Egypt approves military support for Saudi Arabia after Houthi attacks escalate

NEW: Egypt approves sending military support to defend Saudi Arabia from Houthi attacks, as President el-Sisi's offer wins parliamentary backing amid escalating tensions in the Gulf.

Egypt is sending its military to defend Saudi Arabia.

Parliament in Cairo has approved President el-Sisi's offer of military support, after Houthi attacks on the kingdom escalated. That makes the Arab world's largest army a direct party to the defence of Saudi territory, and it widens a conflict that until now Riyadh has largely absorbed alone.

El-Sisi made the offer, and lawmakers backed it, which is the formal step that matters. Egypt does not commit forces abroad lightly, its last major deployment of this kind dates back decades, and Cairo has resisted being drawn into Yemen for years. That resistance just ended.

What we don't yet know is the shape of the deployment, air defence, naval protection in the Red Sea, or troops on the ground. Each of those carries a different level of risk.

The hardest fact tonight is this. Two of the region's biggest powers are now formally aligned in a shooting conflict, and the Gulf just got more dangerous, not less.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.