Yemen’s Houthi militia claimed an attempted attack on southern Israel on Tuesday, saying it had launched a “large batch” of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones at Israeli targets.
The Iran-backed militia carried out the attempted attack in response to what it called “brazen Israeli-American aggression” in Gaza, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on the social media platform attack the third operation carried out by the Houthis ‘in support of our persecuted brothers in Palestine’, and threatened further missile and drone attacks.
The Times could not independently verify the Houthi claims.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said its air defense system had intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired at Israel “from the Red Sea area.” It said it had also intercepted other “air threats” in the area, none of which reached Israeli territory.
The Israeli military has not said who was behind the attacks. But a senior US Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli military had intercepted missiles launched from Yemen that had a range of about 2,000 kilometers.
Yemeni analysts said the attack, although thwarted, demonstrated the growing capabilities of the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia that took over the Yemeni capital Sana in 2014. After a failed attempt by a Saudi-led military coalition to rout it, the group now rules much of northern Yemen. It has also become a major arm of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which includes the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq.
“The Houthis entering the battlefield, even in a symbolic way, is sending a clear message to Israel – an unmistakable indication that a new force against Israel has emerged in the region,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group. . Diversifying the source of attacks on Israel is a key strategy for the Axis of Resistance, which is “intended to confuse Israel and discourage the expansion of its military ground operations in Gaza,” he said.
Support for the Palestinian cause and hostility toward Israel have long been a pillar of the Houthi narrative. Since the Israeli army began bombing Gaza – in response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, the Iran-backed armed group that controls Gaza – Houthi leaders have repeatedly threatened to join the fighting. Last week, Abdulaziz bin Habtour, Prime Minister of the Houthi government, said the Houthis could attack Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
In 2015, when the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began, the Houthis did not even have the ability to carry out drone strikes, says Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program from Chatham House. But in the years that followed, they built up their capacity, with Iranian support.
Last year, attacks claimed by the Houthis in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi – more than 700 miles from northern Yemen – killed three people.
Israel has come to view the Houthis as a threat in recent years, said Daniel Sobelman, a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative, who focuses on Iran’s Axis of Resistance. In 2020, Israel deployed Iron Dome batteries near the southern city of Eilat after killing a top Iranian nuclear scientist, “fearing that retaliation would come from Yemen,” he said.
Even the potential of Houthi attacks on southern Israel means that “Israel must now allocate capabilities that would otherwise have been used elsewhere,” Mr. Sobelman said.
But the extent to which the Houthis pose serious risks to Israel is unclear, Mr. Nagi said.
Despite growing their military capabilities, the Houthis control a deeply impoverished area torn by war. The Israeli military, on the other hand, maintains high-tech air defense systems and is backed by strong support from the US government.
This asymmetry also characterized the Houthis’ conflict with Saudi Arabia. Between 2015 and 2021, more than 1,000 missiles and drones launched by the Houthis in Saudi Arabia were largely thwarted, killing a total of about 120 people, according to Saudi authorities. By comparison, airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, many by squadrons dependent on US support, killed more than 20,000 people, experts say.