Iran-backed Houthis fire missile at Israel from Yemen, risking further escalation

Summary

The Yemen-based Houthi militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on Israel on Saturday, marking the Iran-backed group’s entry into the widening conflict in the Middle East, one that could further disrupt the region’s vital shipping lanes. The Houthis “have carried out their first military operation with a batch of ballistic missiles, which targeted sensitive military targets” of Israel, the group’s armed forces said on Telegram Saturday, citing “continued military escalation” against Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories. “This operation coincided with the heroic operations carried out by the brothers, the fighters in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the operation successfully achieved its goals,” the Iranian proxy group added. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed a missile launch from Yemen toward Israel, adding that aerial defense systems were operating to intercept the threat. It later gave the all-clear to sheltering civilians. While such strikes may have limited direct military impact, the Houthis, Tehran’s proxy militia based in Yemen, carry the potential to trigger broader disruption, particularly in the Red Sea, a critical artery for global trade. Global shipping and oil markets are already in turmoil after Iran responded to the American-Israeli attack by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, prompting what the International Energy Agency described as the worst disruption in the history of the oil market. The Red Sea is also a vital corridor for global commerce, especially for trade between Europe and Asia. Around one-tenth of the world’s seaborne oil shipments usually pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow chokepoint just 16 miles wide separating the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa, with Saudi Arabia further stepping up oil shipments via the Red Sea route amid the Hormuz disruption. In recent years, the Houthis have significantly reduced traffic through the waterway with repeated attacks on vessels. The group began targeting ships along the route in October 2023, in response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Shipping volumes in the Red Sea plummeted, with traffic through the Suez Canal, which links it to the Mediterranean Sea down 70% by mid-2024, according to a yearly review by United Nations Trade and Development. Meanwhile, oil flows through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait were cut in half, according to an analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Houthis succeeded in “hindering, impeding and blocking the Red Sea” during Israel’s war in Gaza, Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told NBC News. "The American-Israeli war in Iran is really no longer a limited war. It’s all out regional conflict," he added. "What I worry about is that it’s no longer just a military conflict, it’s now an economic war that involves the supply chains, the global energy system, its waterways." Through Saturday’s strikes, “the Houthis have given the Americans and the Israelis a taste of what’s to come,” he said. Last year, President Donald Trump launched a weeks-long intensive bombing campaign against the Houthis that cost $1 billion before announcing a ceasefire, only for the group to go on to sink two more ships later that year. It was only in December that oil tankers and cargo vessels had been “gradually making a return” to the Red Sea, according to maritime intelligence firm Lloyd’s List. Iran has also signaled that the waterway could become a target. It said this week that the 1,400-mile inlet dividing Africa and Asia was fair game for retaliatory attacks due to the presence of the American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. Any facilities supporting the carrier group “will be regarded as potential targets by Iran’s armed forces,” its military said Monday, according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency.