CAIRO — Yemen’s Houthi movement said over the weekend it had fired a fresh wave of drones and cruise missiles toward Israel, opening what diplomats described as the most serious new front in the month-old war pitting Iran and its allies against the United States and Israel.
In a televised statement late Saturday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed the group targeted the port cities of Haifa and Eilat “in solidarity with the people of Iran.” Israel’s military said it intercepted most of the projectiles but acknowledged debris caused minor damage near Eilat’s airport.
The exchange came as Israeli and U.S. forces continued a second month of strikes on suspected Iranian weapons sites following Tehran’s unprecedented raid on Israel in February. Western officials say the confrontation now risks drawing in an arc of Iranian-backed militias stretching from Iraq to Yemen.
“The Houthis are signalling that any assault on Iran will be met with pressure along multiple fronts,” said Lina Khatib, director of the SOAS Middle East Institute in London. Regional shipping insurers told Reuters premiums for Red Sea transits have jumped roughly 25 percent since Houthi activity resumed last week.
Houthi forces first fired toward Israel in 2024 during the Gaza war, but activity subsided after a U.S.-brokered truce in the Red Sea in late 2025. That pause evaporated on 2 March, when the group announced it was “part of the same axis” defending Iran. Since then, U.S. Central Command says it has shot down at least 18 Houthi-launched drones headed north from Yemen.
Meanwhile, rocket and drone attacks on American bases in Iraq and Syria have intensified, with Washington blaming Kataib Hezbollah and other Tehran-aligned factions. No U.S. casualties have been reported, but Pentagon officials warned Friday they would “respond decisively” to any fatal strike.
The internationally recognised Yemeni government condemned the Houthis’ latest launches as a “dangerous provocation that endangers maritime trade.” Saudi Arabia, which has observed a fragile détente with the rebels since 2023, has so far stayed silent, though diplomats fear renewed cross-border fire could upend that détente.
Looking ahead, analysts say escalation hinges on whether Israel or the United States choose to retaliate directly against Houthi sites around Sana’a and Hodeidah. “Air raids inside Yemen would almost certainly push the Saudis back into the war and close the chance of a political settlement there,” cautioned Hussein Ibish of the Arab Gulf States Institute.
With indirect talks on a broader Iran ceasefire stalled in Muscat, Western officials warn the coming weeks could determine whether the conflict remains contained or slips into a multi-theatre confrontation stretching from the Levant to the Bab al-Mandab strait.