More Than 250,000 Have Fled Yemen's Fighting Since July as a Houthi Missile Strike Kills Dozens of Recruits

About 33,700 families still need shelter help. UNICEF warned that fuel shortages and fighting threaten the water systems serving about 3 million people in Taiz, among them at least 1.6 million children. Its Yemen representative, Akhil Iyer, noted the city is already one of the country's most water-scarce.

What happened in Shabwa?

On Monday three ballistic missiles struck the Martyr Ahmed Al-Sulaimani Training Center on the outskirts of Ataq, the capital of Shabwa province. Local authorities put the death toll at 53 with more than 200 wounded, according to Asharq Al-Awsat, and called the figures preliminary. The dead were new members of the internal security forces who were in training. Al Jazeera cited local authorities as raising the toll to at least 58, and said hospitals in Ataq faced blood shortages.

The Yemeni government described the site as a security training centre away from the front lines. The Houthis said they targeted Saudi-backed forces. Presidential Leadership Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi promised the deaths would not go unanswered.

Is the war widening?

Yes, by most measures. The Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi ports in July, seized strategic territory along the Red Sea coast in September, and have since struck at Saudi Arabia itself, including the Riyadh airport attack we covered in an earlier report. The government's counteroffensive, Operation Dawn of Yemen, aims to retake Houthi-held ground including Sanaa. On Tuesday the Saudi-led coalition said it had destroyed 127 Houthi weapons depots and missile launch platforms.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Sanaa, Yousef Mawry, said the Houthis are not backing down. That leaves humanitarian agencies, who describe a response that is severely underfunded, chasing a displacement number that rises with every week of shelling, and a funding appeal that is already behind.