Israeli Campaign Against the Houthis

The Houthi movement (Ansar Allah), backed by Iran and ruling northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, joined the war soon after 7 October 2023, firing missiles and drones toward Eilat and attacking shipping in the Red Sea; in November 2023 it seized the cargo ship Galaxy Leader. On 19 July 2024 a Houthi drone struck an apartment building in Tel Aviv, killing a man. The next day Israeli jets flew some 1,800 km to strike the port of Hodeidah, setting its fuel depots and cranes ablaze.

Further strikes hit Hodeidah and other ports, power stations and Sanaa's international airport in 2024 and 2025, including after a Houthi missile landed near Ben Gurion Airport in May 2025. In August 2025 an Israeli strike in Sanaa killed the Houthi prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, and several ministers. The campaign took Israel's air force to targets about 2,000 km from home, against a member of Iran's "axis of resistance" whose attacks had choked traffic through the Red Sea and emptied the port of Eilat.