Successful Houthi attacks off the coast of Yemen from 11/19/2023 to 02/01/2024
February 1, 21:09
Successful Houthi attacks off the coast of Yemen from 11/19/2023 to 02/01/2024
Successful Houthi attacks since the beginning of the naval campaign in the Red Sea and off the southern coast of Yemen.
The American transport Cole, which was hit yesterday, was not included in the list.
The US and Britain have failed to stop the ongoing attacks.
Oil traffic through the Suez Canal has halved
February 1, 19:11
The damming of the Red Sea is once again reshaping global oil logistics. Oil traffic through the Suez Canal has fallen by half, according to Reuters calculations. But there was no commensurate increase in traffic through the Cape of Good Hope, bypassing Africa. That is, Asia-Europe oil traffic has decreased sharply ( https://t.me/topinfographic/2427 ).
At the same time, Russian oil shipments (according to Bloomberg calculations) are at the level of previous weeks. Monarchies also ship by the hour. If the shipping of tankers with Russian oil in the Red Sea is normal, then where the Middle Eastern oil that previously went to Europe is delivered ( https://t.me/topinfographic/2344 ) is still a mystery.
There are not many options: either ships with oil and petroleum products have not yet sailed around Africa and are not reflected in the statistics, or Middle Eastern and Russian oil has gone to Asia ( https://t.me/topinfographic/2488 ), overstocking the markets.
The price of diesel in Europe ( https://t.me/topinfographic/2307 ) has risen sharply, fueling discontent among farmers ahead of the sowing season. If the Red Sea is not released in the near future, then the question will not be the price of refueling tractors, but the physical ability to do it.
On the impact of Houthi attacks on oil and LNG transportation
February 2, 15:13
On the impact of Houthi attacks on the transportation of oil and LNG.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait accounts for 12% of maritime trade in oil and 8% in LNG.
Euronav, QatarEnergy, Torm, Shell, Equinor, BP and Reliance have suspended transit through it.
A typical voyage from the Persian Gulf to the oil trading hub Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) via the Suez Canal takes 19 days. If the ship follows the Cape of Good Hope route, it takes almost 35 days to reach the ARA.
Longer routes put upward pressure on freight rates due to fuel costs and fewer ships available. For example, VLGC consumes $30,000 to $35,000 worth of fuel per day using high-sulfur bunker fuel at average 2023 prices.
In addition to increasing fuel costs, a longer voyage requires more ships to maintain the same delivery schedule, and fewer ships available results in higher refueling rates and costs.
Actually, this is the main profit of Iran and the Houthis, and the defeat of individual ships is a means by which pressure is exerted on the energy transportation market.
This would not have been possible if the Houthis had not succeeded in the 2015-2021 Yemen war and created a critical strategic foothold for Iran in one of the key regions.
Yemen's Houthis Claim Missile Attack Against British Vessel
A member of the artillery forces of the Ansar Allah Movement, 2024. | Photo: X/ @BnzEnglish
Published 2 February 2024
This is the third attack that the Houthis have carried out in the last 48 hours in rejection of the Israeli offensive against Gaza.
On Thursday, Yemen's Ansar Allah Movement (Houthi) claimed responsibility for launching a missile attack against a British commercial vessel in the Red Sea.
"In support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and response to the U.S.-British aggression on our country, we targeted a British commercial ship at the Red Sea which was heading to the ports of Israel," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said.
"The operations against Israel in the Red Sea will continue until Israel stops its war on Gaza and lifts its siege on the Palestinian people," he said.
It is the third attack claimed by the armed Houthi group in less than 24 hours. On Wednesday night, the Houthi group claimed responsibility for missile attacks against a U.S. navy warship in the Red Sea and another U.S. commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden.
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#Yemen Houthis are threatening to cut off the fiber optic cable that runs along the bottom of the Red Sea if the #UnitedStates and UK strike Yemen's airports again.
#Gaza #Palestine #Israel
The U.S. Central Command said that its navy forces intercepted the Houthi missile attack on the warship but gave no details on the other Houthi attack on the U.S. commercial vessel.
Tensions have been escalating in the region where the Houthi group's continuing attacks in the Red Sea disrupt the International shipping lines.
The Houthi group controls much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sana, and the strategic Red Sea port city of Hodeidah. Last month, Washington re-designated the Houthi group as a "global terrorist organization."
U.S. lies on Yemeni intent to destroy marine internet cables debunked
Originally published: Al Mayadeen on February 2, 2024 by Blackdot (more by Al Mayadeen) | (Posted Feb 08, 2024)
Blackdot has recently examined the claim that Yemen’s Ansar Allah plans to cut off 99% of the world’s internet following the circulation of the news on different social media platforms, and eventually refuted it and confirmed its falsity.
Claim: A ‘Houthi’ attack on Red Sea fiber optics cables?
On December 24, several platforms claimed that an Ansar Allah-affiliated Telegram channel shared a photo of the seabed that contains submarine cables that connect several regions of the world and supply them with internet.
The photo was captioned:
There are maps of international cables connecting all regions of the world through the sea. It seems that Yemen is in a strategic location, as internet lines that connect entire continents–not only countries—pass near it.
Once news platforms and users obtained the photo, claims were made accusing the Yemeni Armed Forces of threatening to cut off the world’s internet supply in support of Gaza amid the Israeli genocide, and the US’ targeting of Yemen in support of “Israel”.
Tracing back to the source of the news, it was found that the Middle East Media Research Institute was behind the spread of the claim, an American organization that has been explicitly pro-‘Israel’.
Nothing to back it
The Middle East Media Research Institute is the only original source that kickstarted the frenzy, while other social media platforms only circulated the piece with no substantial evidence that proves its legitimacy, primarily proving its fallacy.
The second indicator was the absence of a tangible connection between the Telegram channel and Ansar Allah, as well as the absence of an official statement from their side. The news solely relied on a theory that was meant to stir tensions.
The third indicator was the direct rejection of the claim itself by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology of Yemen. Only two days after the American research institute made its claims, the Yemeni ministry released a statement denying the accusations and asserting that Yemen intends to keep the cables secure.
Therefore, this rids the initial claim of any validity.
A result of losses against the steadfast Ansar Allah
This comes as Ansar Allah fights off genocide enablers in the Red Sea in support of Gaza. Even after Ansar Allah was listed as a terrorist organization, Yemen was not deterred.
In response to the decision to designate the Ansar Allah as a Global Terrorist, the head of the movement’s Negotiating Envoy and top official, Mohammad Abdul-Salam said that the U.S. has used the designation for “political purposes.”
He slammed the decision, emphasizing that it “will not deter [Yemen] from our steadfast support for the Palestinian people.”
The official underlined that the decision will have minimal to “no effectiveness on the ground,” adding that it will only “strengthen [Ansar Allah’s] commitment to supporting” Palestine.
Ansar Allah’s Politburo released a statement responding to the decision saying that the classification “is ironically amusing, coming from the global state of terrorism.” The committee said that its decision is “an honorary badge,” highlighting the group’s “supportive stance toward the Palestinian people.”
Corporate Media’s Push for US War in Yemen
February 8, 2024
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The four leading media outlets studied by MintPress regularly presented the U.S. bombing one of the world’s poorest countries as a method of defending itself. Alan McLeod reports.
NBC News control room, 2011. (Anthony Quintano, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
By Alan MacLeod
MintPress News
A MintPress study of major U.S. media outlets’ coverage of the Yemeni Red Sea blockade has found an overwhelming bias in the press, which presented the event as an aggressive, hostile act of terrorism by Ansar Allah (a.k.a. the Houthis), who were presented as pawns of the Iranian government. While constantly putting forward pro-war talking points, the U.S. was portrayed as a good faith, neutral actor being “dragged” into another Middle Eastern conflict against its will.
Since November, Ansar Allah has been conducting a blockade of Israeli ships entering the Red Sea in an attempt to force Israel to stop its attack on the people of Gaza. The U.S. government, which has refused to act to stop a genocide, sprang into action to prevent damage to private property, leading an international coalition to bomb targets in Yemen.
The effect of the blockade has been substantial. With hundreds of vessels taking the detour around Africa, big businesses like Tesla and Volvo have announced they have suspended European production. Ikea has warned that it is running low on supplies, and the price of a standard shipping container between China and Europe has more than doubled. Ansar Allah, evidently, has been able to target a weak spot of global capitalism.
Western airstrikes on Yemen, however, according to Ansar Allah spokesperson, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, have had only a “very limited” impact so far. Al-Bukhaiti made these comments in a recent interview with MintPress News.
Biased Reporting
MintPress conducted a study of four leading American outlets: The New York Times, CNN, Fox News and NBC News. Together, these outlets often set the agenda for the rest of the media system and could be said to be a reasonable representation of the corporate media spectrum as a whole.
Using the search term “Yemen” in the Dow Jones Factiva global news database, the 15 most recent relevant articles from each outlet were read and studied, giving a total sample of 60 articles. All articles were published in January 2024 or December 2023.
For full information and coding, see the attached viewable spreadsheet.
The study found the media wildly distorted reality, presenting a skewed picture that aided U.S. imperial ambitions. For one, every article in the study (60 out of 60) used the word “Houthis” rather than “Ansar Allah” to describe the movement which took part in the Yemeni Revolution of 2011 and rose up against the government in 2014, taking control of the capital Sanaa, becoming the new de facto government.
Protesters in the Yemen capital marching to Sana?a University, joined for the first time by opposition parties, March 2011. (Noor Al Hassan, Al Jazeera Creative Commons Repository, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Many in Yemen consider the term “Houthi” to be a derogatory term for an umbrella movement of people. As Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, told MintPress:
“‘Houthis’ is not a name we apply to ourselves. We refuse to be called Houthis. It is not from us. It is a name given to us by our enemies in an attempt to frame the broad masses in Yemeni society that belong to our project.”
Yet only two articles even mentioned the name “Ansar Allah” at all.
Since 2014, Ansar Allah has been in control of the vast majority of Yemen, despite a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition attempting to beat them back and restore the previous administration.
Many of the articles studied, however (22 of the 60 in total), did not present Ansar Allah as a governmental force but rather as a “tribal group” (The New York Times), a “ragtag but effective” rebel organization (CNN), or a “large clan” of “extremists” (NBC News). Fourteen articles went further, using the word “terrorist” in reference to Ansar Allah, usually in the context of the U.S. government or American officials calling them such.
Some, however, used it as a supposedly uncontroversial descriptor. One Fox article, for example, read: “For weeks, the Yemeni terrorist group’s actions have been disrupting maritime traffic, while the U.S. military has been responding with strikes.” And a CNN caption noted that U.S. forces “conducted strikes on 8 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen on January 22.”
Ansar Allah is responding to an Israeli onslaught that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and displaced around 1.9 million Gazans. Yet Israel and its actions were almost never described as “terrorism,” despite arguably fitting the definition far better than the Yemeni movement. The sole exception to this was a comment from al-Houthi, whom CNN quoted as calling Israel a “terrorist state.” Neither the United States nor its actions were ever described using such language.
Eyes on Iran
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ground force in Kerman tactical exercise, November 2023. (Tasnim News Agency, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
Although the perpetrator of the attacks on shipping is unquestionably Ansar Allah, corporate media had another culprit in mind: Iran. Fifty-nine of the 60 articles studied reminded readers that the Yemeni group is supported by the Islamic Republic, thereby directly pointing the finger at Tehran.
It is indeed true that Iran supports Ansar Allah politically and militarily. When directly asked by MintPress if Tehran supplies it with weapons, al-Bukhaiti dodged the question, calling it a “marginal issue.”
Why this facet of the story needed to be repeated literally hundreds of times is unclear. Often, the media studied would repeat it ad nauseam, to the point where a reader would be forgiven for thinking Ansar Allah’s official name was the “Iran-backed Houthis.” One CNN round-up used the phrase (or similar) seven times, a Fox News article six times, and an NBC News report five times.
Not only was the “Iran-backed” factoid used constantly, but it was also made a prominent part of how the issue was framed to the American public. The title of one Fox News report, for instance, read (emphasis added throughout): “U.S.-U.K. coalition strike Iran-backed Houthi targets in Yemen after spate of ship attacks in Red Sea.”
Its subheadline stated that: “Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in recent weeks,” and its first sentence read:
“The United States and Britain carried out a series of airstrikes on military locations belonging to Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen early Friday in response to the militant group’s ongoing attacks on vessels traveling through the Red Sea.”
