Arutz Sheva reported that the Houthis in Yemen launched a series of missiles at the Jewish state.
By Rachel Avraham
In recent weeks, millions of Israelis have been awoken in the night and forced into bomb shelters due to incoming missiles — not from Gaza, Lebanon or Iran, but from Houthi terrorists in Yemen, the Financial Times reported. Despite morbid jokes on Israeli social media calling them the country’s new “alarm clock”, the Houthis have become a painful reminder for Israelis that the war is not over. The Financial Times reported that their ballistic missiles have twice evaded air defenses, injuring 16 people in the Tel Aviv area. “I call them ‘the last proxy,’” said Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence. “It took the Israeli system time but now it’s well understood. They need to be moved to the top of the priority list.”
Arutz Sheva reported that the Houthis in Yemen launched a series of missiles at the Jewish state. Sirens were sounded in Gush Dan, the Lachish region, Shefela and Northern Israel. The IDF stated, “Sirens sounded in several areas throughout Israel following a projectile that was launched from Yemen.” The Times of Israel reported that sirens were also sounded in Judea and Samaria, as well as the Jordan Valley, the Afula area and near Beit Shean. Arutz Sheva reported that residents of the Tzur Hadassah and Beitar regions near Jerusalem reported damage to houses from falling debris.
A Magen David Adom (MDA) spokesperson stated that MDA teams were dispatched to treat 11 people who were injured while heading to shelter and four individuals who suffered from shock. This is not the first time that the Houthis have targeted Israel. The Times of Israel reported that Houthis have launched some 40 ballistic missiles at Israel since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, massacring 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, which led to Israel launching Operation Swords of Iron. The Houthis are also infamous for attacking international ships off the coast of Yemen, claiming that they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Financial Times reported that their assaults severely disrupted shipping through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes and effectively closed off Israel’s port of Eilat. This has forced many ships to re-route and travel to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, instead of taking the shorter route via the Red Sea through the Suez Canal to Europe. In past centuries, ships did not want to take the longer more dangerous route around Africa, a journey that many ships did not survive, but in the wake of the Houthi threat, many feel that they have no other choice. Thus, the prices of many goods have skyrocketed, as it is more expensive for ships to travel via the Cape of Good Hope than it is via the Suez Canal.
The Houthis are among the last proxies of Iran to still be sending rockets at Israel, following the demise of Hezbollah that led subsequently to a cease-fire deal, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the Iraqi government reigning in on the Shia militias in Iraq, so that they would not send missiles from there following pressure from the US. The Houthis also sent this rocket, as the Israeli government and Hamas discuss a cease-fire deal that will lead to the release of the remaining 98 hostages from captivity. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a hostage deal is “closer than we’ve ever been,” in an interview with MSNBC. Apparently, the Houthis want to sabotage that.
The Houthi attack comes after Israel had struck terrorist targets in Yemen. Several days ago, the IDF reported, “With the direction of the IDF Intelligence Directorate and the Israeli Navy, IAF fighter jets struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen. The Houthi terrorist regime has repeatedly attacked the State of Israel, its citizens, and civilian infrastructure in Israel, including UAVs and surface-to-surface missiles. The State of Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself.”
The IDF continued, “The targets that were struck include military infrastructure sites in the Hizaz power station, which serves as a central source of energy for the Houthi terrorist regime in its military activities. In addition, the IDF struck military infrastructure in the Al Hudaydah, and Ras Isa ports on the western coast. The targets struck are examples of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for its terrorist activities.”
“The Houthis are paying, and will continue to pay, a heavy price for their aggression against us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Meanwhile, the Houthis have continued to launch both missiles and UAVs toward Israeli territory, vowing to persist until Israel ends its campaign in Gaza against Hamas, the Institute for National Security Studies reported. They added: “The campaign against the Houthis will not end soon (assuming the campaign in Gaza continues).”
According to various analysts, defeating the Houthis will be significantly harder for Israel than defeating Hezbollah in Lebanon, who shares a border with the Jewish state. The geographic distance between Yemen and Israel makes it much harder for Israel to go after the Houthis. However, the beauty of the Houthis is that they have many enemies other than Israel. The Saudis, the Egyptians and the United Arab Emirates would love to see the demise of the Houthi regime in Yemen, as would the United States, Great Britain and France. Therefore, should Israel act to topple the Houthis, the Jewish state will have many external allies, as well as domestic support from within Yemen itself.
In fact, most of the people in Yemen hate the Houthis. The Sana’a Center claims only 8% of Yemenites have a positive view of the Houthis. Amnesty International claims that Yemen under Houthi rule is one of the worst countries in the world to be a woman. They interviewed a Yemenite woman, who claimed: “By God, I am broken from the inside. It’s not normal, I don’t feel like a human being. I can’t breathe properly like other human beings. We suffer from the forced niqab, child marriage, divorce shame, domestic violence and honor killings. I don’t know… as if we are aliens. They [male family members] have to oppress us and we have to stay oppressed – like a puppet controlled by strings.” In Yemen, the Houthis are known to frequently shave off women’s hair at checkpoints when a woman is not accompanied by a male chaperone or even to rape such women.
Nasma Muhammad, a Yemenite woman, told the Turkish media that she was imprisoned by the Houthis: “During interrogations, I was accused of providing coordinates to the Arab coalition and being an agent of America and Israel and working in a prostitution network. They tortured, beat, electrocuted, and sexually harassed and raped me.” Her parents had to pay a ransom of 3 million Yemeni riyals ($6,000) for her release. Noora al-Jrowi, president of the Coalition of Women for Peace in Yemen, told Anadolu Agency, that Houthi prisons are like graves for women: “Violations of women’s rights in Yemen, especially the rights of female prisoners in Houthi-controlled prisons, is unspeakable.”
Yemenite peace activist Luai Ahmed told ILTV, “They are the most terrorist like group Yemen has seen since Al Qaeda. People don’t understand that the Houthis are not only barbaric. They were never democratically elected in Yemen. Hamas, which is also a terrorist group, was at least democratically elected by the Gazans. But the Houthis were never democratically elected. What they did is to grab their weapons and take over all of the Yemenite institutions. The consequences this has had for Yemen have been detrimental. The Houthis are detrimental to the vast majority of Yemenites. This is a group that has medieval ideas from the stone age.” He noted that they give preferential treatment to the Hashemites, who are descended from the Prophet Muhammed, an idea which dates back to the 7th century, while executing journalists, women and gays. Ahmed actually claimed when Israel goes after Houthi targets in Yemen, they are “saving Yemenite lives.”
