Yemen’s Houthis attacked Israel again on Monday with a drone despite a major joint US, UK and Israeli strike against them on Friday.
Air Force defense systems intercepted the drone at an undisclosed location in southern Israel on Monday morning without sounding warning sirens, suggesting it was sure the threat would be contained, the army announced.
There was some hope that the combination of several more aggressive US attacks on the Houthis early last week, as well as Friday’s joint attack – the largest of its kind against the Houthis since the start of the war – could finally deter the Houthis from attacking Israel.
Monday’s drone attack appears to have dampened those hopes, even though a drone poses a lesser threat than a ballistic missile and the Houthis have not fired a ballistic missile at Israel since January 5.
For Israel, Friday’s joint attack was the fifth counterattack against Yemen’s Houthis since July, with the group having spent about a year attacking Israel.
As for the United States and England, they have launched more attacks against the Houthis, but their two rounds of attacks against the Iranian proxy early last week, combined with the joint attack with Jerusalem from Friday marked a significant escalation.
Until now, the problem for Israel and the West has been that, despite having greater firepower than the Houthis, the Yemeni group has not been deterred and has been willing to endure even disproportionate counterattacks. , in order to be able to “stay in the game” against Israel in the war with Hamas and continue to cause problems in global maritime trade for the West, considered favorable to Israel.
What did Israel hit in Yemen?
The targets Israel struck on Friday included military infrastructure sites at the Hezyaz power plant and military infrastructure at the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa on the west coast.
An informed source said The Jerusalem Post that during the latest visit to Israel by the deputy commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), Brad Cooper, it was discussed that Jerusalem and Washington would coordinate their efforts to manage the Houthi threat.
Another source confirmed that the strike was coordinated with the US-British coalition, which attacked some targets – and that at the same time Israel attacked other targets. There was no cooperation in attacking the targets themselves, but each side struck different targets.
According to the source, it was relatively clear how the “work” would be “shared” between Israel and the coalition.
The coalition was to attack weapons installations, command and control bases and underground locations, while Israel strikes Houthi economic installations – which have military and civilian use, such as ports, airports, power plants electrical, etc.
More than 20 Israeli aircraft took part in the strikes, and around 50 munitions were dropped on terrorist targets in Yemen.
Airstrikes on the Yemeni port of Ras Issa on Friday targeted oil storage facilities near the berths, and no merchant ships were reported damaged, British security firm Ambrey said .
According to reports, the 12 strikes north of the capital were carried out by the United States and the United Kingdom on underground infrastructure belonging to the Houthis.
A strike also reportedly hit Sanaa’s main square during weekly Friday protests in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Six strikes also reportedly targeted the port of Hodeidah.
Israel last struck Houthi targets in December, attacking Sanaa’s ports and energy infrastructure.
The Houthis have fired more than 200 ballistic missiles and more than 320 drones at Israel during the war, with around 40 of those missiles coming close enough to Israel that the Jewish state had to shoot them down.
Amichai Stein, Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post staff and Reuters contributed to this report.
