Sanaa

Overview

Sanaa is the capital of Yemen, at the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. It has long been the seat of national political authority and a center of military command, party organization, and diplomacy. Its importance extends beyond the institutions located there: whoever controls Sanaa holds a powerful bargaining position in struggles over Yemen’s government. The city is inhabited principally by Arabs and has also been home to Yemenite Jews. Sanaa’s political role changed sharply when the Houthi movement seized it on September 21, 2014. The takeover became a defining event of the Yemeni civil war and gave the Houthis a capital from which to consolidate rule and conduct later military campaigns.

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, emerged from the Zaydi Shiite community of Yemen’s northwestern Saada district. They are an Iran-backed terrorist organization. Their advance on Sanaa was aided by divisions within Yemen’s military and by troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Iranian regime supplied the movement with arms and funding as it expanded. Saleh’s alliance with the Houthis gave them military strength and access to a political network rooted in the capital. Their victory therefore reflected both the movement’s own advance and the collapse of resistance within Yemen’s divided state.

Control of Sanaa did not give the Houthis uncontested authority over Yemen. President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi left the city for Aden in February 2015, and the central government was expelled from Sanaa in March. Aden subsequently served as its alternative capital. Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners intervened against the Houthis in 2015, while the Houthis retained Sanaa and, during the war, the major port of Hodeidah. The capital remained central to negotiations because the Houthis had little incentive to surrender the political and administrative leverage it conferred.

Geography

Sanaa lies in Yemen’s central highlands, inland from the Red Sea coast. Its location helped make it a seat of government distinct from the southern port of Aden and the western port of Hodeidah. Roads from the capital lead toward tribal areas and eastern governorates, including Ma’rib. Control of these approaches has mattered during the civil war: forces advancing toward the capital faced both difficult terrain and the task of assembling a cohesive army capable of taking a large, defended city.

The city’s airport is a particularly important connection between the inland capital and the wider region. Sanaa International Airport became a focus of the Saudi-led coalition’s restrictions after the Houthi takeover and later a target of Israeli strikes during the conflict between the Houthis and Israel. Air access has carried political as well as practical significance. Restrictions limited direct contact with Iran, the Houthis’ principal external patron; renewed flights between Sanaa and Tehran in 2026 raised questions about the movement of personnel and supplies.

Jewish history

Sanaa formed part of the long history of Jewish life in Yemen. In 1914, the Alliance Israélite Universelle received permission to establish a school in the city where Arabic, Hebrew, and a foreign language could be taught. Jewish emigration from Yemen rose at several points during the first half of the twentieth century and reached its height after Israel’s establishment in 1948. By 1950, almost all Yemenite Jews had relocated to Israel. The community’s history nevertheless continued in Sanaa, where a small number of Jews remained.

Safety became an acute concern for Jews living elsewhere in Yemen. Before a rescue in February 2009, approximately 280 Jews remained in the country, including about 230 in Rida and 50 in Sanaa. After Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked Jewish families’ homes in the north, families moved from Saada to the capital. Yemeni authorities transferred 70 Jews from northern Yemen to a compound in Sanaa in 2009, acknowledging that they could not protect them in their former communities. Relocation to the capital offered greater proximity to state protection but did not end the danger facing the remaining community.

On May 22, 2012, Aaron Zindani, a Yemenite Jew, was stabbed to death in Sanaa. His killing underscored the insecurity that had driven many Yemenite Jews to leave the country or move within it. The history of Jews in Sanaa is thus part of both Yemen’s older religious diversity and the much smaller community that survived the twentieth-century migration to Israel.

Modern history

Under Saleh, political patronage and privilege were concentrated among elites in Sanaa. That concentration deepened grievances in Yemen’s north and south. The capital was also a focal point of the unrest that challenged Saleh’s rule in 2011. In late May, forces loyal to him attacked the home of tribal leader and political opponent Sadeq al-Ahmar. Saleh was seriously wounded in an attack on the presidential palace in Sanaa on June 3 and recovered abroad. During his absence, his son Ahmed Ali, who headed the Republican Guard, moved into the palace. These struggles exposed fractures among the political, tribal, and military forces on which government authority depended.

Yemen’s transition did not resolve those divisions. The National Dialogue Conference proposed a six-region federal republic in which Sanaa would have autonomous status outside any district. The proposal recognized the capital’s national role, but agreement on a new constitutional order did not prevent another contest for power. Rivalry between forces loyal to Hadi and those loyal to Saleh weakened resistance as Houthi fighters advanced. Saleh’s loyal military units then helped the Houthis capture Sanaa and extend their gains into northeastern Yemen. Iranian arms and funding further strengthened the movement.

On September 21, 2014, the Houthis seized Sanaa. The takeover sharpened Saudi Arabia’s security concerns and transformed Yemen’s political crisis into an armed struggle over the state. Houthi forces and Saleh loyalists occupied the capital while confronting Hadi’s government. In January 2015, Houthi fighters seized the presidential palace, prompting the government’s resignation. Hadi fled Sanaa for Aden the following month. His international recognition as president did not restore his government’s control of the capital, and he remained in exile while the Houthis held Sanaa and much of Yemen.

Saudi aircraft struck military targets in Sanaa and the Houthi leadership center at Harf Sufyan before dawn on March 26, 2015. The intervention followed the Houthi seizure of the capital and their attempt to extend control across the country. Aden became the central government’s alternative capital after its expulsion from Sanaa in March. The shift did not settle the contest over Yemen’s state institutions. In August 2019, southern separatist forces took control of Aden’s presidential palace and military facilities, demonstrating that the government’s alternative center also faced rival claims to power.

