Houthis Announce Entry into Middle East War
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, broke the group's weeks-long silence in an official statement pledging full solidarity with Tehran and allied "resistance" factions across the region. The Iran-aligned movement, which holds firm control over the Yemeni capital Sanaa and vast swaths of the country's northern territory, had remained on the sidelines since the United States and Israel launched their initial strikes against Tehran on February 28.
Saree cited relentless escalation, systematic attacks on civilian infrastructure, and what he described as "atrocities" perpetrated across Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip as the driving forces behind the decision to mobilize. He issued an unambiguous warning to any nation considering alignment with Washington and West Jerusalem: "Our fingers are on the trigger" — and extended that threat explicitly to any use of the Red Sea as a corridor for strikes against Iran.
Hours after the declaration, the Houthis announced they had launched "a salvo of ballistic missiles towards sensitive Israeli military sites," deliberately synchronizing the assault with simultaneous operations by Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The group vowed to press forward with its campaign "until the aggression against all resistance fronts ceases."
Israel's military confirmed intercepting two inbound missiles originating from Yemeni territory. Brigadier General Effie Defrin, spokesperson for the Israeli military, acknowledged the strike and stated that West Jerusalem is "preparing for a multifront war."
The latest offensive adds a new and dangerous dimension to a conflict already straining regional stability. According to Israeli media, Houthi forces have fired more than 130 ballistic missiles and scores of drones at Israel over the past two-and-a-half years, resulting in one fatality and several injuries.
The Yemeni group has consistently framed its campaign as solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, a position it adopted following West Jerusalem's military offensive against the enclave — itself launched in response to Hamas's October 7, 2023, incursion into Israeli territory. Beyond missile strikes, the Houthis have conducted a sweeping maritime disruption campaign in the Red Sea, targeting approximately 100 Israeli-linked vessels in the Gulf of Aden and sinking two of them.
The United States launched an extensive aerial bombing campaign against Houthi-held territory in Yemen in 2025, though the operation concluded in May without delivering the decisive defeat President Donald Trump had promised. The White House subsequently announced a negotiated arrangement under which the Houthis agreed to halt their attacks on commercial shipping.
Now, with the group's re-engagement, experts warn the economic fallout could be severe. Ahmed Nagi, senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, cautioned that a renewed Houthi offensive against Red Sea shipping could send oil prices surging and destabilize "all of maritime security." "The impact would not be limited to the energy market," he said.
The stakes are compounded by geography. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively sealed amid the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran, Saudi Arabia has rerouted its crude exports through the Red Sea — funneling millions of barrels daily through the narrow, 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.
When Houthi forces previously targeted vessels transiting the Bab el-Mandeb in 2024 and 2025, global shipping companies were forced to divert their fleets thousands of miles around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope — triggering significant delivery delays and sharply inflated freight costs. A return to such disruption, analysts warn, could prove far more damaging in an already fractured global economy.
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