Yemeni government escalates attacks against Houthis: What’s next?

What the report says

Yemen’s internationally recognised government says its forces have carried out more than 100 operations against the Houthi movement in the past 24 hours, as fighting spreads across multiple fronts. The Al Jazeera report, published on 18 August 2026, says the clashes involve government-aligned units and the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, in a conflict that has again intensified after a period of relative calm linked to a 2022 UN-brokered truce.

According to the article, the latest government escalation followed a Houthi claim that its forces hit a ship and accompanying warships near al-Makha in Taiz province. Al Jazeera reports fighting has been reported in Marib, al-Jawf, Hadramout, Hodeidah, Taiz, al-Dhale and Lahj. The piece also says government forces launched a preemptive operation on 6 August against alleged Houthi weapons-smuggling routes, after which Houthi attacks increased.

The report describes the battlefield as increasingly fluid. It says government forces have shifted toward broader preemptive strikes, while the Houthis have continued missile, drone and artillery attacks, including strikes on Marib and on the Red Sea port city of al-Makha. Al Jazeera notes that the Houthis control much of northern Yemen, including Sanaa, and that the government is backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

The article says analysts are divided on whether the current escalation will lead to a full-scale war, but it warns that Yemen, already facing a severe humanitarian crisis, appears to be moving farther from the ceasefire period that followed the 2022 truce.