Maziar Motamedi
Middle East Eye / July 21, 2024
The Yemeni group remains undeterred in its support for Palestine despite the massive Israeli attack on a key port.
In a major regional fallout of Israel’s catastrophic war on Gaza, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have hit Tel Aviv for the first time, as the Israeli forces extensively damage the crucial port of Hodeidah in response.
Since November last year, the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, have been attacking commercial and military vessels linked to Israel to show their support for the Palestinians. They say their attacks will continue until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Here’s everything you need to know about the latest attacks, and why they matter.
Who are the Houthis ?
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (supporters of God), are an armed group controlling most parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, and some of the western and northern areas close to Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis emerged in the 1990s but rose to prominence in 2014, when the group rebelled against Yemen’s government, causing it to step down and sparking a crippling humanitarian crisis.
The group then spent years, with Iran’s backing, fighting a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. The two warring sides have also repeatedly tried to hold peace talks.
However, analysts say the Shia group should not be seen as an Iranian proxy. It has its own base, its own interests – and its own ambitions.
What happened in Tel Aviv
In the early hours of Friday morning, a drone launched by the Yemeni group hit a building in central Tel Aviv located about 100 metres (330 feet) away from a United States Embassy branch office.
The strike killed one person and injured 10 others, leaving Israeli citizens distraught as Tel Aviv had remained nearly untouched in dozens of previous attacks by the Houthis and by the group Hezbollah, from Lebanon.
It was also the first time a Houthi attack had caused a fatality in Israel, with its drone covering a distance of more than 1,800km (1,120 miles).
The Israeli military said it believes the drone was a variant of the Iranian-made Samad-3 that was tweaked to improve its range, likely through a decreased explosive payload to accommodate more fuel.
The drone, which is also believed to have been used in previous Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, did not travel directly, with the Israeli military assessments indicating it went over Egypt and flew into Tel Aviv from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea at a low altitude.
It was also the first documented successful attack by the Houthis in the Mediterranean Sea, a theatre of operations they have tried to expand into since the Israeli ground invasion of southern Gaza’s Rafah in May.:04
Why ‘Jaffa’ ?
The Houthis dubbed the drone that hit Tel Aviv “Jaffa”. The city of Jaffa, a Palestinian commercial hub, was invaded in 1948 by Israeli paramilitaries and has since been swallowed up by the city of Tel Aviv.
Houthi spokesman General Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv by its Palestinian name, Jaffa, in his statement announcing the attack, declaring it an “occupied” land and an “unsafe area”.
The Israeli military said a “human error” led to the drone being mistaken for a friendly aircraft and not being shot down, despite being detected for up to six minutes before its impact.
But the Houthis claimed they had used a new type of drone that can evade radars, adding that they intended to “impose a sense of insecurity” over Tel Aviv, home to many Israeli government and military offices as well as foreign embassies.
Why is the Israeli attack on Hodeidah significant ?
In response to the Tel Aviv attack, the Israeli military dispatched fighter jets to bomb the strategic Yemeni port of Hodeidah, killing at least six people and injuring dozens of others.
The Israeli strike, which also hit fuel depots in the port, also caused a massive fire in the area.
The Israeli military defended its attack on the port, saying it will impact alleged Iranian arms shipments to the Houthis for some time. Tehran, which denies sending missiles and drones to the group, condemned the attack on Sunday, saying it risks expanding the conflict across the region.
Hodeidah is also the port used to convey much of the humanitarian assistance that Yemeni people need to avert a hunger crisis caused by the decade-long war in Yemen.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres did not say whether the Israeli strike would impact the aid shipments, but called for “restraint” and to “avoid attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure”.
The US and Saudi Arabia were quick to distance themselves from the Hodeidah attack, with Riyadh – which has been repeatedly warned by Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi against intercepting any of its attacks on others – saying it won’t allow its airspace to be used for any assault.
Will Hezbollah join in ?
The armed Lebanese group is also engaged in deadly border clashes with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, amid fears that the conflict may turn into an all-out war.
Hezbollah welcomed the Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv and said Israel’s strikes on the Yemeni port marked “a new, dangerous phase” in the conflict.
Overnight on Sunday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets hit two weapon depots in southern Lebanon, causing a large explosion. The military also reported another strike in the region later in the day.:26
What happens now ?
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks on Israeli targets. The group’s military spokesman on Sunday said they launched multiple ballistic missiles at the Israeli port city of Eilat. The Israeli military confirmed downing one surface-to-surface missile with its Arrow 3 defence system that can hit projectiles outside the atmosphere.
The Houthis also claimed an attack on a Liberia-flagged container ship, which their military spokesman described as “American”. They have hit at least three other ships this week.
The Israeli Institute for National Security Research of Tel Aviv University said the attack on Yemen will not deter the Houthis or the Iranians.
“Israel will find it difficult to mobilise countries in the region to stand out against the Houthis, although some, especially Egypt, have been affected by their attacks on the Red Sea international trade route more than Israel,” it said.
“Arab countries fear the reaction of Iran or their proxies, and want to stay out of the line of fire and hedge risks.”
But Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi political official, told Al Jazeera the Israeli attacks “would never affect our stand, which is in support of our brothers in Palestine”.
“This will increase our determination to stop the genocide in Gaza,” he said, adding that the group is coordinating with allies in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. “We might reach a point of unification in fighting this battle against the Zionist enemy.”
Maziar Motamedi is a Tehran-based journalist who covers Iran
