Worthy Christian News > World News > Yemen’s Houthis Declare War Against Israel After Missile Strike

Yemen’s Houthis Declare War Against Israel After Missile Strike

by Worthy News’ George Whitten and Stefan J. Bos

SANAA (Worthy News) – Yemen’s Houthi militia effectively declared war on Israel on Tuesday after firing a missile and drones at the Jewish nation, raising the risks of a regional armed conflict that experts fear could overwhelm Israeli defenses.

Israel said its fighter jets and new Arrow missile defense system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the country’s key Red Sea shipping port of Eilat.

The missile, which had a range of 2,000 kilometers (about 1,240 miles) or more, did not threaten U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea or U.S. troops or personnel in the area, U.S. officials said.

The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014 as part of that country’s ruinous war, claimed three attacks on Israel, drawing their main sponsor, Iran, closer into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

They had been suspected of an attack earlier this month, but this was the first time the Houthi government confirmed its involvement.

On October 19, a U.S. Navy warship shot down multiple drones and three cruise missiles that were fired from Yemen and heading “potentially towards Israel,” the U.S. Defense Department said.

DOWNING MISSILES

The USS Carney carrier was in the northern Red Sea when it took out the missiles and more than a dozen drones, according to the U.S. military.

Israel said Tuesday it was the first time that its new Arrow system had shot down a missile since the war against Hamas started earlier this month.

Arrow intercepts long-range ballistic missiles with a warhead designed to destroy targets while they are in space, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “All aerial threats were intercepted outside of Israeli territory,” the IDF stressed. “No infiltrations were identified into Israeli territory.”

However, the missile fire sparked a rare air raid siren alarm to go off in Eilat, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Jerusalem, sending people fleeing into shelters, according to witnesses.

The IDF added that Israeli fighter jets had also been scrambled Tuesday morning to the Red Sea to intercept unspecified “aerial threats” outside of Israeli territory.

Yemen’s Houthis said cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and drones were used in the different attacks.

YEMEN’S DRONES

“These drones belong to the state of Yemen,” prime minister of the Houthi rebels, Abd al-Aziz Ben Habtoor, said when asked about the incident, according to Al Arabiya television.

Habtoor also declared the Houthi rebel group’s support for Hamas in its war against Israel.

“Hamas is an inseparable part of the Palestinian people, and it is impossible to separate them from the resistance,” he told the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese Al Mayadeen network.

Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree added that “our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy.

He said, “Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops.”

The Houthi rebels are part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” against Israel, which includes several terror and militant groups.

They rallied behind Hamas after its October 7 attacks killed 1,400 people in Israel, the deadliest atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah.

LONG WAR

The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2014 and control the capital city of Sana’a.

The Houthis follow the Shiite Zaydi faith, a branch of Shiite Islam that is almost exclusively found in Yemen, experts say. Their slogan has long been: “Allah is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”

But “now they have the hard power to back it,” said Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa who has studied Yemen for years.

“It was just a matter of time before they would be able to do this,” Juneau told The Associated Press news agency, noting the rebels’ steadily advancing missile program that came with Iranian assistance.

“The fact that there’s another front directly to the south raises the risk that Israel (air defenses) can be overwhelmed, and then it can be that much more worrying” if Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and others launch massive missile barrages.

With attacks now also coming from Yemen, Israel appeared increasingly being surrounded by hostile nations preparing to join the fight.