A newly visible nearly 2,000-meter runway on Zuqar Island marks another chapter in outside powers reshaping Yemen’s coastline, a move many Yemenis view as a deliberate encroachment on their sovereignty.

Planet Labs PBC satellite imagery, published Tuesday by AP, shows a strip built this year on a volcanic outcrop 90 kilometers southeast of Hodeidah.

The site enables surveillance over the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, positioning it as a key link in a growing network of offshore installations.

The runway is not viewed a technicality but a continuation of the pressure that began in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition — joined by the UAE — launched a brutal campaign that lasted a decade, killed over 150,000 Yemenis, and helped create a famine that endures.

Main ports and airports remain effectively blockaded, and large portions of the country are governed by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council and the Saudi-aligned Presidential Leadership Council, sidelining Yemeni political agency.

Reports that Israel plans to separate the Yemen front from Gaza — “allowing military action against Yemen to continue post-ceasefire,” according to Channel 12 — reinforce the sense that external agendas, rather than Yemeni needs, will determine the fate of their waters and lives.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments on Yemen have left dozens dead and many more wounded, striking Sanaa, Hodeidah, and other provinces.

Yemen’s armed forces have launched missile and drone operations in the Red Sea, declaring their campaign a defense of Gaza and a direct response to Israel’s widening aggression.