ALERT: Yemen’s Houthis join the war in the Middle East and threaten to block the Red Sea | International
Sources confirm that the following story has emerged from the international scene.
The war in the Middle East that Donald Trump sees as “almost over” continues to spread. A month after its start by the US and Israel (with a wave of bombings in which the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and other Iranian leaders were killed), a new actor has been added since this Saturday: the Houthi rebels of Yemen. The militia, supported by Iran but independent in its decision-making, has launched its first attack of the conflict against Israel. Although its projectiles and drones open another front (in 2025 it remained the only militia that fired in retaliation for the massacres in Gaza), what is more important is its ability to, once again, prevent the passage of merchandise ships through another important maritime corridor, the Strait of Bab al Mandeb, which would add to the Iranian blockade of Hormuz. The military spokesman for the Yemeni group, Yahya Saree, has justified the involvement in the conflict “in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the resistance fronts in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, in view of the continued military escalation, attacks on infrastructure and the perpetration of crimes and massacres.” Saree has specified that they will continue until they achieve all their objectives and the “cessation of aggression against all fronts of the resistance,” in reference to the armed groups allied with Tehran. Israel’s intelligence services had assumed for weeks that the Houthis would soon join the war if it did not stop. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq already did it in the first week. Its first action was “a bombardment of ballistic missiles against sensitive military targets of the enemy” that “successfully achieved its objectives.” The Israeli Army has reported, however, a single missile against the south of the country, which it intercepted after activating anti-aircraft alarms in the city of Beersheba. It has not reported any other projectiles, although military censorship prevents counting and recording possible impacts or victims on military targets. The Houthi military spokesman had already warned hours before, in a televised speech, that they had “their fingers on the trigger” for a “direct military intervention.” The Houthis have controlled much of northwest Yemen since 2024, including the capital, Sanaa, after expelling the forces of the internationally recognized government. Its location allows them both to reach Israel, about 2,000 kilometers from Yemen, and to attack US bases or warships in the Gulf. “Battle in stages” At the moment, they threaten to blockade Bab al Mandeb. “We are fighting this battle in stages and closing the strait […] “It is one of our options,” his Deputy Information Minister, Mohammed Mansur, assured the local media this Saturday. Bab al Mandeb gives access to the Egyptian Suez Canal, through which a good part of the global merchandise trade transits, a crossing point to the Mediterranean, and therefore to Europe, for exports from Asia. That is, the blockade could include both the eastern and western coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, important maritime corridors for raw materials and essential goods. Building bombed by Israel in Saksakiye, in southern Lebanon, this Saturday.Yara Nardi (REUTERS)The Houthi rebels attacked more than 200 merchant ships with missiles and drones, damaged 30 ships and hijacked one between November 2023 and January 2025, in parallel with the Israeli invasion of Gaza that has left more than 72,000 dead. In 2024, Trump began a campaign against the Houthis that ended weeks later and, since then, they have ceased. harassment of ships and bombings in Yemen. The Houthis also fired missiles and drones against Israel, right up until the ceasefire in October 2025. They were punctual and, for the most part, intercepted, but one of the projectiles caused panic when it hit near a terminal of the country’s main airport, Ben Gurion, near Tel Aviv.
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The implications of this story extend beyond borders and could affect millions of people globally.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.