The Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out two waves of attacks on the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on Israel. Most recently, the Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel on December 16 and early in the morning of December 19. The IAF struck targets across Yemen, including in ports on the coast and Sana’a. “The targets were all used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities, including fuel and oil tanks, two power plants, and eight tugboats,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The latest escalation began when the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at Israel on the afternoon of December 16. The attack caused sirens to sound across central Israel, affecting around two million people. Then, at 2:38 am on December 19, another attack spurred sirens across a similarly large area, sending people into shelters when many were sleeping. Shrapnel fell on a school near Tel Aviv, causing part of the building to collapse. However, no one was injured because of the early hour.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved retaliatory strikes on the Houthi targets after the attack. Israeli Air Force Commander Major General Tomer Bar followed the progress of the strikes at the IAF’s underground operations center.
The IDF noted that “the Houthi terrorist regime has repeatedly attacked the State of Israel, including by attacking Israeli territory using UAVs and surface-to-surface missiles. Most of these projectiles were successfully intercepted.”
The Houthis began their attacks in the wake of Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, and have tried using different methods against Israel. They first targeted Israel’s southern port city of Eilat, followed by expanding the campaign to target shipping. Later, the Houthis began using longer-range ballistic missiles and long-range drones to strike at Tel Aviv. A Houthi drone killed one person in July in Tel Aviv.
The ballistic missile attacks have spurred Israel’s first wartime use of its Arrow air defense system, the top tier of Israel’s multi-layered air defense systems. Both Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missiles, jointly developed with the United States, have been used in the conflict.
Israeli officials and the military issued similar statements about the Houthi threat. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, for instance, said that “the Houthis are a threat to the international community. They have exercised terror on Red Sea shipping routes, crippling international trade. They have taken hostages, murdered innocents, and wreaked havoc.”
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari noted that “in the last two weeks only—the Houthis fired a drone that hit an apartment block in southern Israel, and on Sunday, they fired a long-range missile towards central Israel.” He said that Israel’s retaliation on December 19 included strikes on ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen, specifying that these sites enable the Houthis to continue their military attacks. Hagari also noted that the Houthis threaten the region, including shipping, and are backed by Iran.
This is at least the third major round of IDF strikes on the Houthis. Each strike has consisted of flying multiple aircraft around 2,000 kilometers to conduct the raid, further honing Israel’s aerial-refueling and long-range strike capabilities. The IDF released images of planes armed for the attack on December 19, showing an F-15 and an F-16. It was not clear if advanced F-35s were used, though Israel has employed these aircraft in previous strikes on the Houthis.
Israel conducted its first strike on the Houthis in July in retaliation for a drone attack on Tel Aviv. In that raid, the IAF struck the port of Hodeida. A second round of strikes followed in September, also targeting the Hodeida port and energy infrastructure. The December 19 strikes expanded the target list to include several new locations.
The strikes on the Houthis come as Israel’s other fronts have seen less fighting. Israel now has a ceasefire in Lebanon with Hezbollah, and in Gaza, fighting appears to have also reduced as ceasefire talks drag on. However, Israel recently carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in Syria to destroy the military assets of the former Assad regime.
