A month after US and Israeli forces launched an attack on Iran, Yemen’s Houthis have attacked Israel for the first time, opening a new front in the rapidly escalating conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions and crippled the global economy.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, took the field on Saturday with two missile and drone attacks on Israel in less than 24 hours. The Israeli military said the attacks were halted, but the Iran-aligned group promised to continue fighting in support of “resistance fronts in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran”.
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In contrast to their stance during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the Houthis sat back from hostilities until now, when their attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea disrupted commercial traffic worth about $1 trillion a year.
Their widely anticipated involvement in the latest conflict comes at the same time as Iran has blocked traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital barrier for about a fifth of the world’s oil, raising fears that the Yemeni group will again disrupt Red Sea traffic by blocking the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
Reporting from the Yemeni capital Sanaa, Al Jazeera’s Youssef Mawary described Bab al-Mandeb as the group’s “ace.”
“They want to make Israel pay economically. They want to disrupt their trade routes. They want to disrupt imports and exports in and out of Israel,” he said.
‘Civilians are bearing the brunt of war’
The Houthi attacks came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington expected to end its military campaign against Iran within a few weeks, even as a new US naval deployment to the region begins, so US President Donald Trump would have “maximum” flexibility to adjust strategy as needed.
As both the US and Iran have hardened their positions, with no immediate diplomatic breakthrough, many fear that the US-Israeli war over Iran, which began on February 28 and has since engulfed the region, will spiral out of control.
The US and Israel continued their bombardment over the past 24 hours, with the Israeli military claiming to have struck an Iranian research facility for naval weapons, while a series of loud explosions rocked Tehran as night fell on Saturday.
Iranian media said at least five people were killed in a US-Israeli strike on a residential unit in the northwestern city of Zanjan. In Tehran, officials said the University of Science and Technology was the latest academic facility to be attacked, prompting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to issue threats against Israeli and American universities in the region.
Separately, Iran’s Fars news agency said a water reservoir in the city of Haftgale, located in western Khuzestan province, was also attacked.
The Iranian Health Ministry announced that 1,937 people have been killed since the conflict began, including 230 children. Iran’s Red Crescent Society said more than 93,000 civilian properties were damaged in the US-Israeli strikes.
“Civilians are bearing the brunt of this war,” said Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Waal, reporting from Tehran.
disaster in lebanon
Meanwhile, Israel’s devastation in Lebanon continued, as the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that 1,189 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2.
The death toll is rising as Israeli troops advance southwards, towards the Litani River, in their declared effort to eliminate Hezbollah and create a buffer zone along the lines of the “Gaza model”.
In Saturday’s killings, three journalists were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. In parallel, the Health Ministry announced that Israel had also killed nine paramedics, bringing the death toll of health workers in the latest war to 51.
Lebanon’s Public Health Emergency Operations Center said at least seven people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli attack on the town of al-Haniyah in the Tire district of southern Lebanon.
Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese city of Deir al-Zahrani killed a lebanese soldierLebanon’s national news agency reported.
Hezbollah, which attacked Israel amid a ceasefire that Israel continues to violate in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, claimed dozens of operations against Israeli forces in the past 24 hours.
mixed messages
Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Tehran does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz. But he has extended the deadline for this week and has given Iran 10 more days to respond.
With the US midterm elections coming up in November, the increasingly unpopular war is weighing heavily on the president’s Republican Party.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday he was confident Tehran would hold talks with Washington in the coming days. Witkoff said, “We have a 15-point plan on the table. We expect the Iranians to respond. This could solve everything.”
Pakistan, which has been a mediator between US and Iranian officials, will host the foreign ministers of regional powers Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt in Islamabad for talks on the crisis.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi late Saturday night and urged “an end to all attacks and hostilities” in the region.
In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said Dar had told Araghchi that Pakistan was committed to supporting efforts aimed at restoring regional peace and stability.
Dar also announced that Iran had agreed to allow 20 Pakistani-flagged ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a meaningful step toward reducing one of the worst energy crises in modern history.
