For more than a year, the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militant group that controls northern Yemen, have been firing drones and missiles at Israel, and disrupting trade with attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.
This month, the pace of Houthi attacks on Israel has increased — as have Israeli and U.S. retaliations. But the Houthis, who have already withstood years of bombardment by a Saudi-led coalition, appear to be undeterred.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthis are Shiite militants who have been fighting Yemen’s government for about two decades. They overran the Yemeni capital, Sana, in 2014, forcing the country’s internationally recognized government to flee to the southern city of Aden.
A Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention to oust the militants but failed, leaving the Houthis in power in northern Yemen, in a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands and led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The Houthis are opposed to Israel and the United States. They see themselves as part of the Iranian-led “axis of resistance,” along with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Their ideology is reflected in the slogan on the group’s flag: “Allah is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.” Their leaders often draw parallels between the American-made bombs used to pummel their forces in Yemen and the arms sent to Israel and used in Gaza.
Once a group of poorly organized rebels, the Houthis in recent years have bolstered their arsenal, which now includes cruise and ballistic missiles and long-range drones. Analysts credit this expansion to support from Iran, which has supplied militias across the Middle East.
The United States labeled the Houthis a terrorist organization in 2021, shortly before the end of President Donald J. Trump’s first term. The Biden administration lifted the designation weeks later to make it easier for humanitarian aid to enter Yemen.
Early in 2024 the State Department announced that it was reimposing the label in view of the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which allows officials to impose financial penalties and criminally prosecute anyone who knowingly provides the group with “material support.”
What is their motivation?
The Houthi attacks on Israel and Red Sea commercial ships began in solidarity with Hamas, the group’s fellow Iran-based militia, after its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompted Israel to unleash a devastating military campaign in Gaza.
The Houthis initially said they would target any ship traveling to or from Israel. But the Houthi criteria for attacking ships quickly expanded to include vessels with direct or indirect links to Israel or past visits to Israeli ports, then also to ships with ties to the United States or Britain. Many of the subsequent attacks have been indiscriminate, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.
The Houthis have launched more than 130 attacks with drones and missiles on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a nonprofit group that tracks the strikes.
Perhaps the most audacious Houthi operation came in November 2023, when gunmen hijacked a vessel named the Galaxy Leader and took it to a Yemeni port, where they have been holding the ship’s crew members captive for more than a year.
In August, a Houthi attack on an oil tanker carrying the equivalent of about one million barrels of crude oil threatened to become an environmental disaster as the vessel burned for weeks. It was ultimately towed to safety.
What are the attacks’ effects worldwide?
To travel between Asia and Europe, global shipping companies have for decades sailed through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Now, many shipping companies are diverting their cargo around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip, a route that adds 4,000 miles and 10 days to shipping routes and requires more fuel.
So the Houthi attacks have significantly increased the costs and risks of transporting goods, contributing to the higher prices for goods around the world, according to economists — price spikes that influenced elections in Europe and the United States.
The cost of shipping a container from Asia to northern Europe is up 270 percent in 12 months, according to Freightos, a digital marketplace for shipping. But continuing to use the Red Sea would raise insurance premiums and endanger sailors, some of whom have been killed or kidnapped in the attacks.
What has the U.S. been doing to stop the attacks?
The Biden administration assembled a naval task force, called Operation Prosperity Guardian, that includes the United States, Britain and other allies and has been patrolling the Red Sea to, in the words of Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, “preserve freedom of navigation” and “freedom of shipping.”
U.S. and British warships have intercepted some Houthi missiles and drones before they reached their targets. In the first half of 2024, the two countries conducted at least five joint strikes against the Houthis.
What has Israel done?
On Thursday, after Israel struck Yemen for a second time in December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with local news media that Israel was “just getting started” responding to the Houthis.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, on Thursday reiterated a threat he had made earlier about Israel’s intent to assassinate Houthi leaders. “We will hunt down all the Houthi leaders, hit them as we have done elsewhere,” Mr. Katz said. “No one will be able to escape Israel’s long arm.”
Israel is apparently turning more attention to the Houthis now, after reaching a cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah in November and largely undermining Hamas’s capabilities in Gaza over more than a year of war.
In response to Israel’s attack, Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesman, said that targeting civilian infrastructure was “a Zionist crime against the entire Yemeni people.” He added that Israeli strikes won’t “deter Yemen from supporting Gaza.”
The post Who Are the Houthis, and Why Are the U.S. and Israel Attacking Them? appeared first on New York Times.
