With renewed tensions between the US and Iran following the breakdown of negotiations in Islamabad on Saturday, the spectre of regional war has returned to loom over the Red Sea, along Yemen's western coast, once again placing Hodeidah Governorate at the heart of the danger zone.
The US started its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, blocking Iranian vessels to pressure Tehran to fully reopen the crucial waterway, a move which, according to the Wall Street Journal , was discouraged by Saudi Arabia , which is concerned that the naval blockade would trigger attacks on other key shipping routes, like the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, further disrupting energy markets.
Tehran's Yemeni allies, Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis, had launched about 190 attacks on vessels travelling along its Red Sea coastline, slowing the container ship capacity by 64% from October 2024-25, according to the Kiel Institute , a German think tank.
The renewed possibility of targeting maritime assets, whether by missiles or drones, is raising fears of Israeli and US airstrikes on Hodeidah, including areas near the ports or even civilian neighbourhoods.
"This potential escalation threatens international trade routes and exacerbates the already precarious humanitarian situation of displaced persons who live near these strategic areas," political analyst Adel Al-Shujaa told The New Arab . "They have no safe passages and no ability to relocate."
Activist Ghalib al-Qudaymi explained that Kamaran Island—the largest Yemeni island in the Red Sea, where the Houthis launched attacks on ships in 2024-25—is home to around 6,000 residents and is administratively part of Hodeidah governorate.
"The island has become like a large prison," al-Qudaym told The New Arab . "Residents are banned from owning phones, including burner phones, and are prohibited from communicating with the outside world."
He noted that the island has become a military base under Houthi control, with a possible presence of Iranian and Lebanese elements given its strategic importance. He added that the same situation is replicated on other islands under the group's control, such as Jabal al-Tayr and Uqban, which he says are also used as launch sites for missiles and drones. Looming humanitarian crisis In 2018, fisherman Ghanem Futaini, 55, left his home in the Durayhimi district, south of Hodeidah city, when fighting broke out between Houthi fighters and the armed forces of the country's internationally recognised government.
Along with his four children, his wife and his sister, Futaini moved southeast of the governorate to the Hais district, where they settled in a displacement camp—overnight uprooted and with no livelihood, yet not much safer.
Hais is not far from the coast where, between 11 January and 30 May 2024, the US and UK conducted five joint naval and air strikes against the Houthis. The strikes were a response to Houthi attacks on shipping routes near the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, a crucial maritime chokepoint for global oil and trade, in retaliation against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The US conducted separate air strikes sporadically between January and May 2025 , while Israel also targeted what it claims are Houthi-linked sites in Yemen on separate operations.
"My move from Durayhimi to Hais was not a transition from war to safety," Futaini told TNA , "but a movement within the same circle of threat, from a coastal confrontation zone to a land contact zone."
With the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran in late February and the Houthis' decision to join the conflict a month later, resuming attacks on Israel following a pause since the 2025 Gaza ceasefire agreement, Futaini is rattled by the prospect of yet another war.
The camp where he lives sits in a shared contact zone between areas under Houthi control and areas under the internationally recognised government, the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council , leaving it vulnerable to becoming a target of airstrikes or ground fighting.
"My family is living under extremely harsh conditions," Futaini told TNA . "We lost our source of income, and fleeing again is not an option. Every day we hear about the Houthis firing missiles at Israel, and we fear that retaliation could come at any moment."
At another displacement camp north of Hodeidah, in the Alzahrah district, Mohammed al-Tahami leaves his tent, where thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) live in dire humanitarian conditions.
He walks to nearby villages, knocking on doors and asking farmers for food scraps to survive.
The 50-year-old was displaced from Hodeidah two years ago, following Israeli strikes on Hodeidah port in July 2024 that targeted oil facilities and infrastructure, causing fires, casualties, and killing at least six people. The attacks also cost al-Tahami his job as a port worker while damaging the rented home he lived in nearby.
Since then, he had been relying on a food basket from the World Food Programme to feed his elderly mother, his wife, and five children. But that lifeline too was cut off last year in Houthi-controlled areas, when the group expelled US and UK aid workers in 2024.
"If a new war breaks out, no one will be left to help us," he told TNA , "the bombardment could reach anywhere in Hodeidah."