From a stylistic point of view, repeating the same phrase continuously is very poor form. It does, however, drive the point home, suggesting perhaps that this was an inorganic directive from above.
Fox News studios at street level in New York, 2009. (Jim Henderson, Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
This is far from an unlikely event. We know, for example, that in October, new CNN CEO Mark Thompson sent out a memo to staff instructing them to always use the moniker “Hamas-controlled” when discussing the Gazan Health Ministry and their figures for deaths from Israeli bombardment. This was done with the clear intent to undermine the Palestinian side of the story.
Not only did the four outlets studied constantly remind readers that Ansar Allah is supported by Iran, but they also regularly framed the violence as orchestrated by Tehran and that Ansar Allah is little more than a group of mindless, unthinking pawns of Ayatollah Khamenei. As The New York Times wrote:
“Investing in proxy forces — fellow Shiites in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and the Sunni Hamas in the Gaza Strip — allows Iran to cause trouble for its enemies, and to raise the prospect of causing more if attacked… The Houthi movement in Yemen launched an insurgency against the government two decades ago. What was once a ragtag rebel force gained power thanks at least in part to covert military aid from Iran, according to American and Middle Eastern officials and analysts.”
The New York Times’ sign on 8th Avenue. (Kevin Prichard Photography, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
This “Iran is masterfully pulling all the strings” framing was present in 21 of the 60 articles.
The fearmongering about Iran did not stop there, however, with some outlets suggesting Tehran is building an international terror network or constructing an atomic bomb. The New York Times quoted one analyst who said:
” ‘Iran is really pushing it…It’s another reason they don’t want a war now: They want their centrifuges to run peacefully.’ The Iranians do not have a nuclear weapon but could enrich enough uranium to weapons-grade in a few weeks, from the current 60 percent enrichment to 90 percent, he said. ”They’ve done 95 percent of the work.’”
The point of all this was to demonize Ansar Allah and ramp up tensions with Iran, leading to the inevitable calls for war. “The U.S. needs to strike Iran, and make it smart,” ran the (since changed) title of a Washington Post editorial.
“The West may now have no option but to attack Iran,” wrote neoconservative Iran hawk John Bolton in the pages of The Daily Telegraph. Bolton, of course, is part of a group called United Against Nuclear Iran that, since its inception, has been attempting to convince the U.S. to bomb Iran. Earlier this year, MintPress News profiled the shady think tank.
While the media in the sample reminded us literally hundreds of times that Ansar Allah is Iran-backed, similar phrases such as “U.S.-backed Saudi Arabia” or “America-backed Israel” were never used, despite Washington propping both those countries up, with diplomatic, military and economic support.
The Biden administration has rushed more than $14 billion in military aid to Israel since Oct. 7, sent a fleet of warships to the region, and blocked diplomatic efforts to stop Israel’s attack on Gaza.
Meanwhile, it is doubtful whether Saudi Arabia would exist in its current form without U.S. support. Militarily alone, the U.S. has sold tens of billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Riyadh, helping the petro-state to convert its oil profits into security. From 2014 to 2023, Saudi Arabia led a U.S.-backed coalition force attempting to remove Ansar Allah from power.
This consisted primarily of a massive bombing campaign against civilian targets in Yemen, including farms, hospitals and sanitation infrastructure. The violence turned Yemen into what the United Nations regularly called the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” with around 400,000 people dying and tens of millions going hungry and lacking even basic healthcare.
Protester with Chicago Area Peace Action group, Nov. 30, 2018, responding to a Saudi attack on a school bus that used a 500-pound bomb manufactured by Lockheed-Martin. (Charles Edward Miller, Flickr, CC BY SA-2.0)
The U.S. backed Saudi Arabia the whole way, selling the government at least $28.4 billion worth of arms, according to a MintPress study. In 2021, the Biden administration announced it would only sell the kingdom “defensive” technology. However, this has included shipments of cruise missiles, attack helicopters, and support for gunships.
Both Saudi Arabia and Israel featured prominently in the articles studied. But only five of the 60 mentioned U.S. support for Saudi Arabia, and none at all for Israel. This context is extremely important for American audiences to know. Without their government’s political, military, economic and diplomatic support, none of this would be possible, and the current situation would be radically different.
Only six articles mentioned U.S. support for the Saudi onslaught against Yemen — and none featured the fact prominently as they did with Iranian support for Ansar Allah.
Only one article in the sample suggested that Ansar Allah might not simply be an Iranian cat’s paw. The New York Times wrote that: “The Houthis are an important arm of Iran’s so-called ‘axis of resistance,’ which includes armed groups across the Middle East.
But Yemeni analysts say they view the militia as a complex Yemeni group, rather than just an Iranian proxy.” This was the sum total of information given suggesting Ansar Allah is an independent actor.
Humanitarian Blockade?
Yemen considers its actions in blocking Israeli traffic from the Red Sea as a humanitarian gesture, similar to the “right to protect” concept the U.S. frequently invokes to justify what it sees as humanitarian interventions across the world. As al-Houthi told MintPress:
“First, our position is religious and humanitarian, and we see a tremendous injustice. We know the size and severity of these massacres committed against the people of Gaza. We have suffered from American-Saudi-Emirati terrorism in a coalition that has launched a war and imposed a blockade against us that is still ongoing. Therefore, we move from this standpoint and do not want the same crime to be repeated.”
Al-Bukhati said that Ansar Allah did not intend to kill anyone with their actions and that they would stop if Israel ceased its attack on Gaza, telling MintCast host Mnar Adley that:
“We affirm to everyone that we only target ships associated with the Zionist entity [Israel], not with the intention of sinking or seizing them, but rather to divert them from their course in order to increase the economic cost on the Zionist entity [Israel] as a pressure tactic to stop the crimes of genocide in Gaza.”
However, this “humanitarian” framing of Yemen’s actions was not prominently used and was only introduced by identifying it as a Houthi claim. Many articles only alluded to the position of Ansar Allah. CNN wrote that “The Iran-backed Houthis have said they won’t stop their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea until the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ends.”
Meanwhile, NBC News and Fox News frequently presented Ansar Allah’s actions as purely in support of their ally, Hamas, as the following two examples illustrate:
“The Iran-backed militants, who say their actions are aimed at supporting Hamas, vowed retaliation and said the attacks had killed at least 5 fighters at multiple rebel-held sites” (NBC News).
“Houthi forces have taken credit for continued attacks on merchant vessels and threatened to expand their targets to include U.S. and British vessels — all in a campaign to support Hamas in its war against Israel” (Fox News).
Therefore, humanitarian action was refashioned into support for terrorism.
Other articles also suggested a wide range of reasons for the blockade, including to “expand a regional war” and “distract the [Yemeni] public” from their “failing…governance” (The New York Times), to “attempt to gain legitimacy at home,” (CNN), and “revenge against the U.S. for supporting Saudi Arabia,” (NBC News). Many offered no explanation for the blockade whatsoever.
A War ‘Nobody Wants’
U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Feb. 7. (State Department, Chuck Kennedy)
As al-Bukhaiti’s comments suggest, there would be a very easy way to end the blockade: get Israel to end its operations in Gaza.
But only twice in 60 articles was this reality even mentioned; one noting that Omani and Qatari officials advised that “reaching a cease-fire in Gaza would remove the Houthis’ stated impetus for the attacks,” and once in the final sentence of an NBC News article quoting al-Bukhaiti himself saying exactly as much.
However, due to the placement of the information and the fact that it came from an organization regularly described as an Iran-backed extremist terrorist group, that idea likely held little weight with readers. Instead, military solutions (i.e., bombing Yemen) were the overwhelming response offered by the corporate press in their reporting.
Despite this, the media consistently presented the United States as a neutral and honest actor in the Middle East, on the verge of being “sucked” into another war against its will. As The New York Times wrote, “President Biden and his aides have struggled to keep the war contained, fearful that a regional escalation could quickly draw in American forces.”
There was a profound “reluctance,” the Times told readers, from Biden to strike Yemen, but he had been left with “no real choice” but to do so.
This framing follows the classic trope of the bumbling empire “stumbling” into war that media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has documented, where the United States is always “responding” to crises and is never the aggressor.
“How America Could Stumble Into War With Iran,” wrote The Atlantic; “Trump could easily get us sucked into Afghanistan again,” Slate worried; “What It Would Take to Pull the US Into a War in Asia,” Quartz told readers.
None of the journalists writing about the U.S.’ frequent misfortune with war ever seem to contemplate why China, Brazil, Indonesia, or any other similarly large country do not get pulled into wars of their own volition as the United States does.
The four media outlets studied regularly presented the U.S. bombing one of the world’s poorest countries as a method of defending itself.
CNN wrote that “Administration officials have repeatedly said that they see these actions as defensive rather than escalatory,” without comment. And Fox News ran with the extraordinary headline, “U.S. carries out ‘self-defense’ strike in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi missiles” – a framing which could surely only fly in a deeply propagandized nation.
In reality, the United States’ military meddling in Yemen did not start this winter. Biden is the fourth successive U.S. president to bomb the country. In December, the White House confirmed that there are already American troops in Yemen, though what their precise focus is remains unclear.
How Propaganda Works
This sort of wildly skewed coverage does not happen by accident. Rather, it is the outcome of structural and ideological factors inherent within corporate media.
The New York Times is committed to Zionism as an ideology, and its writers on the Middle East are not neutral actors but protagonists in the ongoing displacement of Palestinians. The newspaper owns property in West Jerusalem that was seized from the family of writer Ghada Kharmi during the 1948 ethnic cleansing.
And while many Times writers are openly supportive of the Israeli project and have family members serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, staff who speak out against the ongoing genocide are promptly shown the door.
Fox News is no less complicit in the Israeli project. Its owner, Rupert Murdoch, is a major owner in Genie Energy, a company profiting from oil drilling in the illegally occupied Golan Heights region.
Murdoch is famously hands-on as a boss and makes sure all of his media outlets follow his line on major issues. And on Israel, the Australian billionaire is explicit: “Israel is the greatest ally of democracy in a region beset with turmoil and radicalism,” he said in 2013. The network’s massive Evangelical Christian viewership would expect little else than strong support for the U.S.-Israeli position, either.
CNN, meanwhile, operates a strict, censorious, top-down approach to its Middle East coverage, with everything the outlet prints having to go through its notoriously pro-Israel Jerusalem bureau before publishing.
Senior executives send out directives instructing staff to make sure that Hamas (not Israel) is always presented as responsible for the current violence while, at the same time, barring any reporting of Hamas’ viewpoint, which its senior director of news standards and practices told staff was “not newsworthy” and amounted to “inflammatory rhetoric and propaganda.”
Therefore, the results of this study, while shocking, should not be surprising, given this context. Through examining the coverage of Yemen in four leading U.S. outlets, it is clear that corporate media are failing to inform the public of many of the basic realities of who Ansar Allah is, why they are carrying out their campaign, and what it would take to end the hostilities.
They are perpetuating this war, and therefore are every bit as responsible as the politicians and military commanders who keep the bloodshed going.
Yemen to require permits for ships transiting Red Sea
Yemen has conducted military operations against Israeli-linked ships in solidarity with the Palestinian people since November
News Desk
MAR 5, 2024
(Photo Credit: Reuters)
Ships wishing to transit the Red Sea will have to procure a permit from Yemen’s Maritime Affairs Authority before entering Yemeni waters, Telecommunications Minister Misfer Al-Numair said on 4 March.
"[We] are ready to assist requests for permits and identify ships with the Yemeni Navy, and we confirm this is out of concern for their safety," Numair told Al-Masirah TV.
The territorial waters that require a permit include the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. About 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic passes through this crossing to and from the Suez Canal.
Since November, Yemen has targeted Israeli-linked ships that enter its waters in an act of solidarity with the people of Palestine. Israel has now waged a brutal, five-month offensive on Gaza that has killed at least 30,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children.
On Monday, Yemen’s armed forces released a statement declaring responsibility for an attack against an Israeli ship in the Red Sea.
“The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a targeting operation against an Israeli ship ‘MSC SKY’ in the Arabian Sea with a number of suitable naval missiles, and the hit was accurate and direct,” the statement read.
It also noted that the targeting of “MSC SKY” came hours after the Yemeni armed forces carried “out a qualitative operation during which the missile force and unmanned air force launched a number of ballistic missiles and drones at a number of enemy American warships in the Red Sea.”
