CNN
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Israel has struck in Yemen for the first time after Houthi rebels launched a deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv.
Since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, the Houthis have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea in what they say is solidarity with Gaza. After Israel retaliated on Saturday, the Houthis said they had fired a new barrage of rockets at Israel and vowed a “huge and powerful” response.
Direct attacks by the Israeli military and the Iran-backed rebel group on each other’s territory now pose the risk of creating a new front in a conflict that is already threatening to spread to the region. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam described the situation on Sunday as “open war.”
Here’s what we know:
Who are the Houthis and what role do they play in the Gaza conflict?
The Houthis are an Iran-backed Islamist group based in Yemen.
The Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah (Followers of God), is one side in a civil war that has raged in Yemen for nearly a decade. It emerged in the 1990s when its leader, Hussein al-Houthi, founded the “Faithful Youth,” a religious revivalist movement for a centuries-old subgroup of Shiite Islam called Zaydism.
Since a ceasefire, the Houthis have consolidated their control over most of northern Yemen and are seeking a deal with Saudi Arabia, one of Iran’s biggest rivals, that would permanently end the war and cement their role as rulers of the country.
The Houthis are believed to have been armed and trained by Iran. Since the October 7 Hamas attacks and subsequent Israeli ground and air strikes in Gaza, the Houthis have said they are seeking revenge on Israel for its military campaign by attacking shipping in the Red Sea.
The US and the UK responded to these attacks by attacking Houthi targets in Yemen. However, Israel did not participate in these responses.
In addition, an Israeli army spokesman said the militant group attacked “Israeli civilians and civilian infrastructure” about 200 times during the same period. Most of these attacks were intercepted by the US Central Command, the spokesman said, but Israeli air defenses also intercepted Houthi drones and missiles inside and outside Israeli airspace.
The turning point for Israel seemed to have come on Friday when a drone strike was launched on Tel Aviv, killing one Israeli citizen and injuring several others.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and spokesman Yahya Sare’e said the operation was carried out by a new drone capable of “evading the enemy’s interception systems”.
“We will continue to attack these targets in response to the enemy’s massacres and daily crimes against our brothers in the Gaza Strip,” Sare’e said. “Our operations will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
The attack was the first time Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, was hit by a drone. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack. Israeli authorities are investigating the circumstances and possible security lapses surrounding the deadly drone strike.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military suspects the drone is an Iranian-made Samad-3 model launched from Yemen and modernized for greater range.
At the same time as the attack, a second drone was intercepted outside Israeli airspace in the east, he said, adding that Israel is currently improving its air defenses and intensifying air patrols of its borders.
Israel’s response came a day later, when Israeli planes struck the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
At least six people were killed and dozens more wounded in the attack, which was Israel’s first strike in Yemen, Yemeni authorities said. The Houthi-run Al Masirah television station said the attacks targeted oil facilities in the port on Yemen’s west coast.
Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the attacks also hit civilian targets and a power plant. He condemned the “brutal Israeli aggression” aimed at increasing the “suffering of the Yemeni people” and urging the group to end its support for Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was using the port to transport weapons to Yemen.
“The port we attacked is not an innocent port. It was used for military purposes, it served as an entry point for deadly weapons that Iran supplied to the Houthis,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Netanyahu also said the operation, which hit targets 1,800 kilometers from the Israeli border, showed that Israel was serious about responding to the threats.
“It makes it clear to our enemies that there is no place that the long arm of the State of Israel will not reach,” Netanyahu said.
Neither side has indicated that they are willing to give in. “It is not in the Houthis’ DNA to de-escalate the situation with Israel,” says Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute. wrote on X.
Houthi army spokesman Yehya Saree said the Houthis were preparing for “a long war” with Israel and that Tel Aviv was still not safe. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that “the blood of Israeli citizens has its price” and that if Israelis were attacked, the “result would be identical” to what was seen in Lebanon and Gaza.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a rocket approaching Israeli territory from Yemen, while the Houthis said they had fired “a series of ballistic missiles.”
The war in Gaza has already been accompanied by significantly increased tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The two sides have been firing at each other since October 8. At that time, Hezbollah fired on three Israeli border posts “in solidarity” with the Palestinians.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised address on Sunday on the Houthi-run Al-Masirah television channel that the group intends to continue “the fifth phase of escalation in support of Gaza.”
The drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday marks the beginning of this phase, he also said.
But while rising tensions with the Houthis undoubtedly pose new challenges for Israel, Hezbollah remains the greater threat due to its extensive weapons arsenal and proximity to Israel.
Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv and a former official at Israel’s National Security Council, told CNN that he believes Israel has been cautious in its response so far.
He believes that Israel wanted to send the message “enough is enough” to the United States and the international community and therefore deliberately chose a target with a high public impact.
“You have to signal to a villain who attacks you that there is a price to pay, and I think that’s exactly what Israel has tried to do.”
Like the Houthis, Hezbollah is strongly supported by Iran, which makes no secret of its hostility towards Israel.
Any escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran’s proxies is seen as deeply destabilizing for the region, as it could bring the two countries closer to open war.
There has already been a direct exchange between Israel and Iran since October 7. Hardly anyone in the international community wants this to happen again.
