A missile struck near Aden International Airport’s runway minutes before a Cairo flight was due to land on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. Authorities cancelled the landing and diverted the aircraft to Jeddah, while workers moved two planes away from the runway amid fears of further strikes. The Houthis said they had targeted a military base and a Saudi military supply convoy inside the airport complex. For people trying to travel, rival armed forces have turned the runway into another front.
Airports, missiles and competing claims
Yemen’s Transport Ministry said Houthi rebels targeted Aden airport with ballistic missiles and explosive drones. The state-run Saba news agency reported two ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones. Military spokesman Yahya Saree said, “Our armed forces fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi military supply convoy that had arrived at Camp Badr, near the airport.” The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, described their target as a military base within the airport complex.
The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile north of Riyadh and tracked its launch platform over Houthi-controlled Sanaa. It said it would destroy the platform but offered no details about casualties or damage. Saree said the Houthis had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with drones; in a separate statement, he said they fired a ballistic missile at the airport. “The strike was accurate, by God's grace, and led to a disruption of air traffic,” he wrote on X. The coalition said it intercepted the missile. Saudi authorities didn’t immediately confirm an attack on the airport or publicly acknowledge reported airspace closures.
The coalition also said it intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile launched toward Khamis Mushait. Saree said the Houthis attacked Abha International Airport and an airbase, also called King Khalid Air Base, in Khamis Mushait, claiming they had “hit their targets accurately.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether that claimed attack was linked to the intercepted missile. Saudi authorities didn’t immediately confirm an attack on Abha airport.
The counteroffensive and the civilian bill
The internationally recognized Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, began a counteroffensive earlier in the week to retake Red Sea coastal territory the Houthis seized the previous month. Government forces, supported by Saudi-led coalition air power, launched their offensive around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait shipping route and the city of Mokha. Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies said they retook Mokha and the Arabian Gulf side of the strait. Houthi channels denied that Mokha had fallen and posted videos of fighters inside the city; other reports and open-source information appeared to support that account. Military sources from both sides who spoke to AFP reported no major changes on the ground, and no independent verification of the claims was possible.
On Wednesday, new clashes in western Yemen killed at least 62 combatants, including 37 Houthis, military sources from both sides told AFP. Another report cited sources who said more than 270 government troops and Houthi fighters had died across the country over the previous day. Saba reported that a Houthi missile hit government-held Taiz and wounded five civilians. Taiz resident Al-Fateh al-Eisaei told AFP: “We went out into the street to check on the wounded and saw young civilians who had been hit. The Houthi shell landed in the middle of the street, right in an area crowded with civilians.”
The United Nations said the latest escalation had displaced more than 200,000 people inside Yemen. The WHO said 959 people were killed and 4,207 wounded across Yemen between Aug. 6 and Oct. 2, citing figures from Yemen’s Ministry of Health and Population across 10 governorates. The UN’s refugee agency said more than 130,000 people had been displaced inside Yemen since the beginning of August, while nearly 3,700 had fled to Djibouti since Sept. 10.
Aid cannot substitute for care
The WHO said cholera cases had tripled in three weeks, with 94% of recent cases in five governorates hosting many displaced people, including Taiz, Aden and Abyan. About half of health facilities in affected governorates lacked support from partner organizations. Only about 1,250 of the 198,000 displaced people, less than 1%, had received health services as of the previous week, according to the WHO. Hospitals faced shortages of surgical supplies, anesthetics, blood-bank stocks and fuel. Emergency maternity services had stopped in Marib and Ras Al-Arah.
“The situation is evolving into a complex emergency, with health needs rising as resources are already severely stretched,” said Dr. Syed Jaffar Hussain, the WHO's representative in Yemen. The organization urgently needed $31 million to expand its health response and sought another $700,000 to support people who fled to Djibouti. Hussain said trauma-stabilization points on the Lahj coast and in Al-Dhale lacked operating partners. “For people with severe injuries, access to trauma care within the first hour can determine whether they survive,” he said. “Few agencies are able to provide trauma care, leaving critical gaps along the front lines.”
The International Organization for Migration said 22.3 million people, more than two-thirds of Yemen’s population, needed humanitarian assistance and protection this year. Saudi aid agency KSrelief and the IOM signed an agreement for a $2.6 million project to improve living conditions for displaced people and vulnerable host communities. KSrelief distributed 20 tents, 20 shelter kits and 20 food baskets in Hadhramout governorate, and provided 46 shelter kits in Aden to 217 people from 46 families displaced from Taiz and Al-Hodeidah. The IOM also raised concern about insufficient funding.
Aid has concrete recipients. So do unmet needs. The WHO warned that without additional funding, gaps in trauma care, maternal and newborn services, outbreak responses and support for displaced people would widen. Meanwhile, the coalition and the Houthis trade claims about missiles and targets, while civilians flee, seek treatment and wait for supplies that arrive late and cost more.