In retaliation for the Yemeni attacks, the US and UK have conducted multiple airstrikes against targets in Yemen, including in the capital, Sanaa.
In the latter half of February, Yemen successfully launched an attack targeting the UK’s Rubymar cargo ship. The ship sank on 3 March after days of taking on water.
Yemeni navy fires drones, missiles at US destroyers in Red Sea
Sanaa recently announced that ships wishing to transit the Red Sea will need a permit from Yemen’s maritime authority
News Desk
MAR 6, 2024
(Photo credit: AP)
Yemen’s Armed Forces announced that it targeted two US warships in the Red Sea with drones and missiles on 5 March.
“The Yemeni armed forces, with the help of God Almighty, carried out an effective military operation in which they targeted two American warship destroyers in the Red Sea, through our naval forces, the missile force, and the unmanned air force. The operation was carried out with a number of naval missiles and drones,” the Yemeni army said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
“The operations of the Yemeni armed forces will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege imposed on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted,” the statement added.
CENTCOM said on Wednesday that it shot down a missile and three drones launched toward the USS Carney the night before.
Sanaa’s latest operation came one day after its ballistic missile and drone attack on the MSC Sky, an Israeli ship in the Red Sea. The targeting of the Israeli ship came hours after Yemeni forces fired several ballistic missiles toward US warships in the Red Sea.
Yemeni media reported several US–British airstrikes on the Baqim District in Yemen’s Saada province that evening.
Since November, Yemen has targeted Israeli-linked ships that enter its waters in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Israel has now waged a brutal, five-month offensive on Gaza that killed at least 30,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children.
The US and UK have been waging a violent aerial campaign against Yemen since mid-January in response to Yemeni naval operations. Since this campaign began, the scope of Yemen’s operations has expanded to include US and British vessels.
The British Rubymar vessel sank on 3 March after being struck by Yemeni forces late last month.
The Yemeni army and the Ansarallah resistance movement, militarily aligned with one another, have repeatedly affirmed that vessels unassociated with Israel, the US, or the UK will not be subject to attacks.
To guarantee their safety, Sanaa announced on 4 March that ships wishing to transit the Red Sea will have to procure a permit from Yemen’s Maritime Affairs Authority before entering Yemeni waters.
The territorial waters that require a permit include the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. About 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic passes through this crossing to and from the Suez Canal.
Pentagon blames 'intel gap' for failure to stop Yemen's Red Sea ops
After nearly two months and hundreds of airstrikes, the US has failed to deter the pro-Palestine actions of the Yemeni armed forces
News Desk
MAR 6, 2024
(Photo Credit: Saba News Agency)
US defense officials have blamed “insufficient intelligence” for Washington's abortive airstrike campaign against Yemen, which started in mid-January and has so far failed to deter the Yemeni armed forces from attacking US, UK, and Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea in support of Palestine.
During a congressional hearing on US operations in the Red Sea last week, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for West Asia, Daniel B. Shapiro, revealed Washington “did not know” the full capacity of the Yemeni arsenal used for its operations in the Red Sea, adding that the White House was “working to gather that intelligence.”
He added that, while the Pentagon had “a good sense” of what US-led attacks have allegedly destroyed, officials did not “fully know the denominator” – meaning the reality of Yemen's military capabilities.
According to current and former US officials who spoke with the Financial Times (FT), US intelligence agencies saw a “drop-off” in Yemen operations during the governments of former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
“Because Yemen went down as a priority, so did our intelligence focus there,” Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official and CIA officer, told the British news outlet.
CIA operations in Yemen were also affected after the Ansarallah-led government shut down the US embassy in Sanaa.
“Reporting on a country from afar or offshore is inherently challenging, and doubly so for a country that has seen so much churn over the past 10 years,” Ted Singer, a recently retired senior CIA official, said.
Although hundreds of US-led airstrikes have hit the Arab world's poorest country since January, Yemeni leaders maintain that no amount of hostilities will deter them from continuing their Red Sea operations until Israel puts an end to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
“The US, Britain, and Israel must realize that the policies of demarcation and assertion of hegemonic influence on international waters are obsolete and no more favorable … As long as the Zionists’ atrocities continue in Gaza, we will continue our operations against the usurping entity," Defense Minister Major General Mohammed al-Atifi said on 26 February.
As US intelligence agencies scramble to discover the reality of Yemen's military arsenal, White House lawyers are in a rush to find legal loopholes to justify a new war in West Asia.
Smoking American transport True Confidence.
The ship, sailing under the Barbados flag, yesterday received an anti-ship ballistic missile hit on its superstructure after refusing to comply with the demands of the Houthis. As a result, it received a missile and a subsequent fire. 3 crew members were killed, 5 were injured and burned.
The ship itself received significant damage. American warships were also attacked, but there are fewer specifics.
The US and Britain responded by bombing the Hodeidah area again, but as usual with near-zero results. The Houthis promised yesterday that the attacks would not only continue, but also intensify. Moreover, the Houthis are announcing an increase in the use of surface and underwater drones.
There is also still a threat of failure of other main cables running along the bottom of the Red Sea. The US and British Operation Guardian of Prosperity was a complete failure.
The Yemeni army announced on the same day that it targeted six ships across three different seas
News Desk
MAY 29, 2024
(Photo credit: X)
A US MQ–9 Reaper drone came down over Yemen on 29 May, video footage and images circulating social media have confirmed.
This marks the sixth US MQ-9 Reaper to fall into the hands of Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement and Armed Forces.
Yemeni forces have yet to confirm whether the drone was downed or if it crashed, as video footage shows the US drone in near-perfect condition.
The fourth and fifth MQ-9 Reaper drones were shot down on 17 and 21 May. The MQ-9 Reaper is worth around $30 million.
Washington and London have, since January, been waging a brutal campaign of airstrikes against Yemen in response to the pro-Palestine naval operations that Ansarallah and the Yemeni army began in November last year. The start of the US-led war against Yemen prompted Yemeni forces to begin targeting US and British vessels alongside those linked to or bound for Israel.
The western campaign has done nothing to deter the Yemenis. US and EU maritime task forces have failed to progress in preventing attacks on ships in the Red Sea, Arab Sea, Indian Ocean, and elsewhere, which have resulted in a strain on both the Israeli economy and international shipping as a whole.
The Yemeni Armed Forces announced in a statement on 29 May that it targeted six ships in three different seas, using both missiles and drones. Three ships were struck in the Red Sea, another two US ships were hit in the Arab Sea, while one oil tanker was hit in the Mediterranean.
Yemen said at the start of May that its operations would expand into the Mediterranean Sea, following its announcement in March that the Indian Ocean would be included in its scope of attacks.
It has repeatedly vowed that it will continue its operations until the war in Gaza is brought to an end and until the siege is lifted and sufficient amounts of aid are brought in to the Palestinians.
“We believe that the famine currently occurring in Gaza is sufficient to provoke the feelings of the entire world, and therefore we are working day and night to develop and expand our operations to lift this injustice and stop these crimes against the people of Gaza,” a Yemeni official told Mondoweiss on 26 May.
Yemen manufactures anti-ship missiles with Iranian know-how
The Yemeni army has been using its naval arsenal to attack Israeli-linked ships in support of Gaza
News Desk
MAY 29, 2024
(Photo credit: X)
Yemen’s Armed Forces have obtained Iranian expertise to produce anti-ship ballistic missiles, according to a 29 May report by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“Iran’s technical know-how to produce such anti-ship missiles is now at the disposal of the Yemeni military forces,” Tasnim said.
Tehran’s first locally manufactured anti-ship ballistic missile, the Qadr missile, was developed over ten years ago by late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Brigadier General Hassan Tehrani-Moqaddam.
According to Tasnim, Yemen’s Muhit missile – revealed in a military parade in the capital, Sanaa, in September last year – is directly modeled after the Iranian Qadr missile. The Muhit has a range of around 400 kilometers.
The Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government – which is militarily aligned with the Ansarallah resistance movement – has possessed surface-to-air missiles for several years. Following the start of the Saudi-led coalition’s war on the country in 2015, the Yemeni Armed Forces revealed its Qaher missiles, which were converted from surface-to-air missiles to surface-to-surface missiles.
The Muhit ballistic missile is based on Yemen’s Qaher-2 missile.
Washington and other western nations accuse Iran of smuggling weapons to Ansarallah in Yemen. However, Yemen has been under a tight Saudi-led blockade for nearly ten years, making bringing arms into the country extremely difficult.
Sanaa’s Armed Forces are also still in possession of weapons stockpiles from the Soviet era and have been known to locally produce weapons.
Since November, Sanaa’s forces have been carrying out attacks against Israeli-linked ships or ships bound for Israeli ports in the Red Sea, Arab Sea, and Gulf of Aden. It made clear early on that these operations would persist until the war in Gaza is brought to an end and until sufficient levels of aid reach the besieged Palestinian population in the strip, something that still has yet to happen.
These attacks were expanded to include US and British vessels following the start of a brutal bombing campaign led by Washington and London against Yemen in January, which has failed to deter the Yemeni naval campaign in support of Palestine.
Sanaa said in March that it expanded its operations to include any vessel linked to or bound for Israel in the Indian Ocean and has since announced several operations there. Early this month, it vowed to expand its blockade to the Mediterranean Sea and has made good on its promise.
Spokesman Yahya Saree said on 24 May that the Yemeni army targeted three Israeli-linked vessels in three different seas, including the Mediterranean.
Days later, on 27 May, Saree announced attacks on three Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, as well as drone operations against two US destroyers.
Houthi Rebels Attacks Six Ships Allied With Israel and West
Spokesman of the Houthi rebels, General Yahya Sari, May 2024 | Photo: X/ @kb_ql22
The Houthis said that Yemen will continue its military operations until the aggression and the siege of the Gaza Strip cease.
The military spokesman of the Houthi rebels, General Yahya Sari, reported on Wednesday that they carried out 6 military operations in the Mediterranean, Red and Arabian seas.
In the Red Sea three operations were carried out, in the first the ship Laax was hit and suffered serious damage; in the second, the ship Morea was the target and in the third operation, the ship Sealady.
Sari claimed "The ship Laax was badly damaged after a direct attack on the Red Sea, as were two ships 'MOREA' and 'Sealady".
They also conducted two other military operations to attack the American ships Alba and Maersk Hartford in the Arabian Sea.
The text reads,
Statement by the Yemeni Armed Forces regarding the implementation of 6 military operations within the framework of the fourth phase of escalation that targeted 6 ships that violated the decision to ban access to the ports of occupied Palestine, including 3 ships in the Red Sea, 2 ships in the Arabian Sea, and a ship in the Mediterranean Sea - 5/29/2024 AD
The sixth operation targeted the warship Minerva Antonia in the Mediterranean Sea.
Through a statement, Sari highlighted the courageous resistance of the Palestinians and assured that Yemen will continue its military operations until the aggression and the siege of the Gaza Strip cease.
The Yemeni Armed Forces have carried out numerous pro-Palestinian attacks since 7 October, when the Israeli occupation started the war in Gaza, which has killed 36171 Palestinians.
Yemen announced in early May the fourth phase of its operations in support of Gaza and said it would attack all ships within its range bound for Israel.
Thus, the United States and its allies created a coalition to protect Israeli-linked vessels by bombing civilian targets in Yemen.
Yemen says two targeted ships sinking, renews warning against violating blockade
Yemeni armed forces successfully targeted two commercial ships traveling through the Red Sea to Israeli ports in the past 72 hours
The Yemeni armed forces renewed their warnings to Israeli-linked ships passing through the Red Sea after successfully targeting two commercial ships traveling to Israeli ports in the past 72 hours.
Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree stated on 15 June, "The Yemeni Armed Forces renew their warning to all companies of the consequences of dealing with the Israeli enemy and the arrival of their ships to the ports of occupied Palestine."
Over the past three days, Yemeni forces targeted the two commercial ships, the cargo ship Verbena and the bulk carrier TUTOR, with missiles and drones.
Brigadier General Saree stated that the Verbena is now sinking, and the TUTOR will begin sinking in the coming hours due to the strikes.
The armed forces of Yemen's Ansarallah-led government have targeted Israeli-linked ships passing through the Red Sea near Yemen's coast since November in response to Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The US and UK navies have responded by carrying out airstrikes against Yemen's armed forces and have sought to protect Israeli-linked commercial ships with their missile defenses.
