Yemen, Ukraine and Gaza: three open fronts on the same day

Wednesday places side by side three pieces of news coming from different fronts of the world, which together give the measure of how many conflicts remain open at the same moment.

In Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, the Houthi movement claimed responsibility for a new attack on King Khalid International Airport, already hit in recent days with a toll of at least 12 dead and over 300 wounded. The new raid caused a fire at the airport’s Terminal 4. The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation extended the suspension of operations to verify the safety of the facilities: the airport will remain closed until 21:00, Greenwich time, on October 17th. The movement’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, claimed attacks in four waves also against Saudi energy facilities and warned: “Saudi Arabia should stay out of Yemen or the worst is yet to come”.

On the Russian-Ukrainian front, during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday Russian forces launched a large-scale missile attack against Kharkiv, killing at least one person and wounding eleven others, including a rescue worker. In parallel, Ukraine launched over 400 drones against the Moscow region: 65 were shot down as they approached the Russian capital. Off the Bulgarian coast, in the Black Sea, two ships were hit, and Bulgaria summoned the Russian ambassador. In this context, according to what was reported by the Financial Times, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned that NATO should prepare for a possible lethal hybrid attack by Russia: “the probability that someone will be killed is increasing”, he said. Hybrid attacks linked to Russia figure, not by chance, among the topics that European Union leaders will discuss at the Brussels summit on October 15th and 16th, together with the 2028-2034 multiannual budget and support for Ukraine.

The third front is Gaza, where a year has passed since the ceasefire reached in October 2025 and mediated by the United States, which provided for the return of hostages, the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army and the disarmament of Hamas. In the following twelve months Israel never stopped bombing the Strip: more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed, in a context also marked by demolitions of buildings near the border. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has postponed key decisions on the Strip’s future ahead of the Israeli elections, set for October 27th. On this front it should be noted that the news currently comes from a single source (Iskrae, which presents it as an elaboration based on local and United Nations sources): no independent confirmation is currently available.

Three scenarios of different scale — an international airport closed for days, an exchange of drones and missiles between two regular armies, a Strip under bombardment for twelve months — today share only their simultaneity. None of the three shows signs of letting up in the coming hours: Riyadh’s airport will remain closed until October 17th, NATO is assessing a risk that Sikorski considers to be increasing, and in Gaza the next fixed point on the calendar is the Israeli elections of October 27th.