Futaini and Al-Tahami's fear of Yemen's involvement in the war reflects that of over 5.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) already living on the edge of survival, according to the latest estimates by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
Yemen is home to one of the worst humanitarian crises on earth. Some 19.5 million people require assistance, more than half the population faces acute food insecurity, and years of conflict, salary suspensions, and sanctions have gutted the economy.
The suspension of most UN humanitarian operations in Houthi-controlled areas severed a critical supply chain for millions. US strikes on Hodeidah in 2025, specifically hits on Sanaa and migrant detention facilities, described by Human Rights Watch as a possible war crime, have sharpened fears that civilians will again pay with their lives. One million displaced The Tihama Organisation for Rights, Development and Heritage , which operates in Houthi-controlled areas, reported that Houthi-held areas of Hodeidah governorate house approximately 804,000 IDPs. In contrast, the official government-controlled areas have around 137,000.
With its large population and strategic coastal location, fears are growing that Hodeidah could become a direct target of any military response.
"The danger posed by this concentration of IDPs is not only in the numbers, but in how they are clustered in narrow, exposed areas, making them vulnerable to any military escalation," Najeeb al-Saadi, head of the Executive Unit for Displacement Camp Management, told TNA .
He explains that 65% of displaced persons are concentrated in the coastal Khawkhah district, a major hub for humanitarian relief, in camps just meters from the sea, while 27% live in Hais, where many are settled in tents close to the front lines. Around 8% are scattered across the Al-Tahita district, an area frequently subjected to bombardment.
Ghaleb al-Qudaimi, a relief worker in Hodeidah Governorate, confirms that most international organisations, including UN agencies, have suspended operations in Houthi-controlled areas due to security restrictions and detentions, resulting in a near-total absence of humanitarian assistance.
"It is more dangerous than displacement itself," al-Qudaimi told TNA , noting that civilians are now completely exposed with "no humanitarian support whatsoever."
In the event of another confrontation, al-Saadi warns of a massive new wave of displacement.
"No fewer than 5,000 families may be forced to flee from contact zones in Hais and Al-Tahita in southern Hodeidah, in addition to approximately 7,000 families from the coastal districts, and at least 8,000 families from within Hodeidah city itself," al-Saadi said.
He added that these numbers will flow into areas already suffering from overcrowding, leading to the chaotic expansion of camps, multiple families sharing a single tent, rising rates of malnutrition, and the collapse of water and sanitation services.
Al-Qudaimi further points to a danger that rivals famine.
"Hodeidah is one of the most heavily mine-contaminated areas in the country," he told TNA , claiming that Houthi-laid mines spread across roads, farms, and even near residential areas, making any new displacement movement a journey through the valley of death.
The collapse of the health system will also lead to an increase in preventable deaths, he added, particularly among children and women, amid severe medicine shortages and declining services.
Al-Qudaimi says that the danger is compounded by Yemen’s heavy dependence on Hodeidah port, which supplies approximately 70% of the population with food and fuel.
Local officials note that any targeting of the port or disruption of its operations would trigger a humanitarian crisis that extends far beyond the governorate's borders.
This scenario recalls the American strikes on the Ras Issa port in Hodeidah on 17 April 2025, which Human Rights Watch said resulted in dozens of civilian casualties and severe damage to the port's infrastructure, and which the organisation described as a war crime.
"These sites could become military corridors or battlegrounds, meaning the displaced will not merely be affected, they will be at the epicentre of the danger," said Al-Qudaimi, noting that the city of Hais itself is likely to become a severe pressure point, and that any new wave of displacement could lead to rapid service collapse and an unprecedented humanitarian concentration.
In the broader context, Tawfiq Al-Humaidi, president of SAM Organisation for Rights and Liberties, warned that the Houthis' involvement in regional tensions could widen the conflict, triggering international intervention.
"This would place Hodeidah directly in the line of fire," Al-Humaidi told TNA .
"Targeting civilian infrastructure would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law, particularly if it disrupts access to food and medicine, which could lead to indirect starvation," he said.
Al-Saadi warned that Hodeidah's IDPs "don't live on the margins of the conflict, they live in its heart."
They are trapped between a potential war on one side and an already-unfolding humanitarian collapse on the other, he said, "with no capacity to flee, nothing to hold on to, and no guarantees of protection." This article is published in collaboration with Egab .