"These operations are dedicated by our Yemeni armed forces to our mujahideen brothers in Gaza for their steadfastness and jihad, may God protect them, and to all the free people of the Palestinian people on the occasion of the blessed Eid Al-Adha. Victory is only from God," Brigadier General Saree added.
"Support operations will not stop unless the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted."
The Ukrainian-owned, Polish-operated MV Verbena has been on fire since Thursday when two missiles struck it. The crew abandoned the ship on Saturday after failing to contain the blaze and were rescued by another commercial vessel, the MV Anna Meta.
US CENTCOM accused an Iranian warship, the IRIN Jamaran, of failing to respond to the Verbana's distress call. CENTCOM claimed the Iranian ship was only 14 kilometers away when the distress signal was sent.
"This continued malign and reckless behavior by the Iranian-backed Houthis [Ansarallah] threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Centcom will continue to act with partners to hold the Houthis accountable and degrade their military capabilities," a CENTCOM statement issued on 16 June read.
Yemen says 145 ships targeted in support of Gaza as US laments 'deadly' threat
Western naval missions have failed dramatically at stemming Yemen's pro-Palestine operations, with officials describing the battle as the 'most sustained combat that the US Navy has seen since World War II'
News Desk
JUN 14, 2024
(Photo Credit: ANSARALLAH MEDIA CENTER/AFP via Getty Images)
The leader of Yemen's ruling Ansarallah resistance movement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, revealed on 13 June that the Yemeni armed forces targeted 145 ships linked to Israel, the US, and the UK since the start of Sanaa's pro-Palestine operations in November.
The number includes 11 naval operations and two military operations “deep inside Israel” conducted over the past week, which used “31 ballistic and winged missiles, drones, and military boats.”
The most recent of these operations took place on Thursday, when Yemeni cruise missiles struck the M/V Verbena commercial bulk cargo carrier in the Gulf of Aden, reportedly setting it on fire and wounding at least one crew member.
According to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the Verbena is a Palauan-flagged, Ukrainian-owned, and Polish-operated bulk cargo carrier that had “docked in Malaysia and was on its way to Italy carrying wood.”
The revelations from the Ansarallah leader came hours ahead of a report by AP in which US navy commanders lament the “deadly serious” threat posed by the Arab world's poorest country.
“I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Commander Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told AP.
“We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis just have to get one through.”
The report details the intensity of the Yemeni attacks, highlighting that members of the US-led naval mission “have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships, and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound.”
“It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that,” said Captain David Wroe, the commodore overseeing Washington's guided missile destroyers.
Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, confirmed previous statements by top CENTCOM officials who said the naval battle against Yemen is the largest Washington has participated in since WWII.
“This is the most sustained combat that the US Navy has seen since World War II — easily, no question,” Clark told AP. “We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the U.S. can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage. … If you let it fester, the Houthis are going to get to be a much more capable, competent, experienced force.”
Five months after US and UK jets started bombing targets across Yemen in support of Israel, attacks from the Yemeni armed forces have continued unabated. Late last month, Sanaa launched two attacks against the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier, and just days later, the country launched its first joint operation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI).
Yemeni authorities also recently dismantled an extensive spy network operated by US and Israeli intelligence agencies.
War of the Flea: A 6-Month Report on US-Led Op. Prosperity Guardian Against Yemen
JUNE 25, 2024
By Shivan Mahendrarajah – Jun 24, 2024
On December 18, 2023, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, amid tremendous fanfare, announced the formation of a multi-national coalition under the rubric “Operation Prosperity Guardian” (OPG) to “defend” Israel’s Red Sea shipping lines from the Yemeni military.
Let’s provide a six-month “situation report” (SITREP) on how this much-hyped military project unfolded and how the US-led naval and air coalition failed.
The situation report comes amid the prospect of OPG ending on a humiliating note, that is, with the sinking of US Navy vessels.
How it all started
Following the October 7, 2023 operation by the Palestinian resistance, US President Joe Biden ordered the USS Ford and USS Eisenhower carrier battle groups (CBG) into the Mediterranean.
“IKE CBG” subsequently traversed the Suez and Red Sea, transited the Straits of Hormuz on November 26, 2023, and settled on the Arabian Peninsula side of the Persian Gulf.
Yemeni military heralded the start of the country’s blockade of Eilat Port by firing its first shots on October 19 2023 at Israeli commercial vessels.
However, on November 29, three days after IKE CBG entered the Persian Gulf, the Yemeni military climbed one rung up the “escalation ladder” by expanding its targets to any ship traveling to or from Eilat.
Three weeks later, with Israel’s Red Sea economic lifeline in jeopardy, the Pentagon announced the formation of a multi-national coalition to “defend” Israel’s maritime lifeline.
IKE CBG departed the Persian Gulf and assumed a station in the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden region.
Deploying IKE CBG to the Persian Gulf demonstrated two closely related facets of American policy: arrogance and ignorance.
Arrogance because the US military and political establishment still believe they are living in the age where “gunboat diplomacy”—“the use of military threats by a strong country against a weaker country in order to make that country obey it” will work with Iran.
Ignorance about Iran’s ability to destroy a CBG sitting at distances ranging from 55 km to 340km from Iran’s impressive array of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.
If war with Iran had ensued, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) could have destroyed the CBG. The cliché, “shooting fish in a barrel,” is apropos. However, IRGC chose another tactic.
Panic ensued in Tel Aviv when Eilat was virtually shut to maritime traffic from November 29. Israeli panic was transmitted to Washington, which concocted Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect Israel’s economy.
This was a clever strategy by IRGC and the Yemeni military that reflects IRGC’s “reflexive control” over US military and political actions. “Reflexive control” is when you predict an enemy’s reactions to your actions and take actions that trick your enemy into doing just what you want.
As a former US Army officer explained: “If every military action you take gets a symmetrical reaction, then you can control the nature, venue, and tempo of the conflict to your benefit.”
This is what Tehran did. IKE CBG rushed to the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden. IRGC and the Yemeni military direct the “nature, venue, and tempo.”
Venue shifted 2,000 km from Iran’s coastline to Yemen’s coastline. The Axis of Resistance possesses the exclusive power to calibrate both “nature” (types of weapons and targets) and “tempo” (intensity and frequency).
War of the Flea
Members of the OPG coalition are fighting a “War of the Flea in the Red Sea.”
In Robert Taber’s classic study of guerilla warfare, he articulated precepts that apply to OPG. Avoid the enemy’s strength; attack the enemy’s weaknesses.
This is what Yemenis are doing with calibrated drone and missile strikes against OPG’s destroyers and aircraft carriers. The Yemeni military has popular support, not just in Yemen, but across the world.
Their support has skyrocketed because of the blockade on Israel. As with land-based guerillas, popular support motivates Yemenis to continue fighting to save Palestinian lives.
Yemeni military’s attacks are mentally and militarily exhausting the enemy, which marks another aspect of the “war of the flea.”
The US-led coalition, like a flea-bitten dog, lashes out and tries to bite its fleas. It becomes too weakened—in military terms, overextended; in political terms, too unpopular; in economic terms, too expensive—to defend itself.
OPG cannot survive a thousand “flea bites”. It will die—when it flees the Red Sea. The Yemeni military has meticulously regulated its strikes and maintained a low tempo of action, but recently increased the nature and tempo of attacks.
It has rungs left to ascend on the escalatory ladder: advanced weapons that can sink a destroyer or aircraft carrier.
The US Navy admits that it faces the most “intense combat” since World War Two: “We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the US can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage.”
An incident on May 31 involving the Eisenhower indicates that it experienced a new type of weapon; it fled about 1,100 km from Yemen’s coast and sulked off the coast of Jeddah for several days.
This suggests that the Yemeni military is getting closer to hitting the carrier. Eisenhower was returning south—probably because of the jeering Ike’s captain and Navy received in social media—when it suffered another attack, turned tail and fled. It just transited the Suez Canal and is in the Mediterranean.
Sustainability in warfare is critical. OPG’s ships do not have unlimited supplies of surface-to-air missiles (SAM), and SAM launchers (“Vertical Launch Systems”) cannot be reloaded at sea.
VLS cells must be replenished at a port that has dedicated facilities and technicians.
In other words, if a US Navy ship comes under a sustained attack by the Yemeni military, it may run out of missiles and be vulnerable except for its Phalanx CIWS. In February, USS Gravely had to use CIWS to stop a missile one nautical mile from the ship. Why did its SAMs not stop the missile sooner?
Cost is another critical factor. The US Navy has spent about $1 billion for recent operations in the West Asia. American stocks of SAM and other ordnance are in low supply; replenishments are not rolling off production lines.
An illustration of this problem is Ukraine, which is running out of, inter alia, 155 mm shells, Storm Shadow missiles, ATACMs, and Patriot interceptors.
A greater cost, however, is the damage to American society and the families of sailors deployed to protect Israel’s economic lifelines.
Young American men and women join the US Armed Forces to serve the US—not Israel. Eisenhower is on extended deployment; shipboard morale is suffering.
The military has invested in mental health professionals on the ship, including a psychologist, several doctors, several chaplains and other enlisted behavioral health technicians, as someone said.
Families are suffering too: children growing up without parents, spouses raising children alone and tackling daily difficulties of life by themselves.
They are making sacrifices for Israel. The terrible social costs of the Iraq War—another war for Israel—signal the problems ahead: broken homes, alcoholism, poverty, homelessness, PTSD, and suicide.
Arrogance and ignorance
Arrogance and ignorance shaped OPG. The Pentagon had no real intelligence on the Yemeni military’s military capabilities or locations of missile and drone launchers, nor strategy to address the “potshots” that the Yemeni military was taking against specific ships.
Perhaps Washington assumed that the presence of a US-led naval coalition would frighten sandal-clad Yemeni “savages”? When fear failed, the US and UK resorted to conducting about 450 indiscriminate terror bombings in Yemen that did not dissuade the Yemeni military, but instead, infuriated Yemeni civilians.
Yemen added US and UK-owned/flagged ships to their blockade; trotted out advanced weapons; and increased the tempo of strikes. Recently, the Yemeni military took another step up the ladder by sinking ships instead of merely disabling them.
Meanwhile, commercial vessels signaling “no contact with Israel” or owned/flagged by anti-genocide countries like Russia and China, safely pass through the “Gate of Tears.”
The US Navy encouraged blockade runners to turn off AIS transponders; those ships were struck (e.g., M/V Verbena and M/V Tutor). The costs imposed on maritime shipping are the fault of pro-genocide nations. If the genocide is halted, the blockade ends. This is not complicated.
Operation Prosperity Guardian exposes failures in American intellect and imagination. It was formed with the premise that ships developed for the Cold War era have relevance to warfare of today. Navy weapons systems (e.g., AEGIS) have roots in World War II experiences.
The US Navy prepared for sea battles like Leyte Gulf (1944), not battles in the Red Sea. Failure of intellect and imagination is not limited to the Navy, but the Pentagon.
Land warfare doctrines were devised in the 1960s to counter the threat of Soviet tanks hurtling through the Fulda Gap. Cold War weapons systems, like the vaunted Abrams, Leopard, and Challenger tanks, have failed miserably in Ukraine against superior Russian electronic warfare, drones, and ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Warfare has been democratized: states with limited economic resources can acquire sophisticated but cost-effective weapons—electronic warfare, drones, missiles—that neutralize expensive legacy systems.
Failure of OPG is evident at the six-month point. IKE CBG has fled the Red Sea. If the Yemeni military sinks an American carrier, it will make history by ending the age of the aircraft carrier.
Shivan Mahendrarajah is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He was educated at Columbia University and earned his doctorate in Middle Eastern and Islamic History at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of peer-reviewed history articles on Islam, Iran, and Afghanistan.
The Houthis Turn the Red Sea Redder, Stymieing Israel and the US
Posted on July 3, 2024 by Yves Smith
Yves here. As the Biden debate meltdown and what to do next have been monopolizing headlines, the Israeli genocide against Palestinians grinds on. And with it, the Houthi campaign against Israel’s shipping and its effects on seaborne commerce and supply lines has been getting incrementally more effective.
This Juan Cole piece takes a very long view of the history of Yemen and its position in the region, as well as giving a high level summary of the Houthi (formally Ansar Allah) efforts to curb Israel’s supplies and damage its economy.
