Thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets of Sa'ada to protest escalation in the Saudi campaign against the impoverished Arab country.

The demonstrators were holding flags and banners reading, “Death to America and Death to Israel.”

The Saudi-led coalition is preparing to enter the port city of Hudaydah, which is now controlled by the Houthi Ansarullah movement. There is concern among Yemenis that the coalition may take over the western coast of Yemen.

Hudaydah is part of a broad battlefront where the Yemeni army and its Houthi allies are fighting Saudi-backed forces.

Since the beginning of the Saudi war on Yemen in March 2015, which was carried out in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi movement and reinstall the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, Saudi warplanes have pounded the nation day and night, killing over 12,000 people, including many women and children, and displacing over three million others.

The Yemen war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories. The humanitarian situation in Yemen has also dramatically deteriorated amid a Saudi blockade, which has put the impoverished country on the brink of widespread famine.

The regime in Riyadh has, however, failed to reach its goals despite suffering a lot.