According to Israeli media, Israel is urging the US to start bombing Yemen again following two Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea this week, operations the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, have said will stop if there’s a ceasefire in Gaza.
Citing Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, The Times of Israel reported that Israel told the US that the Houthi attacks “can no longer remain solely an Israeli problem,” and called for “more intense combined attacks against Houthi regime targets — not just [Israeli] air force fighter jet strikes, but also a renewal of American attacks and the formation of a coalition including additional countries.”
An Israeli official said that a “broad coalition is needed to convey to the Houthi regime that it is in danger.” Israel has launched several rounds of airstrikes since the US stopped bombing Yemen, but it has failed to stop Yemeni attacks.
The report came after the US State Department hinted that US airstrikes on Yemen could resume after the Houthi attacks on two Greek-owned ships, which killed at least four crewmembers from one of the ships. “The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community,” said State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
President Trump launched airstrikes against Yemen from March 15 to May 6, which involved over 1,000 missile strikes and killed over 250 civilians. The brutal bombing campaign was launched in response to the Houthis announcing they were reimposing a blockade on Israeli shipping in response to Israel violating the Gaza ceasefire by imposing a total blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Throughout the US bombing campaign, the Houthis were able to fire missiles and drones at US warships and launch missiles at Israeli territory. Multiple US MQ-9 Reaper drones were shot down, and the US lost two F/A-18 fighter jets that fell off aircraft carriers during Houthi attacks. While Trump framed his ceasefire with the Houthis as a victory, he essentially gave up on trying to stop the Houthi attacks on Israel.
The Houthi attacks on cargo ships this week marked the first time Ansar Allah targeted commercial shipping this year. At the time of the ceasefire with the US, Ansar Allah officials said they agreed not to target US ships if the US stopped bombing Yemen, meaning attacks on Greek-owned vessels wouldn’t violate the deal.
President Biden also failed to deter the Houthis in a bombing campaign that he launched in defense of Israeli shipping and carried out from January 2024 to January 2025. The only thing that stopped the Yemeni attacks was the short-lived Gaza ceasefire.
The Houthis are notoriously resilient, having survived a brutal US-backed Saudi-UAE war from 2015 to 2022, which killed at least 377,000 people.