By Juan Cole. Originally published at TomDispatch
In mid-June, the Associated Press announced that the U.S. Navy had been engaged in the most intense naval combat since the end of World War II, which surely would come as a surprise to most Americans. This time, the fighting isn’t taking place in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans but in the Red Sea and the adversary is Yemen’s — yes, Yemen’s! — Shiite party-militia, the Helpers of God (Ansar Allah), often known, thanks to their leading clan, as the Houthis. They are supporting the Palestinians of Gaza against the Israeli campaign of total war on that small enclave, while, in recent months, they have faced repeated air strikes from American planes and have responded by, among other things, attacking an American aircraft carrier and other ships off their coast. Their weapons of choice are rockets, drones, small boats rigged with explosives, and — a first! — anti-ship ballistic missiles with which they have targeted Red Sea shipping. The Houthis see the U.S. Navy as part of the Israeli war effort.
The Gate of Lamentation
In a sense, it couldn’t be more remarkable, historically speaking. Modest numbers of Yemenis have managed to launch a challenge to the prevailing world order, despite being poor, weak, and brown, attributes that usually make people invisible to the American establishment. One all-too-modern asset the Houthis have is the emergence of micro-weaponry in our world — small drones and rockets that, at the moment, can’t be easily wiped out even by the sophisticated armaments of the U.S. Navy.
Another is geographical. The Houthis command the Tihamah coastal plain, the eastern littoral of the Red Sea. It stretches from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (the entry point to that sea from the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean) to the Suez Canal, which connects the shipping in those waters to the Mediterranean, and so to Europe. The Bab el-Mandeb, known for being treacherous to navigate even in the most peaceable of times, is said to mean “the Gate of Lamentation,” and these days, it’s living up to its name. Keep in mind that 10% of world seaborne trade flows through the Suez Canal and, perhaps even more importantly, 12% of the world’s energy supplies.
What we might call the Battle of the Tihamah has already lasted seven months and, surprisingly enough, given the opponents, its outcome remains in doubt. The Associated Press quotes Brian Clark, a senior fellow at the neoconservative Hudson Institute and a former Navy submariner, as expressing concerns that the Houthis are on the verge of penetrating American naval defenses with their missiles, raising the possibility that they could inflict significant damage on a U.S. destroyer or even an aircraft carrier. Repeated American and British air strikes against suspected Houthi weapons sites in and around the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, have so far failed to halt the war on shipping. Even high-tech American Reaper drones are no longer assured of dominating Middle Eastern airspace since the Houthis have shot down four of those $30 million weapons so far.
Idling the Suez Canal
Given how little Americans generally know about Yemen, some historical background is perhaps in order. The Houthi movement has its roots in Zaydi Shiism, which took hold in northern Yemen in the 890s. (Yes, the 890s, not the 1890s!). Today’s Zaydis are upset by Israeli atrocities in Gaza. Last December, large crowds of them came out in the Zaydi stronghold of Saadeh and other northern Yemeni towns to protest Israel’s intensive bombing of that 25-mile strip of land. Waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags, they pledged support against “the armies of tyranny,” shouting, “We closed Bab el-Mandeb, O Zionist, do not approach!” and “The Yemeni response is legitimate, and the Red Sea is forbidden!”
The Houthis have indeed struck commercial container ships in the Red Sea, even seizing one, the Galaxy Leader (which, believe it or not, they turned into a tourist attraction). They also sank two cargo ships, killing three crew members. Although they maintain that they are only hitting Israeli-owned vessels, most of their attacks have, in fact, targeted the vessels of unrelated third parties like Greece. Their strikes have, however, caused a major disruption in world trade.
The Houthis have also fired large numbers of ballistic missiles at the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat, idling it since November. Some five percent of Israel’s imports once arrived through Eilat. Now, such trade has been rerouted to Mediterranean ports at a distinctly higher cost, while southern Israel’s economy has taken a big hit. Gideon Golber, the CEO of the Port of Eilat, demanded that the United States intervene. And Israel is anything but the only country to suffer from such attacks. Ports such as Massawa, Port Sudan, and Berbera in the Horn of Africa have also become ghost towns, while the traffic through the Suez Canal is now so light that Egypt, which collects transit tolls, is suffering significant economic damage.
In addition, those Houthi strikes, local as they may seem, have had an impact on global supply chains. Insurance costs have risen radically, with crushing war-risk premiums. Ocean container ship rates surged this spring, as companies involved in the trade between Asia and Europe have been forced to avoid the Suez Canal and instead take a far longer route around the Cape of Good Hope and up the Atlantic coast of Africa. Shanghai to Rotterdam rates skyrocketed from $1,452 for a 40-foot container in July of last year to $5,270 in late May 2024.
Revolutionary Shiite Islam
The present militia commander in Yemen, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, considers himself part of a Shiite revolutionary tradition that goes back a long, long way. So, to truly grasp the dangers of the moment for the U.S. Navy in the Red Sea, it makes sense, believe it or not, to momentarily journey deep into history.
Last year, al-Houthi observed the death in battle of the founder of his tradition, Zayd Ibn Ali, in the year 740. His “movement, renaissance, jihad, and martyrdom,” he said, “made a great contribution to the continuity of the authentic Islam of Muhammad… He faced tyranny and had an impact on instituting change.”
A generation of Americans involved in the Middle East has come to understand that there are two major branches of Islam, the Shiites and the Sunnis. Neither is monolithic, with each branch having several denominations. The division between the two goes back to questions about the succession to the Prophet Muhammad (who died in 632). One faction of early believers invested leadership in senior disciples of the Prophet from his Quraysh clan. Over the centuries, these became the Sunnis.
Another faction, which gradually evolved into the Shiites, favored Muhammad’s son-in-law and first cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Seeking a dynastic succession, they invested leadership in Ali’s descendants through the Prophet’s daughter Fatimah. Most Shiites historically acknowledge 12 Imams or leaders of the dynasty. The Zaydis, however, accepted only five early Imams.
Unlike the Shiites of Iran and Iraq, Yemen’s Zaydis never had ayatollahs. Nor did they curse Sunnis, with whom they often had good relations. The Zaydi branch of Shiism in Yemen was led by court judges or qadis, typically hailing from a caste of putative descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, the Sayyids or Sadah, who emerged as mediators in tribal feuds. Critics of today’s Helpers of God government in North Yemen allege that, despite its populist rhetoric, it is dominated by a handful of clans who consider themselves descendants of the Prophet, including the Houthis themselves.
Saudi Hegemony and the Rise of the Houthis
Forms of Arab nationalism and a rhetoric of anti-imperialism are anything but new in Yemen. After World War II, with European empires weakened, a desire for independence swept the Global South. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt emerged as the nationalist leader who finally kicked the British out of his country, inspiring so many others in the region. Egyptian-backed young officers in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, staged a coup in 1962 against a hidebound theocratic leader who had long kept the country in a state of isolation. In the process, they drew it into a civil war between republican nationalists and royalists. Britain, Saudi Arabia, and Israel all backed the royalists, but some 100,000 crack Egyptian troops won the day for the young officers before withdrawing in 1970.
In 1978, Colonel Ali Abdallah Saleh, a politician in North Yemen, launched an internal coup within the officer corps there and appointed himself president for life. His corrupt government, putatively a secular Arab nationalist one, would receive billions of dollars from the fundamentalist royalists of Saudi Arabia.
The Helpers of God party militia, or the Houthis, arose among the Zaydi Shiites of northern Yemen in the 1990s as a backlash against the inroads that neighboring, wealthy Wahhabi Saudi Arabia had made. That country’s Wahhabism had arisen as a puritan reform of Sunnism in the eighteenth century. Saleh allowed its missionaries to proselytize the Shiite Zaydis, provoking the anger of the latter.
Under the influence of the anti-Saudi Houthi family, Zaydi militiamen based in Saadeh in Yemen’s hardscrabble north turned radical, coming into frequent conflict with the Yemeni army. When the Arab Spring youth revolt overthrew Saleh in 2012, the Houthis’ political wing sought influence in the new government. But in September 2014, impatient with an interminable reform process aimed at drafting a new constitution and electing a new parliament, the Houthis marched into the capital, Sanaa, and took it over. Behind the scenes, they had allied with the deposed president, Saleh, before his death, and the army faction still loyal to him, which gave them access to billions of dollars in American-supplied weaponry. By early 2015, the Houthis had expelled Saleh’s successor, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, from the capital and made an unsuccessful bid to take over all of Yemen from Saadeh in the north to Aden in the south.
Meanwhile, their dominance of North Yemen proved unacceptable to the Saudis and the allied United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose secular potentate, Mohammed Bin Zayed, had long despised such Islamic political movements. As a result, those two countries launched an air war against the Helpers of God in the spring of 2015. The ruinous Seven Years War that followed would displace millions and endanger even more millions with food insecurity and disease. It failed, however, to dislodge the Helpers of God and, by 2022, a truce was finally agreed to. Perhaps thanks to that painful experience, the Saudis have declined to join the Americans this year in the Battle of Tihamah. And in some fashion, the Houthis’ experience of the intensive aerial bombing tactics of Saudi Arabia and the UAE years ago undoubtedly left them with particular sympathy for the Palestinians under incessant Israeli air assault in Gaza.
An Alliance of Resistance
Both the Saudis and the Emiratis saw the Houthis as a mere cat’s paw for Iran. Although the Iranians did indeed offer them some support, this was a distinct misreading of the relationship between Sanaa and Tehran. At the very least, Iranian aid was dwarfed by the billions of dollars in weaponry Washington provided to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in those years.
In reality, the Houthis are homegrown Yemeni nationalists, having even attracted some Sunni tribes into their coalition. Still, their current leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, has clearly been influenced by aspects of Iran’s political radicalism and chants “death to America” and “death to Israel” just the way Iran’s clerical leader Ali Khamenei does. Like the regime in Iran, the Houthi government has no respect for domestic human rights or dissent. Although there is no command line from Tehran to Sanaa, the Houthis do loosely form part of Iran’s “alliance of resistance” against Israel and the United States. However, it’s not clear that Iran, closely allied with Russia and China and covertly exporting its U.S.-sanctioned petroleum to China, ever wanted international shipping costs to double, thanks to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, something which hurts all three of those countries.
Despite the Houthi appeal to religious identity, it’s also mainly a movement of Arab nationalists, which helps to explain its deep sympathy for the Sunni Palestinians as fellow Arabs. In an interview at the beginning of June, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi condemned Israel for its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and its targeting of the West Bank and Palestinian East Jerusalem. He similarly denounced Washington as an imperial partner of Israel and an enabler of its crimes, as well as a hypocrite in theoretically promoting respect for the rule of law, while dismissing or even threatening international courts and supporting crackdowns at American colleges and universities when their students protested Israeli policies. He also praised the resistance of the vaguely allied forces of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraq’s Shiite militias. In the process, he vowed that however intense American (and British) air attacks on Yemen became, he and his movement would never back down from their support of the Palestinian people.
At the moment, the situation in the Red Sea remains militarily muted, but it has the potential to become one of the most dangerous in the world, rivaling those in Ukraine and Taiwan. In the meantime, it remains a drag on the global economy, while helping to contribute to stubborn inflation and supply-chain problems.
Significant Houthi damage to a U.S. naval vessel at any point in the future could plunge Washington into warlike acts that might risk direct conflict with Iran. President Joe Biden could, of course, lower the temperature by moving far more strongly to end Israel’s total war on Gaza, an intolerable affront to norms of international humanitarian law that only strengthens the vigilantism of the Houthis and their like. While the ongoing Israeli assault should be ended to prevent further death and looming mass starvation in Gaza, it should also be ended to forestall yet another ruinous American war in the Middle East.
Yemen Carries Out Military Operations Against 4 Ships
JULY 2, 2024
A screengrab from a video posted earlier by the Yemeni Military Media depicting the moment the Transworld Navigator ship was hit with a USV. Photo: YAF Military Media.
The Yemeni Armed Forces carried out four operations targeting several US, Israeli, and British ships in continuation of Yemen’s declared operations aimed at halting the aggression on Gaza.
The Yemeni Armed Forces announced on Monday that they conducted four significant military operations targeting ships belonging to the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Israeli occupation, achieving direct hits.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, detailed the attacks in a statement. The first operation targeted the Israeli ship MSC Unific VI in the Arabian Sea using several cruise missiles.
The second operation, according to Saree, targeted the US oil tanker Delonix in the Red Sea with ballistic missiles. This marks the second attack on the Delonix within the same week.
