Houthis Assert Role in Recent Missile Strike Targeting Israel

In an unprecedented move, Israel’s military announced it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen directed toward its territory early Saturday. This marked the first recorded instance of such an attack originating from Yemen.

The missile was claimed by the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels, raising concerns about the possibility of the group, which is backed by Tehran, targeting commercial vessels navigating the crucial Red Sea corridor once more.

Throughout the night from Friday into Saturday, sirens blared in Beer Sheba and near Israel’s primary nuclear research center. This came as Iran and Hezbollah continued their offensive against Israel.

The Houthis, who have controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, had previously remained on the periphery of conflict, maintaining a strained cease-fire with Saudi Arabia. This truce followed Saudi Arabia’s intervention in 2015 on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government in the ongoing war against the rebels.

The onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict has disrupted shipping operations in the Red Sea, a vital passageway for approximately $1 trillion in goods annually. The situation has been further inflamed by the rebels’ drone attacks targeting Israel.

In a related development, Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities hours after issuing a warning to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran on Friday, highlighting the growing tensions in the region.

Iran vowed to retaliate and struck a base in Saudi Arabia, wounding US service members and damaging planes.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued the claim in a statement Saturday on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television.

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

The attack came hours after Saree signaled in a vague statement Friday that the rebels would join the war that shocked the region and rattled the global economy.

In 2024, the Trump administration launched strikes against the Houthis that ended weeks later. The US-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II.

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

That would cause further chaos in global shipping, which already is reeling from Iran’s stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed.

The potential involvement of the Houthis in the war also 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.

Prior to the attack from Yemen, there appeared to be a breakthrough as Tehran agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, accepting a request from the UN Ali Bahreini, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Iran agreed to “facilitate and expedite” such movement.

The vital waterway usually handles a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer trade. While markets and governments have largely focused on blocked supplies of oil and natural gas, the restriction of fertilizer ingredients and trade threatens farming and food security around the world.

“This measure reflects Iran’s continued commitment to supporting humanitarian efforts and ensuring that essential aid reaches those in need without delay,” Bahreini said on the social platform X. The U.N. earlier announced a task force to address the ripple effects that the war has had on aid delivery.

More than two dozen US troops have been wounded in Iranian attacks on a Saudi air base in the past week, according two people who have been briefed on the matter.

Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base in a Friday attack that injured at least 15 troops, including five seriously, according to the people who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The base had come under come attack twice earlier this week, including an incident that injured 14 US troops, according to the people who had been briefed on the matter.

Located about 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the base is run by the Royal Saudi Air Force, but also used by US troops.