The alliance that had helped the Houthis take Sanaa later broke down. The Houthis killed Saleh in December 2017. His death complicated their relationship with the Sanaa faction of his General People’s Congress, although the party’s core faction in the capital remained aligned with the Houthis and opposed the Saudi-led coalition. Other party members outside Yemen supported different political camps. These divisions made Saleh’s former network less cohesive without removing the political advantage the Houthis gained from holding the capital.

Retaking Sanaa remained difficult for the government and its allies. An assessment of the war found no visible Hadi-loyal presence in Houthi-held Sanaa in 2017 and concluded that the Yemeni military lacked the numbers and cohesion for an assault on the city. Holding both Sanaa and Hodeidah strengthened the Houthis’ position in UN-sponsored negotiations. Anti-Houthi factions again considered a ground offensive against Hodeidah or Sanaa in April 2025, amid daily American airstrikes. Al-Bidh, the Southern Transitional Council’s foreign affairs representative, instead proposed a transition followed by a referendum and rejected further efforts to recapture Sanaa by force.

Security

Sanaa has faced threats from armed groups beyond the principal sides in the civil war. Yemen cooperated with the United States against Al-Qaeda in the early 2000s, while the country’s widespread weapons and weak state reach posed persistent security problems. In 2014, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for an explosion near the Iranian ambassador’s home in Sanaa. An AQAP account also claimed an attempted attack using two explosive devices at the entrance to the U.S. Embassy that November; the U.S. government had not confirmed that attempted attack. These episodes took place during the same period in which control of the capital was changing hands.

The Islamic State also operated in Yemen. In March 2015, attacks on mosques frequented by Houthi-affiliated worshippers struck Sanaa and Saada, killing 142 people and injuring hundreds. The Islamic State’s Sanaa branch claimed responsibility. By summer 2016, the organization claimed six Yemeni provinces, including Sanaa, Aden-Abyan, and Hadramawt. Its activity in the capital targeted Houthi-held centers of power, adding another layer of violence to a city already at the heart of the war.

Saudi Arabia imposed an air blockade after the Houthis seized Sanaa, seeking to isolate the Iran-backed organization. After taking control of Yemeni airspace, coalition forces disabled air-traffic control at Sanaa International Airport and other airports. In late April 2015, the coalition bombed Sanaa airport’s runways after refusing landing permission to Iranian aid flights. A Saudi strike on the Houthi-controlled airport in mid-July sought to prevent an Iranian aircraft carrying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and weapons from landing. Saudi Arabia continued to deny the Iranian regime direct access to Yemeni airspace to hinder deliveries of arms and other supplies. Restrictions eased under the 2022 Saudi-Houthi truce and subsequent 2023 negotiations, but direct Iranian access remained a central Saudi concern.

From Sanaa, the Houthis developed a campaign against shipping and Israel. At a military display in the capital on September 21, 2023, they exhibited an Iranian Toofan missile capable of reaching Israel. Houthi organizers held Friday marches in Sanaa celebrating attacks on Israel. A command facility in the city coordinated attacks against American warships and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The attacks linked the capital to the Red Sea crisis and brought American and Israeli military responses to Houthi facilities in and around Sanaa.

A U.S. precision strike on December 16–17, 2024, targeted a Houthi command facility in Sanaa. Before dawn on December 19, shortly after Israel intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile launched toward central Israel, the Israeli Air Force struck Houthi military targets near Sanaa and along Yemen’s coast. It was Israel’s first strike in the Sanaa area. Targets included the Haziz and Dhahban power stations near the capital and fuel and oil facilities; reports recorded nine deaths. The operation followed repeated Houthi attacks on Israel. On December 21, U.S. forces struck a missile storage site and another command facility in Sanaa. A December command-facility strike targeted the Houthi Ministry of Defense building in central Sanaa’s al-Ardi area.

Israel struck Sanaa International Airport during its December 26, 2024, response to Houthi attacks. Further strikes followed in May 2025. After an early May operation, airport director Khaled al-Shaief reported that terminals, equipment, and a warehouse had been destroyed and estimated losses at $500 million. Six aircraft were destroyed, including three belonging to Yemenia Airways. On May 28, Israeli fighter jets destroyed the last aircraft operated by the Houthis at the airport, one day after the group launched two missiles at Israel. The Israel Defense Forces identified Houthi-operated aircraft there as transport for operatives planning attacks against Israel. The Houthis said the aircraft had carried pilgrims.

Present day

By April 2025, Sanaa had remained under Houthi control for a decade. Its capture continued to shape the civil war: the government operated from elsewhere, Houthi leaders retained the institutions and visibility associated with Yemen’s capital, and military pressure had not removed them from the city. Houthi forces also raided a UN compound in Sanaa and detained 15 international staff members and at least five Yemeni employees, illustrating the risks faced by international personnel working under their rule.

On July 3, 2026, a commercial Iranian flight departed Sanaa for Tehran for the first time in roughly a decade. It carried a Houthi delegation to the funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Houthis said the aircraft had brought sick and stranded Yemenis to Sanaa before collecting the delegation, and military spokesman Yahya Saree announced that flights between the two capitals would continue. He threatened Saudi airports and other vital interests if Saudi Arabia challenged flights serving Sanaa. The renewed direct route gave the Iranian regime a potential means to move personnel and supplies to its Houthi proxy, the access Saudi Arabia’s air restrictions had sought to impede. Sanaa thus remains both Yemen’s capital and a center of a conflict whose effects extend to Israel, neighboring states, and shipping routes around the Arabian Peninsula.