's civil war, which reignited in July after roughly four years of relative calm under a UN-brokered truce. The conflict, which began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital Sana'a, has now killed more than 500 people in its latest phase, according to figures from both sides and international agencies. Some 76,000 people have been displaced since July — a number that quadrupled in just one week — according to the UN's International Organization for Migration, which warned that "needs are far outpacing what we can deliver." The UN Security Council held an emergency session on the crisis this month, with Special Envoy Hans Grundberg cautioning that Yemen is entering "a new and more dangerous phase of war."
Yemeni government forces, backed by Riyadh and based in the southern city of Aden, have continued to resist the Houthi advance, conducting airstrikes on Houthi positions in the Taiz region and near the recently fallen port city of Mokha. The Houthis claim that Saudi aircraft carried out 129 strikes on areas under their control over a 48-hour period ending Saturday — a level of aerial activity that reflects the sharply intensified tempo of a conflict with growing regional dimensions.