₦airaland Forum

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked Israel with a barrage of ballistic missiles – their first such strikes since the United States-Israeli war on Iran began.

Brigadier-General Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, announced the attack on Saturday on the rebels’ Al Masirah satellite television.

"Strikes will continue until the declared objectives are achieved, as stated in the previous statement by the armed forces, and until the aggression against all fronts of the resistance ceases”, Saree said.

The Israeli military said it intercepted one missile.

The attack came hours after Saree signalled in a vague statement on Friday that the rebels would join the war that has rattled the Middle East and shocked the global economy.

Saree said on Saturday the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.

Sirens went off around Beersheba and the area near Israel’s main nuclear research centre for the third time overnight Friday into Saturday as Iran and Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel. No casualties or damage were reported.


BATTLE IN STAGES

The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital Sanaa since 2014 and so far have stayed out of the US-Israeli war. The militia’s attacks on shipping vessels during the Israel-Hamas war upended commercial transit in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion worth of goods passes each year.

The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two ships and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January 2025.

In 2024, the Trump administration launched strikes against the Houthis that ended weeks later.

Mohammed Mansour, the Houthis’ deputy information minister, told local media on Saturday,

“We are conducting this battle in stages, and closing the Bab al-Mandeb strait is among our options.”

Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry, reporting from Sanaa, said a potential naval blockade on Israel-linked ships passing through the Bab al-Mandeb strait would hurt Israel’s economy, as about 30 percent of its imports pass through the waterway in the Red Sea.

The involvement of the Houthis in the US-Israeli war on Iran would complicate the deployment of the USS Gerald R Ford, the aircraft carrier that went to port in Crete on Monday for repairs.

Sending the carrier back into the Red Sea could draw it into the same high tempo of attacks seen by the USS Dwight D Eisenhower in 2024 and the USS Harry S Truman in the 2025 American campaign against the Houthis.


SIGNIFICANT STRIKE

Mohamad Elmasry, a professor of Media Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, described the Houthis entering the US-Israeli war on Iran as “very significant”.

“We have seen over the past two and a half years that Houthis have significant power,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.

“If they decided to move to shut down Bab al-Mandeb strait , the Red Sea and, ultimately, the Suez Canal, then we would have two major choke points [closed] along with the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

“These are major international shipping waterways for international trade, so I think it can be very significant from that standpoint.”

Ibrahim Jalal, a senior researcher on Yemen and the Gulf, said the threat to shipping around Yemen is “very alarming especially when it’s compounded by a coordinated multi-strait blockade”.

“This is exactly the theatre that Iran has been preparing for from what we have seen in the past few years with the Houthis,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from the occupied West Bank, said the opening of a new front in the war, in addition to fighting Iran and Hezbollah, is likely to raise further questions in Israel “on the viability of the operations and the way the government is conducting its war”.

“We are expecting Israel to retaliate to this attack as we have seen them do time and again when Yemen joined the battle during the war in Gaza as a way to support the Palestinians,” she said.

Meanwhile, nine Israeli soldiers were wounded in two rocket attacks from southern Lebanon, Israeli Army Radio reported on Saturday.

Putindbutt:
All these kids hiding in their rooms and making noise on nairaland. People who attacked US aircraft carrier which has been taken away for repairs, they look like a joke to you?.

If they shut down the red sea and Suez canal, it is over not only for Europe but for you too. Because you livelihood is about to become even more expensive. Trump and Nentayahu is making your lives more hellish. Religion is making you think backward but your brains is just about to get reset.

As we speak, Tinubu is not buying fuel at 1400, na you dey suffer for supporting attack against iran.

motayoayinde:
World economic recession, Israel decimation, American dollar weakening,
All loading at the same time.

US/Israel started the war,
Iran will end it.
INSHA ALLAH.

Righteousness2:
When GOD wants to Destroy a person or people, He makes them mad. He makes them to activate their own Destruction.

The Houthis Terrorist have been Silence for about 9months, ever Since the Children of ISRAEL wiped out all their Military Leaders, Ministers and Destroyed their Oil Infrastructures.

But Because they Must be Destroyed, HE has Activated them to fire at the Children of ISRAEL.


The Houthis in Yemen have officially entered the war,
They’ve made the same mistake Hezbollah did.

ISRAEL'S operational plans to strike Yemen have been ready since day one of this war.
Frankly, we’re surprised it took them this long to make that mistake. Now, they will have to PAY the PRICE while their online and offline Terrorist wail and scream.

Leepeak:
Haaa the matter rich like this
Omo isreal is in trouble

franchasofficia:
Hahahaha, these Islamic terrorists just love chaos. Very soon they will start shouting genocide, let's wait for the 11 day ultimatum first

Righteousness2:
When GOD wants to Destroy a person or people, He makes them mad. He makes them to activate their own Destruction.

The Houthis Terrorist have been Silence for about 9months, ever Since the Children of ISRAEL wiped out all their Military Leaders, Ministers and Destroyed their Oil Infrastructures.

But Because they Must be Destroyed, HE has Activated them to fire at the Children of ISRAEL.


The Houthis in Yemen have officially entered the war,
They’ve made the same mistake Hezbollah did.

ISRAEL'S operational plans to strike Yemen have been ready since day one of this war.
Frankly, we’re surprised it took them this long to make that mistake. Now, they will have to PAY the PRICE while their online and offline Terrorist wail and scream.

Putindbutt:
All these kids hiding in their rooms and making noise on nairaland. People who attacked US aircraft carrier which has been taken away for repairs, they look like a joke to you?.

If they shut down the red sea and Suez canal, it is over not only for Europe but for you too. Because you livelihood is about to become even more expensive. Trump and Nentayahu is making your lives more hellish. Religion is making you think backward but your brains is just about to get reset.

As we speak, Tinubu is not buying fuel at 1400, na you dey suffer for supporting attack against iran.

motayoayinde:
World economic recession, Israel decimation, American dollar weakening,
All loading at the same time.

US/Israel started the war,
Iran will end it.
INSHA ALLAH.

esnbrutality:
The needful will be done in an unforgiving manner.

Nuff Said.