Abdel-Malik al-Houthi was resolute. The leader of the Yemeni Houthirebels said there was a "new stage of escalation" and he was "very happy" about the "direct battle" with Israel. A Houthi spokesperson said that there would be no "red lines" in the response against Israel, marking the readiness for confrontation.

On Friday last week, the Houthis launched a drone attack and were able to hit Tel Aviv from Yemen, despite the distance of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles). One person was killed in the explosion and eight were injured. In retaliation, Israel sent fighter jets to strike military targets near the port of Hodeida in western Yemen. According to Israeli media reports, the air strikes targeted oil facilities and a power station. The Houthi-run health ministry said that there had been several casualties. The Houthi rebels then targeted the Red Sea resort of Eilat. Israel said it had intercepted a ballistic missile.

Who are the Houthis?

The Houthis derive from a tribal group out of northern Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia. They are Shiite Muslims, but they belong to a specific branch called the Zaydi Shiites.

As such, they have beliefs that set them apart from mainstream Shiite Muslims. For instance, they do not believe in the return of the 12th imam, al-Mahdi. The 12 imams are considered to be the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and the 12th is expected by some to return to earth one day and redeem Islam.

The fact that the Houthis are Shiite Muslims connects them with Iran, which is generally considered to represent Shiite interests in the region.

Zaydi Shiites make up about one-third of Yemen's population, and their political and military movement goes back to the 1990s. The contemporary movement was founded by Hussein al-Houthi, a former Yemeni lawmaker who opposed the policies of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Civil war in Yemen

After the Arab Spring protests of 2011 toppled Saleh's regime, the Houthis increasingly accused Yemen's new government — now headed by a Sunni Muslim — of marginalizing Zaydi Shiites. They also accused the the central government of being too close to the US and Israel and that the current leader, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, was also a Saudi stooge.

The Houthis rebelled against Hadi's unpopular government in 2014 and began to take over large parts of the country, including Sanaa. For Saudi Arabia, which did indeed support Hadi, this was a major problem and it began to fight against the Houthis. It has an international coalition against the Houthis since 2015, but without great success.

Although the Saudi Arabia-backed government controls a large part of the country, the Houthis control large areas of the north-west, including the capital Sanaa. They are supported by Iran. This is why the civil war in Yemen is also seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis have tanks, vehicles, guided missiles and rockets, which they say they have mainly acquired from the regular army.

Houthi ideology is anti-Israel

The Houthis' ideology can be deduced from their motto: "God is great, death to the US, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam."

In their territory in northern Yemen, they have adopted a strict Islamist order with an anti-Western and anti-Israel bent. The name they use for themselves also reflects this spirit — "Ansar Allah" means God's helpers, God's supporters.

Successive Yemeni governments have supported calls for Palestinian statehood and an end to the Israeli occupation, not only since the 1990s, but the Houthis have radicalized this stance, and have met with support amid the population.

The Houthis blame Israel alone for the current war in the Gaza Strip, regardless of Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which caused 1,200 deaths. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the US, the EU and others.

Over the past months, the Houthis have attacked international ships in the Red Sea and disrupted major trade routes, in support of Palestinians.

Close ties with Iran

The Houthis are considered close allies of the government in Iran. They see themselves as part of the so-called Axis of Resistance, an Iran-led regional alliance that includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, various Iraqi paramilitary factions and the Syrian regime, according to Hamidreza Azzi, a researcher at the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs. There are notable differences between the Houthis and those other groups, he added, pointing out that they were less dependent on Iran than Hezbollah for instance and there was no direct chain of command.

The government in Tehran says that it only supports the Houthis politically but does not supply them with weapons. However, there are doubts as to whether this is true. Over the past 10 years, the US military and its allies have intercepted at least 20 Iranian ships equipped with missiles, missile parts, cruise missiles, drones, thousands of assault rifles and other war equipment that was clearly intended for the Houthis.

A report published in July 2024 by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the US, says that it assesses that the Houthis have "used Iran-supplied weapons to conduct more than 100 land- and sea-based attacks across the Middle East, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden."

This article was translated from German.