In the third operation, Yemeni forces targeted the British Cargo ship Anvil Point in the Indian Ocean with cruise missiles.
The fourth operation targeted the Lucky Sailor ship in the Mediterranean Sea, again using cruise missiles.
The Yemeni Armed Forces underlined that this attack was due to the ship’s owning company violating a ban on entering ports in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Continuous support
These operations follow on the heels of similar ones just before the weekend, where the YAF attacked four Israeli-affiliated ships and an American vessel in the Mediterranean and Red Sea on Friday.
Saree said that the YAF conducted a joint operation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, in which the groups fired several suicide drones toward the WALER chemical and oil products tanker in the Mediterranean Sea. He explained that the ship was sailing toward the Israeli-occupied Haifa Port, breaching the terms of the Yemeni embargo on the Israeli occupation.
The YAF Rocket Force and Navy also targeted the American-owned DELONIX chemical tanker in the Red Sea, utilizing several anti-ship ballistic missiles that reportedly directly impacted the vessel.
Ships linked to the United States have become a target for the YAF, after the US military launched dozens of strikes on Yemen, in a show of support to the Israeli regime.
Moreover, the YAF’s Rocket Force fired an anti-ship cruise missile at the JOHANNES MAERSK container ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Saree explained that the shipping conglomerate Maersk has been one of the biggest backers of the Israeli occupation and has also violated the terms of the Yemeni blockade on the Israeli occupation on multiple occasions. In turn, this has made all Maersk-affiliated vessels a target for the YAF, according to previous statements read out by the brigadier general.
The IOANNIS bulk carrier was also attacked by several explosive-laden unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), resulting in direct hits on the vessel. The YAF’s spokesperson said that the ship was targeted after it breached the embargo.
The Yemeni people and their armed forces continue to reiterate their proactive support to the Palestinian people by putting ships and companies supplying the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians under the direct threat of attacks across different waters. The YAF is also working on enhancing its operations targeting traffic into two major Israeli-occupied ports in Haifa and Isdud by cooperating with Iraqi Resistance factions, expanding the scope of its supportive operations.
Yemen’s Strike on Tel Aviv: Regional Implications Unfold
Posted by Internationalist 360° on September 17, 2024
Ansarollah
Part I
The recent Yemeni missile strike on Yaffa, “Tel Aviv”, is undoubtedly bound to have significant regional repercussions. While unintended, the effects are already palpable. It is inconceivable that such a missile would pass over the Arabian Peninsula without inciting fear in the minds of regional leaders. After all, these nations have been embroiled in a war of aggression against Yemen for nearly a decade. Saudi Arabia, in particular, continues to resist efforts to find a peaceful resolution and obstructs the implementation of the agreed-upon roadmap, despite direct talks in both Riyadh and Sana’a, brokered by the United Nations and Oman.
More than two years later, the roadmap remains stuck at the first step—de-escalation—without advancing to the humanitarian measures. These include the resumption of oil exports, provision of essential services to the Yemeni people, and payment of wages, which have been suspended since the relocation of the central bank to Aden in 2016. This exacerbates the already dire humanitarian situation, with increasing poverty, unemployment, and deteriorating living conditions—issues that Sana’a can no longer ignore.
Yemen’s Direct Confrontation with Israel
Since the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 of last year, Yemen officially declared its involvement in the battle in support of Gaza. The Yemeni Armed Forces prepared all necessary tools for engagement, beginning with operations in the Red Sea, including preventing Israeli ships from passing and conducting drone and missile attacks on the port of Umm al-Rashrash “Eilat”. These actions provided the U.S. with a pretext to disrupt any progress on the peace roadmap, applying pressure on Riyadh to stall the process. U.S. and British envoys openly linked Yemen’s support for Gaza to the peace process, intending to pressure Sana’a into halting its backing of Gaza.
In a principled stand rooted in humanitarian and religious values, Yemen persisted in its support for Gaza, escalating its military operations across multiple phases. By the fifth phase, Yemen struck at the heart of Israel’s political and economic center, Tel Aviv, occupied Yaffa with a drone that bypassed all defense systems and detonated near the U.S. Embassy. This clear message to Washington and Israel emphasized Yemen’s commitment to action as long as it can take any stand against the Israeli regime, especially in light of international silence regarding the atrocities committed against the people of Gaza.
Washington Entrapped in Yemen
Meanwhile, the U.S. attempted to form a military alliance under the name “Prosperity Coalition” to protect Israeli navigation in the Red Sea. Yet this move backfired, as U.S. and British ships were also blocked, forced to reroute via the Cape of Good Hope. Far from securing Israeli navigation, American and British maritime routes have been severely disrupted.
Yemen’s military operations have expanded beyond the Red Sea, into the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. Yemeni forces have clashed with U.S. destroyers and aircraft carriers multiple times, forcing even the USS Eisenhower to flee Yemeni waters on more than four occasions. Its successor, the USS Roosevelt, dared not approach Yemen’s territory out of fear of meeting the same fate. Similarly, the USS Lincoln kept its distance from Yemen’s missile and drone range.
The Yemeni Armed Forces’ achievements have drawn a mixture of admiration and concern, especially in the West and among their Arab allies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. The advances in technology, tactics, and strategy employed by Yemen have reached military and strategic research centers in both the East and the West.
Consequences of Failing to Deter Yemen
The latest ballistic missile strike on occupied Yaffa, as part of the escalation’s fifth phase that began with the Yaffa drone strike on July 19, has left a strong impact on both Western and regional political thinking. The missile, along with the drone, penetrated all layers of Israeli, U.S., British, and Arab defense systems, including advanced radars, satellites, and multi-layered defense networks Israel had long boasted about.
The failure of the U.S. to protect Israel’s strategic depth, despite a state of high alert across all sectors and massive military deployments in the region, casts a dark shadow over decision-making in the countries of the Saudi-led coalition. These nations are now reconsidering their positions, as their reliance on oil infrastructure and security is paramount. Yemeni forces had previously targeted critical oil sites in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, setting fire to Aramco facilities in Jeddah and causing widespread damage in Abu Dhabi’s Al-Misfah refinery during the “Yemen Storm” operation.
Yemen’s Transformative Role
The ballistic missile strike on Tel Aviv will undoubtedly influence Riyadh’s decision-making and provide Sana’a with opportunities to capitalize on these military achievements to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people by securing services and rights for them. Beyond accelerating the roadmap between Sana’a and Riyadh, Yemen’s military advancements, particularly in ballistic missiles and drones, represent a strategic shift in the balance of power in the region.
Yemen is no longer viewed as a marginal, war-torn country. Its military prowess has catapulted it into a position of significant influence in regional and international affairs, making it a critical player in shaping the future of the geopolitical landscape. Yemen now commands greater negotiating power with regional and international forces and is seen as a key focus of global attention, both politically and militarily. Major international powers are watching developments in Yemen with great interest, seeking to engage with it as a central player in the region’s structure.
For the Gulf states, Yemen’s growing military capabilities are seen as a direct threat, prompting them to rethink their security strategies. Yet Yemen has made it clear that its military forces do not pose a threat to any Arab nation, nor do they seek to harm the interests of Arab or Muslim peoples. Yemen’s focused attacks against the U.S., British, and Israeli coalition in support of Gaza have sent a clear message of peace and a call for Gulf capitals, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to resist continuous U.S. provocation and view Yemen as an ally, rather than a backyard battleground.
Part II
Repercussions of the Hypersonic Strike “Palestine 2” Shakes the Zionist Entity
In a time when the Palestinian cause faces brutal genocide, Yemen’s stance on the issue emerges as stronger and more resolute than ever. Yemen’s unwavering support for Palestine reflects a firm commitment to religious, humanitarian, and moral values, especially as the positions of many Arab and Islamic countries remain hesitant or passive in the face of the crimes committed by the Zionist entity. Yemen’s stance is not only a symbol of resilience and solidarity with the nation’s issues but also underscores the importance of Arab and Islamic unity in confronting shared challenges.
Yemen takes pride in the fact that the hypersonic missile that exploded in Yaffa, in occupied territories, created a military and political earthquake within the Zionist entity. It triggered chaos and political confusion between the so-called “Israeli government” led by Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition. This event was not merely a military escalation; it was an alarm bell reflecting the fragile security situation in the region and heightening the sense of unease among the Zionist settlers.
Political Unrest Following the Attack
The political turmoil following this attack highlights a deep division within the Zionist entity’s society. The opposition seized this moment to launch sharp criticisms at Netanyahu, accusing him of failing to ensure national security. In contrast, Netanyahu is attempting to strengthen his position by emphasizing the need for “national unity” in the face of external threats.
In this context, the leader of the opposition “Labor Party,” Yair Golan, attacked Netanyahu’s government, describing it as a “ failing government that is dragging the country into eternal war.” Golan, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), called on the Zionists to protest daily, stating that only continuous popular pressure could bring down the government. He added: “Once again, we received a reminder this morning of the right-wing government’s constant failure. Instead of closing battlefronts, the zero-government is dragging us into eternal war, internal strife, and an abyss.”
Yair Lapid’s opposition party “There is a Future” echoed these sentiments, stating: “A normal country does not wake up to the fall of a surface-to-surface missile on its territory launched from Yemen.” The party called for what it described as the “national disaster government” to resign.
Growing discontent among Israeli settlers, particularly in the Galilee and Golan regions, has been exacerbated by the Israeli government’s discriminatory policies. Settlers expressed frustration with how the “army” and politicians handled the barrage of rockets and drones fired at the north compared to the reaction to the Yemeni missile strike in central Israel.
Northern settlers voiced their deep dismay, stating: “There is an entire region Israel has abandoned,” and emphasizing a harsh truth: “Some blood is of lesser value.” The head of the Golan Regional Council, Uri Kalner, pointed out: “The sirens in central Israel are a small example of what life is like every day for thousands of people in the north,” noting the irony that “this is how life has been for us in the north for an entire year, not once every few months.”
Additionally, Merav Michaeli, a member of the Zionist Knesset from the Labor Party, criticized the so called government, stating: “The security situation in the country is deteriorating rapidly, and this attack is clear evidence that the government has no effective plan to confront the threats.” Tamar Zandberg, leader of the Meretz Party, condemned Netanyahu’s government, accusing him of using these crises to consolidate power while ignoring the real needs of the citizens.
Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, warned that this attack tarnishes Israel’s image internationally and exposes the government’s weakness in handling threats. Opposition members called for an investigation into how the missile reached Yaffa. Zionist Knesset member Omer Bar-Lev emphasized: “We need to know how this missile managed to reach Yaffa and who is responsible for this failure.”
Settlers’ Outrage
Israeli public reactions to the recent events, particularly the explosion of the Yemeni hypersonic missile in Yaffa, were varied, reflecting widespread fear and anger. Many Zionist settlers expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation. One Zionist occupied Yaffa exclamined : “We haven’t felt this level of fear in years. The government must act to protect our lives.”
Several cities in the Zionist entity witnessed protests demanding the resignation of Netanyahu’s government. Protesters carried signs reading: “Security First, Resign Now Netanyahu!” reflecting their dissatisfaction with the government’s performance. Some pointed out that the attack has disrupted their daily lives, with one shop owner lamenting: “People are avoiding going out, and this is affecting our businesses. We need to restore the sense of security.”
Social media platforms saw significant engagement, with users sharing videos and images of the incident, accompanied by comments ranging from anger to calls for urgent action. Polls showed a significant portion of Zionists expressing dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of security threats, which could impact the future of the current “government”.
Overall, these responses indicate that the Israeli Zionist public is in a state of anxiety and instability. The political and social scene within the Zionist entity has been significantly disrupted, forcing a re-evaluation of national security strategies. This could potentially lead to more political discourse, although the outlook remains uncertain amid escalating tensions.
Contradictions in Western Responses
The US and European reactions to the attack show a striking consistency in their calls for restraint and dialogue, particularly when dealing with attacks from the Arab side. These statements repeatedly affirm what they call Israel’s “right to self-defense,” a stance that sharply contrasts with their indifference to the severe violations against the Palestinian people. This approach reveals a blatant bias and an ethical crisis in international policies.
Western responses to events in the Middle East reflect a prioritization of Zionist settlers’ rights over Palestinian rights, deepening the moral crisis in global politics. While they protect what they call “settlers’ rights” to self-defense, Palestinian civil rights are trampled under the Zionist genocide machine, which continues to commit murder and torture.
