Israel and Yemen exchange attacks Thursday amid escalating violence between the two sides as Yemen’s ruling Houthi AnsarAllah group vows to keep launching strikes until the killing and starvation of Gaza ends.
An IDF military statement claimed the Yemen strikes targeted a Houthi military target in the capital Sanaa, without giving further details.
Israeli media said the attacks occurred during a speech by Houthi leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, which continued without interruption. It is believed that Israel was attempting to assassinate senior Houthi leaders as they gathered to watch the speech by their leader.
Following the attack, Senior Ansarallah leader, Nasr El-Din Amer reportedly said: “Reports about targeting leaders in Sana’a are baseless. What is happening is the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the entire Yemeni people due to their supportive stance towards Gaza.
“The new round of aggression is a failure, like its predecessors. Yemeni operations and Yemeni support for Gaza and the resistance will not stop until the aggression ceases and the siege on Gaza is lifted, God willing. The strong hand of the Yemeni people, by the power of God, will reach the war criminals, God willing.”
Israel has been striking key facilities in north Yemen throughout 2025, all vital to the country’s economy and public infrastructure.
From ports, to Sanaa’s international airport, to power stations and cement factories. This is all being done as Israel claims they are striking back against the Houthis who have been relentlessly attacking Israel with drones and ballistic missiles since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.
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On Sunday, the Israeli military hit two power plants in Sanaa, just a week after it had hit the very same Haziz facility, leaving it fully out of order. At least 10 people were killed during the attack.
Israel published a statement at the time saying it had wiped out important energy infrastructure, and threatening the Houthis, stating that what happened was just the “beginning.”
Local Yemeni media has claimed that Israel is targeting civilian populated areas and has killed a significant number of women and children since beginning its attacks on Yemen.
The reason for the recent increase in Israeli attacks on Yemen
Fuad Mussed, a Yemeni political researcher has stated that Israel’s recent attacks have differed massively from the previous American strikes.
Mussed said that Israel is destroying “critical civilian facilities” whilst the U.S. raids differed in how they had “destroyed Houthi arsenals, missile launchers, and drones.”
The difference between the two were evident in how the U.S. had clear targeting on the Houthi’s.
Israel launched its first operation against the Houthis in July of last year, in response to Yemeni missile and drone attacks.
The most recent Houthi attack, which the IDF has responded particularly hard against, came on August 28 but a similar attack also occurred on August 22. Although Yemen’s attacks have been limited in their affectiveness, some have breach Israel’s air defences and cause damage.
Israel’s have been injured while fleeing to bomb shelters on multiple occasions and Yemeni attacks on Red Sea shipping has cause huge economic damage as world shipping is forced to avoid the key maritime trade route.
Israel claims that Yemen’s Houthi-backed forces fired a cluster bomb towards Israel, a weapon that is heavily scrutinised and restricted internationally for it’s great damage to civilian life.
Israel viewed this bomb as a direct escalation in the conflict, therefore using it as a justification to attack Yemen again.
Although Yemen has come under significant attack, their leadership has vowed to continue attacking Israel until the genocide in Gaza is stopped.
Speech by the Houthi’s leader
On Thursday, the leader of Yemen’s AnsarAllah movement, Sayyed Abdul Malik al-Houthi, elaborated on Yemen’s latest escalatory attack on Israel and the new type of “splinter warhead” that was used.
“The Yemeni front’s operations continued this week against the Israeli enemy with hypersonic missiles and drones in Yaffa and Asqalan in occupied Palestine. The missile forces brought us the good news of the qualitative achievement that worried the zionist enemies in manufacturing splinter warheads for the Palestine 2 missiles. The splinter warheads of the Palestine 2 missiles are divided into several warheads, and this is a very important qualitative achievement that has worried the Zionist enemy.”
Over the last 23 months of Israel’s war in Gaza, the Houthis have launched 1,679 attacks on Israel and the Red sea, deploying drones, missiles, and more, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, the movement’s leader said.
The most significant Houthi attack was the waves of strikes it unleashed onto Israel’s Eliat port.
This attack single handedly reduced the ports trading operations by 90%, bringing it to near total financial collapse.
However, Israel’s attacks have also been considered devastating to Yemen’s economy and public sector.
Houthi authorities said in December that Israeli raids in the ports of Hodeidah from 22 July to 19 December caused material losses of $313mn.
This is particularly heavy hitting considering that Hodeidah’s port is a lifeline for millions of people, supplying fuel and commodities to Yemen’s Houthi controlled north.
Around the same time, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to “deal with the heads of Houthis in Sanaa or anywhere in Yemen,” just like he did with Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, or Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
However, it is believed that Israel lacks the intelligence and reach to affectively conducted large scale assassinations of Yemeni leader in the way it has done in Gaza, Lebanon and even Iran.
What do the Houthis hope to achieve?
The Houthi’s, known internally as AnsarAllah (Helpers of Allah) have been in control of Yemen’s north since 2014 following an internal power struggle in the war stricken Arab country.
They are almost entirely dependant on their closest ally, Iran, who also equally relies on them to gain leverage in the region amid major setbacks for the Iranian resistance axis which once spread from Tehran across Iraq and Syria to Beirut in Lebanon.
Various analysts claim that the Houthi’s are using this current war as a rallying of public support to gain more support amongst their own people.
Although, Yemen has suffered as a result of its support for Gaza and remains the only Muslim country to engage in direct military action to pressure for a ceasefire.
Ansarallah Political Bureau member Mohammed Al-Farah said in a recent statement: “We affirm our steadfastness in our positions supporting the oppressed in Gaza and will not stop until the aggression ceases and the siege on Gaza is lifted. We will strive to do more to pressure for an end to its aggression against Gaza.
“We also call upon the sons of our Arab and Islamic nation to take practical and serious stances to confront this enemy, which disregards human blood in Gaza and seeks to violate Arab countries without respect for any charters, norms, or laws.”
