The actions of the United States against the Houthi rebel attacks supported by Iran against Israel depend on whether they harm American citizens, the American ambassador told Israel Mike Huckabee in an interview on Thursday, part of which was broadcast by Channel 12 News.
“The United States is not required to obtain the authorization of Israel to take a certain type of arrangement which would obtain the Houthis to shoot our ships,” said Huckabee in a clip of the full interview, which takes place on the Israeli network this weekend.
His comments followed his comments on US President Donald Trump on Tuesday on Tuesday, a bilateral cease-fire agreement between the Houthis supported by Iran in Yemen and the United States, after which the rebel group promised to continue its attacks on Israel.
Israel was not informed in advance of the agreement, officials said. It was announced by Trump two days after a Houthi missile hit in Ben Gurion airport park, a few hundred meters from the main control tower, slightly injuring several people and encouraging most of the foreign airlines to stop the flights to Israel.
The former governor of Arkansas told Channel 12 that his understanding of American policy on the issue came after talking with Trump and the US vice-president JD Vance.
“Here’s what I can tell you because I had a conversation with the president and the vice-president last night,” said Huckabee. “There are 700,000 Americans living in Israel. If the Houthis want to continue doing things in Israel and they hurt an American, then it becomes our business. ”
Smoke in the region of Ben Gurion Airport after a ballistic missile has been drawn from Israel since Yemen on May 4, 2025 (screen entry of the social media used in accordance with clause 27a of the law on copyright)
Questioned by Channel 12 to clarify if he meant that the United States will intervene to fight the rebel group that if an American citizen was injured by a Houthi missile, the ambassador said: “This is what becomes our immediate business.”
His remarks echoed those made by Trump, who, questioned about the Houthis, committing to continue to attack Israel despite their agreement with the United States, replied: “I will discuss it if something happens.”
Supporters of Houthis sing slogans during a weekly anti-American and anti-Israeli rally in Sanaa, Yemen, April 18, 2025. Some of the slogts carry the group’s slogan “God is the greatest, death of America, death in Israel, a curse over the Jews, the victory of Islam.” (AP photo / Osamah Abdulrahman)
On Wednesday, the Houthis pulled a drone in Israel, which was intercepted.
The Houthis – whose slogan calls for “death in America, death in Israel, a curse on the Jews” – shot on Israel and on shipping roads in the Red Sea since November 2023, saying that they do it in a demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza in the middle of the war, which broke out when thousands of hamlets took the south of Israc 1 take 251 hostages.
Houthi’s attacks on commercial navigation have largely ceased six months ago, although many international companies have released their ships to avoid the Red Sea. Attacks on Israel and other military targets were interrupted for several weeks earlier this year, but restarted when a cease-fire in Gaza collapsed in early March.
The Sounion of the Greek oil-cave oil tanker, “ Burning in the Red Sea after a series of attacks by the Houthis rebels in Yemen on September 2, 2024. (The operation of the European Union springs the naval force via AP)
The United States has intensified strikes on the Houthis supported by Iran of Yemen earlier this year to stop attacks against the Red Sea bride, after the Houthis said that they are taking over attacks against Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea and the Ormane Sea, the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden.
The US military says it has reached more than 1,000 targets since March 15, when it was launched from its operation, nicknamed Operation Rough Rider. The strikes, he said, killed “hundreds of Houthi fighters and many Houthi leaders”.
On April 28, an alleged American air race struck a migrant center in Yemen, and Houthi TV said that 68 people were killed in one of the deadliest attacks of six weeks of intensification of American strikes.
Sanaa international airport on May 7, 2025, one day after the military planes of Israel struck the capital of Yemen, the capital of Rebel Houthi. (Mohammed Huwais / AFP)
Tensions have increased between Israel and the Houthis in recent days, after the Houthi ballistic missile landed in Ben Gurion airport park on Sunday, which caused Israeli air strikes on the port of Hodeidah in Yemen and other Houthi infrastructure targets on Monday.
A rebel Houthi walks next to a plane destroyed at Sanaa International Airport on May 7, 2025, one day after Israeli war planes struck the capital of the Yemen terrorist group. (Mohammed Huwais / AFP)
The strikes were followed Tuesday by other attacks which, according to the Israeli army, had “completely disabled” Sanaa international airport in the capital controlled by Houthi.
Jacob Magid and the agencies contributed to this report.