This glaring double standard has been evident in the international community’s response to the recent attacks, highlighting its failure to uphold justice and human rights principles. Instead of seeking a just and comprehensive peace, Western countries maintain the status quo, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Part III: After Unveiling “Palestine 2” Hypersonic Missile, Yemeni Officials Say ‘Israel’ Will Be Even More Surprised
The Yemeni Armed Forces unveiled the “Palestine 2” hypersonic missile on Monday evening, which targeted a military site in the “Yaffa” area of occupied Palestine.
Footage showed the moment the missile was launched, marking a significant addition to the missile arsenal of the Yemeni Armed Forces. The introduction of this missile into service is expected to change the balance of power in the conflict with the Zionist entity, which has been waging a brutal aggression and siege on Gaza for 12 months.
The “Palestine 2” missile has a range of 2,150 km, operates on solid fuel in two stages, and features stealth technology, with a speed of up to Mach 16. This makes it capable of evading the latest air defense systems, including the “Iron Dome.”
The missile boasts high maneuverability, enhancing its effectiveness in penetrating enemy air defenses.
Operations that terrified the enemy
On the occasion of the Prophet’s birthday, the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a special military operation targeting a military site in the heart of occupied “Yaffa,” referred to as “Tel Aviv.” This operation surprised the Zionist enemy and instilled fear in the settlers.
The operation brought joy to the Yemeni people, who expressed their support for the leader of the revolution and blessed the operation during the Prophet’s birthday celebrations, both in Al-Sabeen Square in the capital Sana’a and in other locations across Yemen.
The Director of the Leader’s Office, Safar Al-Sufi, stated that this operation added to the people’s joy during the Prophet’s birthday celebrations, asking, “How can our people not rejoice when they see the Israeli entity terrified, fleeing to shelters after this operation?”
In an exclusive statement to “Almasirah,” Al-Sufi emphasized the importance of the operation, pointing out that it bypassed all the enemy’s defense systems. He confirmed that this significant failure adds to the enemy’s previous shortcomings, reaffirming Yemen’s commitment to supporting the Palestinian people and defending the people of Gaza by all possible means.
He reiterated that this operation is one of the means available to Yemen, and that the Israeli enemy will witness even more surprising operations in the future in response to its crimes.
Reactions from Yemeni officials
Member of the Supreme Political Council, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, described the operation as “heroic,” affirming that it is a source of pride for the entire Yemeni people.
Al-Houthi called on Arab regimes to take serious steps to support their Palestinian brothers in a practical and effective manner against the Zionist aggression. He noted that Yemen does not possess the same military power as Arab regimes, yet its military operations have terrified the enemy and forced two million settlers into shelters.
He emphasized that Yemen is contributing to the support of the Palestinian brothers to the best of its ability. Al-Houthi also mentioned the Leader’s assertion that there are no limits to Yemen’s operations in support of Palestine and in confronting the Zionist, American, and British enemies. He noted that this operation could be seen as a beacon of hope for the Palestinian brothers, and that Yemen will continue its operations as long as the killing and siege of occupied Palestine persists.
Supreme Political Council member Abdulaziz bin Habtour stated that the military operation targeting “Yaffa” with the Palestine 2 hypersonic missile is one of the results of the Leader’s promise when he addressed the Zionist enemy, saying: “The Zionist enemy should expect many military operations, coming by land, air, and sea.” Bin Habtour highlighted that the Leader’s focus on the land aspect has materialized in today’s daring and massive operation, which, as they say, “left the Zionist enemy standing on one leg.”
Bin Habtour added that today was a significant day for all the free people in the Islamic world, as well as in foreign and Arab nations. It was a historic and great day, marked by two significant events: the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday and the operation that targeted the heart of the Zionist enemy’s capital.
He added that this occasion gives hope to all the free people in the world and to all resistance fighters, who believe that this Zionist entity is temporary and only needs strong opposition to reach the desired goal.
Part IV: What Yemen’s Hypersonic Missiles Mean for Regional Power Dynamics
The “Falasteen-2” missile is not the first hypersonic missile revealed by the Yemeni armed forces. Prior, the “Hatim-2” missile had been unveiled, but the latest disclosure had a much greater impact, not only due to the mere achievement of acquiring this rare technology but also because of the historic operation that marked its debut. The unveiling of the “Falasteen-2” created a seismic shift for the enemy, forcing them to confront a new, unfamiliar equation of deterrence.
In March Russian media leaked reports suggesting that Yemeni forces had acquired hypersonic missile technology. These leaks coincided with repeated assurances from Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi, hinting at forthcoming surprises. While the enemies attempted to dismiss and deny these reports, they could not ignore the broader implications of the technology. The Associated Press highlighted that “hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds exceeding Mach 5, pose critical challenges to missile defense systems due to their speed and maneuverability.” The report added that “the threat posed by a hypersonic missile depends on its maneuverability. Ballistic missiles follow a predictable trajectory that allows anti-missile systems like the U.S.-made Patriot to anticipate and intercept their path. However, a hypersonic missile, with the ability to change course, becomes significantly more difficult to intercept.”
While the enemy initially found space for denial since Sana’a had yet to make an official announcement, the threat of Yemen possessing this technology was already clear. This capability represents a critical blow to one of the key components of U.S. and Israeli military strategy in the conflict—advanced air defense systems. These systems form the backbone of the military superiority that both nations have worked tirelessly to maintain in the region.
The Shattering of Israeli Deterrence
The importance of this “defensive superiority” has been central to the enemy’s regional strategies, especially throughout this conflict. Confidence in their advanced air defense systems has been a major factor behind Israel’s aggressions against Iran, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria. The enemy has relied on its defensive capabilities both within and outside the occupied territories, confident that it could minimize losses in any retaliatory strikes, based on its calculations of potential responses. While the prospect of total war remains distant, Israel seeks to preserve the image—however inaccurate—of being a well-protected entity.
The launch of the “Falasteen-2” hypersonic missile at occupied Yaffa “Tel Aviv”, therefore, was not merely a significant momentary breach; it was a profound disruption to Israel’s (deterrence/protection) strategy. Military superiority is not a luxury; it is fundamental. This is why the Israeli army focused so heavily on denying Yemen’s possession of such technology rather than addressing the many questions surrounding its failure to detect and intercept the missile. Israel believes it still has room to maneuver if its population remains uncertain about Yemen’s hypersonic capabilities.
A military official speaking to a Zionsist newspaper Calcalist on the day of the operation underscored the magnitude of this development, stating, “If the missile is indeed hypersonic, this would signify a fundamental shift in the region.” This statement points to the fact that the impact of this strike is not a minor disruption but a fundamental challenge to the core principles of regional military strategy. Yemen’s possession of missiles capable of bypassing the defense networks formed by multiple countries, including all Israeli systems, represents a complete “deterrence” equation. This gives Sana’a the ability to implement strategies such as an “eye for an eye” on all levels and even execute preemptive strikes if necessary.
No Red Lines Left
This new equation, however, is not just about technology; it is about decision-making. Here lies a deeply unsettling detail for the enemy. The Yemeni support front has been characterized by an open-ended ceiling in its decision-making process. Launching a hypersonic missile into the heart of the Israeli entity is not constrained by distant political or military red lines that the enemy might attempt to manipulate. It is tied only to the availability of resources and the continuation of the genocide in Gaza. Therefore, the enemy cannot predict the scale or intensity of Yemeni strikes unless it has precise information about the extent of Yemen’s arsenal, which remains a “black hole,” as one commander from the U.S. aircraft carrier group Eisenhower described it.
The missile strike came during a period of heightened defensive alert and marked the second such attack in two months. With no reliable intelligence to help the enemy assess the current state of Yemen’s capabilities, and with the genocide in Gaza ongoing, the Yemeni front has now become an unprecedented strategic dilemma. This extends from fears of future successful strikes to concerns about the development of more lethal and accurate weapons, and even existential anxiety about the rise of a new force capable of striking “Israel” within 11 and a half minutes in retaliation for any aggression. Yemen, bold and unconstrained by political or diplomatic considerations, has demonstrated its willingness and ability to act, thus threatening the collapse of Israel’s image of military superiority—both materially and morally. Even efforts to maintain this image through manipulations hold no weight against Yemen, which initiated the bombing of “Tel Aviv” before Israeli jets even launched a direct attack.
Israeli researcher and journalist Yoni Ben-Menachem, commenting on the missile strike in an article for Epoch magazine, warned that the Israeli entity must exercise caution. He emphasized that Yemen’s armed forces are “dangerous, tenacious, and vengeful, having waged a continuous military struggle for years against Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They have even managed to cripple a large part of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and cause significant economic damage through missile and drone attacks.”
And now, this force possesses hypersonic missiles.
Sinwar to Houthi: We’ve Prepared Ourselves for a Long War of Attrition
Head of Hamas politburo Yahya Sinwar stressed that the Resistance in Gaza is doling well, adding that the Israeli enemy’s claims are mere lies and come in the context of a psychological warfare.
In a letter to Head of Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement Sayyed Abdul Malik Badreddine Al-Houthi, Sinwar said, “I reassure you that the Resistance is doing well, and Israeli enemy’s claims are mere lies and come in the context of a psychological warfare.”
Sinwar affirmed that the Palestinian Resistance has prepared itself for a long war of attrition in order to break the Israeli enemy politically after Operation Al-Aqsa Mosque overcome it militarily.
“Our combined efforts with you and our brothers in the valiant resistance in Lebanon as well as the Islamic resistance in Iraq will break this enemy and defeat it.”
Al-Sinwar maintained that the Yemeni missile fire at Tel Aviv refreshed the glow of Al-Aqsa Flood battle and sent a clear message to the enemy that the Zionist attempts to prevent the resistance fronts from supporting Gaza have gone in vain.
“The impact of the support fronts is becoming more effective and influential.”
The Israeli occupation army reported on Sunday that a ground-to-ground missile was fired from Yemen, targeting the center of occupied Palestine.
Yemeni Army Shoots Down F-18 Jet; Forces USS Harry Truman To Withdraw
December 23, 2024
YAF spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree on September 27, 2024. Photo: YAF Military Media.
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The Yemeni Armed Forces successfully thwarted an American-British attack on the country, shooting down an F-18, forcing the USS Harry Truman to withdraw, and warning of further action to defend Yemen and support Palestine.
The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced a significant victory in repelling an American-British attack against the country, which was reportedly orchestrated to support the oppression of the Palestinian people and in retaliation for the ongoing support front that the Yemeni people have launched after October 7.
According to a statement from the Yemeni military, an operation was carried out with eight cruise missiles and 17 drones. The operation led to several key outcomes;
First, the Yemeni forces successfully shot down an F-18 aircraft, while enemy destroyers attempted to confront the Yemeni drones and missiles launched against the aircraft carrier simultaneous to the US-UK aggression against the country.
Second, the statement noted, that most of the hostile aircraft retreated from Yemeni airspace to international waters in the Red Sea in an effort to defend the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman, which was being targeted.
Third, the attack launched by the coalition on Yemeni territory failed, and the Yemeni Armed Forces marked a crucial defeat for the aggressors.
Fourth, the USS Harry S. Truman, after being subjected to multiple attacks from the missile force, naval forces, and air force, withdrew from its previous location in the Red Sea towards the northern waters.
The Yemeni Armed Forces, while confirming their success in thwarting the American-British aggression, reaffirmed their readiness to confront any further American-British-Israeli provocations in the future.
The statement concluded with a strong warning directed at the Israeli and American forces; “The Yemeni Armed Forces warn the Israeli and American enemy against aggression on Yemen and that the Yemeni Armed Forces will use their full right to defend Yemen and continue to support the Palestinian people until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”
It is worth noting that earlier, the US Armed Forces had claimed that a US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet was shot down by friendly fire over the Red Sea.
US-UK aggression on Sanaa, Israeli media rush to deny IOF involvement
A violent explosion rocked the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Saturday evening, with reports of intensive fighter jet activity in the skies, according to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent who confirmed that two airstrikes targeted Mount Attan, located south of the city.
Yemen’s state news agency, SABA, reported that American-British warplanes carried out an aggression targeting Sanaa’s Attan area.
In turn, Israeli media quickly denied any involvement, which comes amid escalating tensions between “Israel” and Yemen.
These tensions have been further fueled by “Israel’s” increasing threats against Sanaa, particularly in light of its continued support for Palestine, its people, and its Resistance.
