In a major regional fallout from Israel’s catastrophic war on Gaza, Houthi rebels in Yemen have struck Tel Aviv for the first time, while Israeli forces are heavily damaging the crucial port of Hodeidah in response.
Since last November, the Houthis, allied with Iran and who control much of Yemen, have been attacking Israeli-linked commercial and military vessels to show their support for the Palestinians. They say their attacks will continue until a ceasefire is established in Gaza.
Here’s everything you need to know about the latest attacks and why they matter.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah (Partners of God), are an armed group that controls most parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, and parts of western and northern areas close to Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis emerged in the 1990s but rose to prominence in 2014, when the group rebelled against the Yemeni government, forcing it to resign and triggering a crippling humanitarian crisis.
The group then spent years fighting, with Iran’s support, a Saudi-led military coalition. The two warring sides have also made several attempts to begin peace talks.
Analysts, however, say the Shiite group should not be seen as a proxy of Iran. It has its own base, its own interests and its own ambitions.
What happened in Tel Aviv?
In the early hours of Friday morning, a drone launched by the Yemeni group struck a building in central Tel Aviv located about 100 meters (330 feet) from a branch of the U.S. Embassy.
The strike killed one person and wounded ten others, leaving Israeli citizens distraught as Tel Aviv had been largely unaffected by dozens of previous attacks by the Houthis and the Hezbollah group from Lebanon.
It was also the first time that a Houthi attack had resulted in a death in Israel, with their drone having travelled a distance of more than 1,800 km.
The Israeli military said it believed the drone was a variant of the Iranian-made Samad-3 that had been modified to improve its range, likely through a reduced explosive charge to accommodate more fuel.
The drone, which is also believed to have been used in previous Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, did not travel directly, with Israeli military assessments indicating that it circled over Egypt and flew toward Tel Aviv from the Mediterranean Sea at low altitude.
It is also the first documented successful attack by the Houthis in the Mediterranean Sea, a theater of operations in which they have been trying to expand since Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza in May.
Why “Jaffa”?
The Houthis named the drone that struck Tel Aviv “Jaffa.” Jaffa, a Palestinian commercial center, was invaded in 1948 by Israeli paramilitaries and has since been subsumed by Tel Aviv.
Houthi spokesman Gen. Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv by its Palestinian name, Jaffa, in his statement announcing the attack, declaring it “occupied” land and a “dangerous zone.”
The Israeli military said “human error” led to the drone being mistaken for a friendly aircraft and not shot down, despite being detected up to six minutes before impact.
But the Houthis claimed to have used a new type of drone capable of evading radar, adding that they intended to “impose a sense of insecurity” in Tel Aviv, where many Israeli government and military offices as well as foreign embassies are located.
Why is the Israeli attack on Hodeidah important?
In response to the Tel Aviv attack, the Israeli military dispatched fighter jets to bomb the strategic Yemeni port of Hodeidah, killing at least six people and wounding dozens more.
The Israeli strike, which also hit fuel depots in the port, also caused a massive fire in the area.
استمرار اشتعال النيران في ميناء الحديدة نتيجة الاستهداف الإسرائيل ي#sunshine #sequence_of_the_sequence pic.twitter.com/wwqCUdnj91
– الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) July 21, 2024
The Israeli military justified its attack on the port, saying it would impact Iranian arms supplies to the Houthis for some time. Tehran, which denies sending missiles and drones to the group, condemned the attack on Sunday, saying it risked spreading the conflict throughout the region.
Hodeidah is also the port through which much of the humanitarian aid that the Yemeni people need to avoid a food crisis caused by Yemen’s decade-long war passes.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not say whether the Israeli strike would impact aid deliveries, but called for “restraint” and “avoidance of attacks that could harm civilians and damage civilian infrastructure.”
The United States and Saudi Arabia quickly distanced themselves from the Hodeidah attack, with Riyadh – which has been repeatedly warned by Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi against intercepting his attacks on others – saying it would not allow its airspace to be used for any assault.
Will Hezbollah join the operation?
The Lebanese armed group has also been engaged in deadly clashes on the border with Israel since the start of the Gaza war, amid fears the conflict could turn into an all-out war.
Hezbollah welcomed the Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv and said Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port marked “a dangerous new phase” in the conflict.
The Israeli military announced Sunday evening that its warplanes had struck two weapons depots in southern Lebanon, causing a large explosion. The military also reported another strike in the area later in the day.
What happens now?
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks on Israeli targets. The group’s military spokesman said Sunday that they had launched several ballistic missiles at the Israeli port city of Eilat. The Israeli military confirmed that it had shot down a surface-to-surface missile with its Arrow 3 defense system, which can strike projectiles outside the atmosphere.
The Houthis also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Liberian-flagged container ship, which their military spokesman called “American.” They have also struck at least three other vessels this week.
The Israeli National Security Research Institute at Tel Aviv University said the attack on Yemen will not deter the Houthis or the Iranians.
“Israel will have a hard time mobilizing countries in the region to resist the Houthis, even though some, notably Egypt, have been more affected than Israel by their attacks on the Red Sea international trade route,” he said.
“Arab countries fear the reaction of Iran or its proxies and want to stay out of the line of fire and protect themselves from risks.”
But Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi politician, told Tel Aviv Tribune that Israeli attacks “would never affect our position, which is to support our brothers in Palestine.”
“This will strengthen our determination to end the genocide in Gaza,” he said, adding that the group was coordinating with its allies in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. “We could reach a point of unification in the fight against the Zionist enemy.”