On Thursday, the Saudi-led military coalition announced the interception of a cruise missile in the Medina region, while the Ansar Allah “Houthi” group denied these reports.
On Thursday, the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council announced the postponement of their summit, which was scheduled in Riyadh on October 24, to a date to be determined later, in light of the continuing escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen.
The military spokesman for the Houthi Ansar Allah movement, Yahya Saree, denied carrying out a targeting operation towards Medina, and said that what “Saudi Arabia claims” about targeting towards Medina is “a great and major slander,” as he put it.
The spokesman for the military coalition led by the Kingdom, Turki Al-Maliki, said in a post on the X platform that the Kingdom had “intercepted and destroyed a winged (cruise) missile in the Medina region.”
The coalition announced, at dawn on Thursday, the interception and destruction of a drone in the eastern region.
On the other hand, Houthi media reported attacks on Sanaa that they said were Saudi.
The military spokesman for the Ansar Allah Houthi group, Yahya Saree, announced on Wednesday that King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was targeted with a ballistic missile, adding that the missile hit its target “accurately,” as he put it.
Saree also announced, after midnight on Wednesday/Thursday, that a Saudi Typhoon warplane had been targeted in the airspace of Saada Governorate with a surface-to-air missile, saying that it had been “directly hit and is at risk of falling,” as he put it.
The coalition reported earlier this month that there had been a "terrorist attack" on the Taybah electricity distribution station in Medina, accusing the Houthis of targeting it.
He said that the attack targeted “a civilian property providing electrical services to the Prophet’s Mosque,” and “caused one of the transformers to go out of service without affecting the electrical network.”
The Houthi-run Saba News Agency at the time quoted a Houthi military source who denied that the Houthis had launched the attack.
Last month, Riyadh also accused the Houthis of trying to target Mecca with a drone, which the Houthis denied.
The European Union announced, in a statement on Thursday, the postponement of the summit between its member states and the Gulf countries, which was scheduled in Riyadh on October 24.
The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jassem Al-Budaiwi, attributed the postponement of the summit to the Houthis’ continued attempts to target Saudi Arabia and its civilian objects, extending the suspension of operational operations at King Khalid International Airport, and ensuring the safety of the participating delegations.
The European Union confirmed that a new date for the summit will be announced later, stressing the strategic importance of the partnership with the Gulf states and its commitment to deepening it. The European statement did not specify the reason for the postponement.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh remains closed following recent attacks, including an attack on October 10 that killed at least 12 people.
In a development on the ground, forces affiliated with the internationally recognized Yemeni government announced, on Thursday, that they had repelled a Houthi attack on Mount Han, west of the city of Taiz.
The Deputy Head of the Moral Guidance Division in the Taiz Military Axis, Colonel Abdul Basit Al-Bahr, said that the forces thwarted the attack, without announcing a loss toll. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis, according to Anadolu Agency.
Mount Han overlooks the fog road that connects Taiz to Lahj Governorate, and from there to Aden, which gives it importance in securing access to the city.
On the other hand, the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah channel reported that raids it said were Saudi targeted the communications network in the Al-Nashma area of Al-Maafer District, south of Taiz Governorate.
On the humanitarian front, the World Food Program warned on Wednesday that the escalation in fighting was preventing it and its partners from reaching more than 600,000 people who depend on humanitarian aid in Taiz, including more than 200,000 women and children.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that hospitals in Yemen are facing increasing pressure with the rise in the number of war-wounded and the escalation of battles on several fronts.
For its part, the United Nations welcomed, on Wednesday, the release of Sami Al-Kalabi, an employee in the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, who had been detained by the Houthis since 2024.
UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said that Al-Kalabi has now returned to his home and his family.
The United Nations renewed its call on the Houthis to immediately and unconditionally release all remaining detainees from United Nations employees, international and national non-governmental organizations, civil society and diplomatic missions.
To date, 71 UN employees are still detained by the Ansar Allah Houthi group.
In its World Economic Outlook report issued on Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund expected that Saudi Arabia’s economy would contract by 3.3% in 2026, in a rare recession that the Kingdom is witnessing. These forecasts were prepared before the recent attacks on Riyadh Airport.
The Fund expects the region's economies to recover from the consequences of the war, but not in the medium term. Jihad Azour, director of the Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, said on Thursday: “We will not return to the pre-war path in the medium term, because this shock will leave a lasting impact in various sectors, and will affect a number of infrastructures, which will require additional spending to enhance resilience.”
