On Wednesday, Yemen’s Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, fired a missile at northern Israel for the first time as the heavy US bombing campaign on Yemen has failed to deter their attacks.
The Israeli military said that air defenses intercepted the missile, but sirens still sounded in Haifa and other parts of northern Israel, sending Israelis to bomb shelters. When announcing the attack, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said Haifa was the target.
“The missile force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a qualitative military operation targeting a vital Zionist enemy target in the occupied area of Haifa using a hypersonic ballistic missile,” Saree said.
Saree also claimed Yemeni forces fired a drone at Israel, but there were no reports of a drone coming near Israeli territory. A day earlier, he announced that Yemeni air defenses shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone, which was confirmed by US officials on Wednesday.
The US has been bombing Yemen heavily for 40 days, but the Houthis have made clear the only way they’ll stop their attacks on Israel is if there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade. Saree said operations in “support of the oppressed Palestinian people” will continue “until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”
More US airstrikes were reported in Yemen on Wednesday in the Red Sea province of Hodeidah. US attacks also hit the provinces of Marib and Taiz.
Over the weekend, 12 civilians were reported killed by US airstrikes on the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, which hit several targets, including a crowded market. On Friday, a massive US bombing on a fuel port in Yemen killed 80 people, the deadliest US attack since President Trump launched the bombing campaign on March 15.
A senior member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau has said the Houthis would stop attacks on US warships if the US stopped bombing Yemen. Trump administration officials have claimed they would stop the airstrikes if the Houthis declared they would stop targeting US ships, but there’s no sign the US is considering the offer since it’s really bombing Yemen for Israel.
