Houthi Response to Israeli Strike: Rebellion Spills into the Red Sea and UN Halls
Israel’s strikes in Yemen pull the Houthis deeper into the regional struggle, threatening global trade routes.
The conflict in Gaza has spawned new and unpredictable fronts. Israel’s recent strike on Houthi targets in Yemen—its first such action—has provoked fierce retaliation. The Houthis, long aligned with Iran, have declared the Red Sea a “zone of resistance.” Already, major shipping firms are rerouting vessels, and insurance costs for the Suez passage have soared.
The Houthis are no longer a parochial Yemeni insurgency. They now function as a regional proxy for Tehran. Their missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia and the UAE, their grip on Yemen’s key ports, and their new symbolic confrontation with Israel elevate them within the so-called “Axis of Resistance.” In New York, Yemeni representatives sympathetic to the Houthis demanded recognition at the UN, turning a once-local rebellion into a geopolitical flashpoint.
For Israel, the calculation is perilous. It sees the Houthis as part of Iran’s encirclement strategy—stretching from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Shiite militias in Iraq. By striking in Yemen, Israel aims to disrupt that chain. But it also risks widening its war into yet another front, alienating international partners and inviting accusations of overreach.
The Red Sea is one of the world’s oldest commercial arteries, carrying roughly 12 percent of global trade. Each escalation threatens to transform it from a trade corridor into a war zone—with consequences far beyond the Middle East.
Our Take: The Red Sea is no longer just a shipping lane—it is a battlefield. Each strike raises the risk that a regional insurgency morphs into a global maritime crisis.