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Everything you need to know about Israel and Houthi attacks in the Gaza war | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

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In one of the most serious regional consequences of Israel’s disastrous war on Gaza, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked Tel Aviv for the first time, while Israeli forces responded by severely damaging the key port of Hodeidah.

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 recent attacks and why they matter.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (Followers of God), are an armed group that controls large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and some western and northern areas near Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis emerged in the 1990s but only rose to prominence in 2014 when the group rebelled against the Yemeni government, leading to its resignation and triggering a devastating humanitarian crisis.

The group then fought for years against a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia with the support of Iran. The two warring sides have also repeatedly attempted to hold peace talks.

But analysts say the Shiite group should not be seen as a proxy for Iran. It has its own base, its own interests – and its own ambitions.


What happened in Tel Aviv?

In the early hours of Friday, a drone launched by the Yemeni group struck a building in central Tel Aviv, about 100 meters from a branch of the US embassy.

The attack left one person dead and ten others injured. The Israeli population is desperate because Tel Aviv had been virtually spared from dozens of previous attacks by the Houthis and the Lebanese Hezbollah group.

It was also the first time that a Houthi attack in Israel resulted in a fatality; the drone used in the attack covered a distance of more than 1,800 kilometers.

The Israeli military believes the drone is a variant of the Iranian-made Samad-3 that has been optimized to improve its range, presumably by reducing the explosive load to make room for more fuel.

The drone, which was probably also used in previous Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, did not fly directly. According to Israeli military estimates, it flew over Egypt and at low altitude from the Mediterranean to Tel Aviv.

It was also the first documented successful attack by the Houthis in the Mediterranean, an area of ​​operations they have been trying to penetrate since the Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in May.


Why “Jaffa”?

The Houthis named the drone that hit Tel Aviv “Jaffa.” The city of Jaffa, a Palestinian commercial center, was occupied by Israeli paramilitaries in 1948 and has since been swallowed up by the city of Tel Aviv.

In his statement on the attack, Houthi spokesman General Yahya Saree referred to Tel Aviv by its Palestinian name, Jaffa, and described it as 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, even though it was detected up to six minutes before impact.

However, the Houthis claimed they had deployed a new type of drone that could evade radar detection, adding that they wanted to spread “a sense of insecurity” over Tel Aviv, which is home to numerous Israeli government and military offices as well as foreign embassies.

Why is the Israeli attack on Hodeidah significant?

In response to the attack in Tel Aviv, the Israeli military sent fighter jets to bomb the strategic port city of Hodeidah in Yemen, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more.

The Israeli attack, 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 would disrupt 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 and said it risked widening the conflict across the region.

Hodeidah also transports much of the humanitarian aid needed by the Yemeni people to avert a hunger crisis caused by the decade-long war in Yemen.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not comment on whether the Israeli attack would affect aid deliveries, but called for “restraint” and called for “avoiding attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure.”

The US and Saudi Arabia quickly distanced themselves from the attack on Hodeidah. Riyadh – which has been repeatedly warned by Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi not to intercept his attacks on others – said it would not allow its airspace to be used for attacks.

Will Hezbollah join in?

The Lebanese armed group has also been involved in deadly border clashes with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, and there are fears that the conflict could escalate into a full-scale war.

Hezbollah welcomed the Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv and said Israel’s attacks on the Yemeni port marked a “new, dangerous phase” in the conflict.

On Sunday night, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had hit two weapons depots in southern Lebanon, causing a massive explosion. Later in the day, the military also reported another attack in the region.


What’s happening now?

The Houthis have announced they will continue their attacks on Israeli targets. The group’s military spokesman said on Sunday that they had fired several ballistic missiles at the Israeli port city of Eilat. The Israeli military confirmed the launch of a surface-to-surface missile using its Arrow-3 defense system, which can hit projectiles outside the atmosphere.

The Houthis also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Liberian-flagged container ship, which their military spokesman described as “American.” They have attacked at least three other vessels this week.

The Israel Institute for National Security Research at Tel Aviv University said the attack on Yemen would not deter either the Houthis or the Iranians.

“Israel will have a hard time mobilizing countries in the region to stand up to the Houthis, although some, notably Egypt, are more affected than Israel by their attacks on the Red Sea international trade route,” it said.

“The Arab countries fear the reaction of Iran or its proxies and want to stay out of the line of fire and hedge risks.”

But Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a political representative of the Houthi movement, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli attacks would “never affect our stance of supporting our brothers in Palestine.”

“This will strengthen our resolve to stop the genocide in Gaza,” he said, adding that the group was coordinating its work with allies in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. “We could reach a point of agreement to wage this fight against the Zionist enemy.”

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