WASHINGTON – After dealing devastating blows to the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel is now turning its military prowess against another key Iranian-backed power: the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On Friday, Israel said it attacked Yemen's international airport in the capital Sanaa, as well as several power plants and seaports, all under Houthi control. This came after Houthi fired rockets into Israel, one of which hit a school. And later on Friday, the Houthis said they had attacked the Israeli airport, although the missile appeared to have been intercepted.
At least nine people were reportedly killed in Yemen and 16 injured in Israel in attacks and counterattacks last week as the two sides escalated their long-simmering conflict.
The Israeli attack on Yemen's airport on Thursday occurred as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was waiting to board a flight. He was not injured, but United Nations officials said aid deliveries to besieged Yemenis were being disrupted. Israel said the airport was being used by Iran to smuggle weapons to the Houthis.
Workers walk past broken glass at Sanaa International Airport, a day after Israeli airstrikes on Yemen on Thursday. The Israeli military reported attacks on infrastructure used by the Houthis at the airport and other locations.
(Osamah Abdulrahman/Associated Press)
Israel sought and will receive a rare U.N. Security Council hearing on Monday to discuss the Houthi conflict, Israel's ambassador to the world body, Danny Danon, told The Times. Normally, other countries call meetings to criticize Israel, but Israel was able to take advantage of the US position as rotating chairman of the Security Council.
Danon said he would ask the council to formally condemn the Houthis but remained skeptical of any meaningful action, particularly given the veto power of China and Russia.
“We intend to make Iran and the Houthis aware of what happened to Hamas,” Danon said in a telephone interview from New York, home of the U.N. headquarters. “It seems that the Houthis have not yet understood what happens to those who try to harm the State of Israel. … We’re not messing around.”
The fight in Yemen has often taken a back seat compared to other explosive, convulsive conflicts in the Middle East. For more than a decade, the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, the United States and other Western powers, has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. More than a quarter of a million people have died in attacks, food shortages and other humanitarian crises.
The Houthis are part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, a constellation of Iranian proxies rallying around Israel and committed to its destruction as well as their own nationalist causes.
Houthi supporters take part in an anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday.
(Osamah Abdulrahman/Associated Press)
Over the past 14 months, Israel has attacked Hamas in the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of militants and civilian Palestinians. The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.
This fall, Israel destroyed much of the leadership and infrastructure of Hezbollah, a militant and political faction in Lebanon that had increased rocket attacks on Israel that it said supported Hamas.
Israel has also exchanged rocket attacks with Hamas and Hezbollah's main backer, Iran. Airstrikes have reportedly crippled much of Iran's defense capabilities.
Separately, Israel's other Iran-backed nemesis, Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, collapsed this month under pressure from various rebel groups, the strongest of which was backed by Turkey.
“The Middle East has changed,” Danon said.
What remained were the Houthis. They also claimed they were supporting Hamas in the Gaza war and launched a series of rocket attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea as part of a major trade chain.
In response to the attacks on maritime vessels, the Biden administration also launched airstrikes on the Houthis earlier this year and sought to assemble a group of countries to protect shipping lanes from the Houthis.
“We have sought to raise the awareness of countries not only in the region but far beyond it of the harm that Houthi actions are inflicting on international trade in real and meaningful ways,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said at the conference Council on Foreign Relations this month.
Smoke rises from the area surrounding the airport following an airstrike, as seen from Sanaa, Yemen, on Thursday.
(Osamah Abdulrahman/Associated Press)
“The rise of the Houthis … has brought them to a point where they have assets that they have built up and that they are not afraid to exploit,” Blinken said. “My concern … is that even when we get to the point where the conflict in Gaza is over, (the Houthis) could continue because they are moving onto the world stage.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear in an interview with an Israeli television news channel this week that the Houthis in Yemen are the next front line.
“We will beat them to the bitter end until they learn,” Netanyahu said. “Hamas has learned, Hezbollah has learned and Syria has learned. The Houthis will learn too.”