CENTCOM published a statement on X announcing the aggression against Yemen. In the statement, CENTCOM claimed to have targeted Ansar Allah’s “missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility.”
The statement also claimed that the attack aimed “to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden.”
Additionally, it stated that “CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea,” adding that the aggression “involved U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy assets, including F/A-18s.”
Meanwhile, Sanaa’s Information Minister Hashem Sharaf al-Din commented on the aggression saying that Washington has clearly “learned from [past] mistakes,” adding that the US will continue to be “humiliated” by Yemenis.
On his part, Sanaa’s Foreign Minister Jamal Ahmad Amer said that any state that assists Israeli aggression on Yemen would be considered a partner of the aggression.
Over a dozen Israelis injured in stampede triggered by latest Yemeni attack
The Yemeni army has vowed to continue its missile and drone operations against Israel until the war in Gaza is ended
News Desk
DEC 24, 2024
(Photo credit: Yemen Military Media)
Over 20 Israelis were injured while running to shelters early on 24 December after a Yemeni projectile targeted Tel Aviv, according to Israel’s ambulance service.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said on Tuesday that it treated more than 20 who were looking for shelter during the attack.
“There were no reports of injuries or damage as a result of the missile being fired toward central Israel,” it said.
However, Israel’s Channel 12 said a 60-year-old woman was seriously injured after being hit on her way to the shelters in Tel Aviv following the launch of the projectile from Yemen. The panic resulted in a stampede.
The Israeli army said it intercepted the missile. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago, a projectile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” according to an army statement.
“Rocket and missile sirens were sounded following the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception,” it added.
On 21 December, the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced that an F-18 fighter jet was downed during a US attack on Yemen.
According to the statement, the operation, which utilized eight cruise missiles and 17 drones, successfully thwarted the assault on Yemen.
The F-18 came down as the US was confronting Yemeni drones and missiles. Most of the US jets withdrew from Yemeni airspace to international waters in the Red Sea, the YAF's statement said. The USS Harry S. Truman ship withdrew to the northern Red Sea after being repeatedly targeted.
Washington said the plane was downed in a friendly fire incident.
Early on Saturday morning, a Yemeni missile made direct impact in Tel Aviv, evading Israel’s air defense systems and injuring over a dozen. Yemeni forces also carried out a ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv early on 19 December, coinciding with violent Israeli airstrikes on Yemen.
Yemeni operations have been ongoing all year, and Sanaa has vowed not to stop until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on 23 December that Tel Aviv will continue attacking Yemen.
Defense Minister Israel Katz also said on Monday that Yemen’s army and Ansarallah resistance movement will soon face a “decisive blow.”
Massive Israeli attacks pummel Yemen's main airport, Sanaa pledges 'response in kind'
The strikes on Sanaa airport injured a UN pilot and killed two airport employees, taking place as the WHO director was about to board a flight meters away from the site of the attack
News Desk
DEC 26, 2024
(Photo credit: X)
The Israeli army carried out a large attack against Yemen on the afternoon of 26 December, coinciding with a speech by the leader of the Ansarallah resistance movement Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
Images on social media showed large clouds of smoke as a result of the Israeli strikes on the capital, Sanaa, and on the western port city of Hodeidah.
An Israeli army spokesman said the air force struck “terrorist targets of the Houthi terrorist regime” at Sanaa International Airport, as well as the ports of Hodeidah, Al-Salif, and Ras Qantib on Yemen’s western coast. Power stations were hit as a result.
According to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Yemen, the pilot of a UN plane was injured, and two airport employees were killed by the Israeli attack, which comes in response to a recent string of direct Yemeni missile and drone strikes against Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway was damaged,” said the Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“We will need to wait for the damage to be repaired before we can leave,” he added.
The strikes were approved by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but not the cabinet, according to Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN).
“Targeting Sanaa International Airport and other civilian infrastructure is a Zionist crime against all the Yemeni people. This is the habit of this criminal enemy, the killer of millions of the Palestinian people and the perpetrator of genocide in Gaza,” stated Ansarallah spokesman Mohammad Abdel Salam.
“If the Zionist enemy thinks that its crimes will stop Yemen from supporting Gaza, it is delusional, and Yemen will not abandon its religious and humanitarian principles, God willing,” he added.
A Yemeni drone exploded in Ashkelon on the evening of 25 December, with video footage showing the moment of impact. Yemen’s Armed Forces (YAF), which is merged with the Ansarallah movement, announced drone attacks on both Ashkelon and Tel Aviv.
Over 20 Israelis were injured while running to shelters early on 24 December after a Yemeni projectile targeted Tel Aviv, according to Israel’s ambulance service. This came after Yemen launched ballistic missile attacks on Tel Aviv on 19 December and 21 December.
The 19 December attack coincided with violent Israeli airstrikes against Yemen. Tel Aviv has recently stepped up its rhetoric against Ansarallah. It is planning further attacks on Yemen, a source told Israeli news outlet Channel 13.
Israeli media reported earlier this week, however, that it has been difficult to draft a policy on countering the drone and missile attacks launched by Ansarallah and the Yemeni army – particularly due to a lack of intelligence information.
Houthi said during a speech he was making as the Israeli assault began that Tel Aviv was “surprised by the effectiveness of the Yemeni front.”
“The Israeli enemy suffers from the intelligence challenge in Yemen and its failure to obtain the necessary information, which means failure in security and information penetration,” the Ansarallah leader added. “No matter how stubborn the criminal Netanyahu and the ministers in his government are regarding the confrontation with Yemen, the picture is clear, and there are admissions of failure in every sense of the word.”
Ansarallah's leadership and the YAF have repeatedly vowed that they will not cease operations until the Israeli war on Gaza is brought to an end.
A source cited by Al Mayadeen after the Israeli attack on Yemen said the strikes “will not change anything in the war and will be met in kind,” confirming that ”military operations will continue.”
Israel has escalated its attacks against Yemen, most recently launching airstrikes on civilian infrastructure at Sanaa Airport which almost resulted in the death of the WHO Director.
December 28, 2024 by Aseel Saleh
Protesters in the million man march in Yemen on December 27. Photo: Screenshot
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) intensified aerial attacks on Yemen in the last several days, as Ansar Allah-led Yemeni Armed Forces continued operations against Israel in retaliation for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, and against Israel’s allies who attempt to bypass the blockade imposed by Ansar Allah of Israel.
On Thursday, December 26, Israeli warplanes targeted civilian facilities of Yemen’s Sanaa International Airport, including the airports’ main runway, control tower, and an aircraft, according to the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.
At least three people were killed in the assault and 16 others injured including the assistant to the captain of a United Nations’ plane. The plane had landed in Sanaa International Airport to transport the Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the UN resident coordinator in Yemen, Julian Harnis, shortly before the airstrike was launched.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister Jamal Amer considered the timing of the attack as a “direct affront and a mockery of the UN”, particularly as the co-pilot of the UN aircraft was injured.
For his part Ghebreyesus issued a statement on Thursday, explaining the circumstances of the airstrike on the airport, and confirming his presence along with other WHO and UN colleagues there at the time of the attack.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa, about three hours ago (around 5 pm local time), the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport,” the statement reads.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged. We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” the statement continues.
Israeli fighter jets also targeted other sites in Hodeidah governorate in western Yemen including Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, and military infrastructure located in the ports of Hodeidah, according to IOF.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his deep concern “about the risk of further escalation and has urged all parties to cease military actions and exercise restraint.” Guterres also warned “that airstrikes on Red Sea ports and Sanaa airport pose grave risks to humanitarian operations at a time when millions of people are in need of life-saving assistance.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) strongly condemned the aggression on Yemen, which it said “proves the Zionist-Western alliance’s bankruptcy in facing Yemen’s resistance.” Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) called the onslaught “a flagrant violation of sovereignty and acts of terrorism”.
Israel claimed that it escalated its aggression on Yemen after the Yemeni Armed Forces stepped up its missile and drone attacks on Israel during the past few weeks. Speaking to local media on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to launch an open war on Yemen. “We’re just getting started with them,” Netanyahu said. “We won’t allow them [to attack Israel] these days, today and any other day. We will strike them to the bitter end until they learn. As I said, Hamas learned, Hezbollah learned, and Syria learned. The Houthis will learn too,” he added.
However, the Yemeni Armed Forces defied Netanyahu’s threats by carrying out three significant military operations against the Zionist entity on Friday, December 27. The operations included targeting Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv with a hypersonic missile, striking a military site in Jaffa with a drone, and the interception of a ship in the Arabian Sea after it violated the blockade imposed on Israeli ports.
The spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Sare’e said in a televised statement on Friday, that these operations were carried out as part of the fifth phase of support for Gaza, and in response to Israeli aggression in Yemen, including recent airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in Sanaa and Hodeidah. Saree further emphasized that Israel’s aggression on his country “will only increase the resolve and determination of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people, fulfilling their religious, moral, and humanitarian duty.”
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement praised the Yemeni missile strike on Lod (Ben Gurion) Airport, considering it “a legitimate response to the aggression on Sana’a Airport and Yemeni civilian facilities.”
Since the genocidal aggression on Gaza began in the aftermath of October 7, Israel has launched sporadic attacks on Yemen viewing it as one of seven fronts alongside Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, which represent the Axis of Resistance.
During the last couple of months, the Axis of Resistance received heavy blows after Gaza’s support front in Lebanon had to temporarily stop its confrontations with Israel as per the fragile interim ceasefire agreement reached last November. Following the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Israel destroyed the country’s military infrastructure and the transitional government showed its willingness to establish “peace” with Israel.
All these factors made Netanyahu more determined than ever to demolish the military capabilities of Yemen, even if this would mean expanding the genocidal aggression to other parts of the West Asia region at the expense of civilians.
US, British jets rain fire on Yemeni capital in new late night attack
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Yemen to demand Ansarallah officials escalate military operations in support of Palestine
News Desk
DEC 28, 2024
(Photo Credit: AP)
US and UK warplanes launched a new round of airstrikes on the Yemeni capital late on 27 December, targeting the 21 September park in the Maeen district of Sanaa, according to Yemen's Al-Masirah TV.
No photos or videos of the attack have been released or circulated on social media. US Central Command (CENTCOM) has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
The latest western aggression came one day after Israeli warplanes launched massive airstrikes on Sanaa and the coastal province of Hodeidah in retaliation for continued drone and hypersonic missile attacks by the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched through the streets of Sanaa, Saada, Hodeidah, Hajjah, and Al-Mahwit, proclaiming, “We firmly stand with Gaza, the glory… without limits and without red lines."
ما بين خروج مليوني أسبوعي وآخر.. يتعاظم غضب اليمنيين مع غزة ووعيهم ضد شركاء الإبادة.. يتبارك عنفوان حشودهم وتتصاعد ضربات جيشهم الصاروخية في عمق كيان العدو الصهيوني وفي نحور حاملات طائرات العدو الإمريكي..
مليونية "ثابتون مع غزة العزة.. بلا سقف ولا خطوط حمراء"#صنعاء#ميدان_السبعين pic.twitter.com/RGGGrfBitu
— العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) December 27, 2024
Demonstrators also called on the YAF to intensify their operations in support of Palestine.
The mobilizations started soon after YAF spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree confirmed that Sanaa conducted drone and missile attacks targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, “a vital target” south of Tel Aviv, and an Israeli-linked ship in the Arabia Sea, in response to Israel’s aggressions on Yemen and Gaza.
At least six people were killed and 40 others injured when Israel bombed Sanaa International Airport, Red Sea ports, and power stations on Thursday.
"[Ansarallah] are more technologically advanced than perceived by many [and should not be] underrated,” an Israeli official told the Washington Post on Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
He claimed that with support from Iran, Yemen has been able to take “practical steps” in fighting a war against Israel and its close allies.
“Because it’s so cheap for them to try to get a drone or a missile every few days or weeks into Israel, they can win this,” Yoel Guzansky, a former official on Israel’s National Security Council and senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv told the US daily.
The US and UK launched an illegal war on Yemen at the start of the year, seeking to protect Israeli trade interests and shield the country from the pro-Gaza operations of the Axis of Resistance.
Yemeni operations have been ongoing since November 2023, and Sanaa has vowed not to stop until the genocide in Gaza comes to an end. The daring operations by the YAF against Israel and its allies have forced several US aircraft carriers and European warships out of West Asia.
