The Yemeni group pledges more attacks on Israel as fears mount that the worsening conflict will spiral out of control.
Key moments in first month of US-Israeli war on Iran
Yemen’s Houthis have attacked Israel for the first time, a month after US and Israeli forces began striking Iran, opening up a new front in a rapidly escalating conflict that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and rattled the global economy.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, entered the fray on Saturday with two missile and drone attacks on Israel in the space of fewer than 24 hours. The Israeli army said the attacks were intercepted, but the Iran-aligned group pledged to continue fighting in support of “resistance fronts in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran”.
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The Houthis had sat out of the hostilities until now, in contrast with their stance during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, when their attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea upended commercial traffic worth about $1 trillion a year.
Their widely anticipated involvement in the latest conflict comes just as Iran has throttled traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for about a fifth of the world’s oil, raising fears that the Yemeni group will again disrupt Red Sea traffic by blocking the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Reporting from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry described Bab al-Mandeb as the group’s “ace”.
“They want to make Israel pay economically. They want to disrupt their trade routes. They want to disrupt the imports and exports in and out of Israel,” he said.
‘Civilians bearing brunt of war’
The Houthi attacks came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington expected to conclude its military operations against Iran within weeks, even as a new deployment of US Marines has begun to arrive in the region, so US President Donald Trump would have “maximum” flexibility to adjust the strategy as needed.
With no immediate diplomatic breakthrough in sight as both the US and Iran harden their positions, many fear that the US-Israel war on Iran, which started on February 28 and has since engulfed the region, will spiral out of control.
The US and Israel continued their bombardment over the past 24 hours, with the Israeli military claiming it had struck an Iranian research facility for naval weapons, while a series of loud explosions rattled Tehran as night fell on Saturday.
Iranian media said at least five people were killed in a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in the northwestern city of Zanjan. In Tehran, authorities said the University of Science and Technology was the latest educational facility to be struck, prompting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to issue a threat against Israeli and US universities in the region.
Separately, Iran’s Fars news agency said a water reservoir in the city of Haftgel, located in western Khuzestan province, had also been attacked.
The Iranian Ministry of Health announced that 1,937 people have been killed since the start of the conflict, including 230 children. Iran’s Red Crescent Society said US-Israeli strikes had damaged more than 93,000 civilian properties.
“Civilians are bearing the brunt of this war,” Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Tehran, said.
Devastation in Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israel’s devastation of Lebanon continued apace, as the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that 1,189 people had been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2.
The death toll has been mounting as Israeli troops have pushed further into the south, advancing towards the Litani River in their stated bid to wipe out Hezbollah and carve out a buffer zone along the lines of the “Gaza model”.
Among Saturday’s killings, an Israeli strike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon. In parallel, the Health Ministry announced that Israel had also killed nine paramedics, bringing the death toll among healthcare workers in the latest war to 51.
Lebanon’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre said an Israeli attack on the town of al-Haniyah, in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, killed at least seven people, including one child.
An Israeli air raid on the southern Lebanese town of Deir al-Zahrani killed a Lebanese soldier, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
Hezbollah, which attacked Israel amid a ceasefire that Israel kept violating in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claimed dozens of operations against Israeli forces in the past 24 hours.
Mixed messages
Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Tehran does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz. But he has extended the deadline he had imposed for this week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond.
With the US midterm elections coming up in November, the increasingly unpopular war is weighing heavily on the president’s Republican Party.
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Friday that he believed Tehran would hold talks with Washington in the coming days. “We have a 15-point plan on the table. We expect the Iranians to respond. It could solve it all,” Witkoff said.
Pakistan, which has been a go-between between US and Iranian officials, will host foreign ministers from regional powers Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt in Islamabad for talks on the crisis.
Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar spoke with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, late on Saturday, urging “an end to all attacks and hostilities” in the region.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Dar had told Araghchi that Pakistan remains committed to supporting efforts aimed at restoring regional peace and stability.
Dar also announced that Iran had agreed to allow 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a meaningful step towards easing one of the worst energy crises in modern history.
Facts Only
Yemen’s Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on Israel for the first time in the current conflict.
The Houthis control much of northern Yemen and are aligned with Iran.
The US and Israel began military operations against Iran on February 28.
The Houthis previously attacked shipping in the Red Sea during Israel’s war on Gaza.
Iran has restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil chokepoint.
The US Secretary of State stated that US military operations against Iran are expected to conclude within weeks.
The Israeli military claimed to have struck an Iranian naval weapons research facility.
At least five people were killed in a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in Zanjan, Iran.
The University of Science and Technology in Tehran was struck, prompting threats from Iran’s IRGC against US and Israeli universities.
Iran’s Ministry of Health reported 1,937 deaths since the conflict began, including 230 children.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health reported 1,189 deaths from Israeli attacks since March 2.
An Israeli strike killed three journalists and nine paramedics in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has claimed dozens of operations against Israeli forces in the past 24 hours.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Iranian energy infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
Pakistan is mediating talks between regional powers to address the crisis.
Iran agreed to allow 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative presents a rapidly escalating conflict with multiple actors and fronts, but several patterns warrant scrutiny. The framing of the war as a "US-Israeli war on Iran" simplifies a complex geopolitical struggle, potentially obscuring the roles of other regional players and historical grievances. The emphasis on civilian casualties and humanitarian suffering is compelling, but the selective focus on certain actors (e.g., Israel’s strikes in Lebanon) without equivalent scrutiny of Houthi or Iranian actions could reflect a narrative bias. The inclusion of threats against universities and civilian infrastructure risks normalizing asymmetric retaliation, which could further destabilize the region.
Root cause: The paradigm driving this narrative is one of proxy warfare and great-power competition, where regional conflicts are framed through the lens of US-Iran rivalry. The unstated assumption is that Iran is the primary aggressor, while the US and Israel are responding defensively—a framing that may overlook the role of historical interventions and alliances in shaping current dynamics.
Implications: The humanitarian cost is severe, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. The economic disruption, particularly in critical chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, could have global repercussions. The involvement of non-state actors like the Houthis and Hezbollah complicates diplomatic efforts, raising the risk of unintended escalation.
Bridge questions: How might the conflict’s framing shift if the historical context of US and Israeli interventions in the region were more centrally addressed? What would de-escalation look like if all parties, including non-state actors, were held to the same standards of accountability? How does the media’s focus on certain casualties shape public perception of the conflict’s morality?
Counterstrike scan: A coordinated influence campaign would likely amplify civilian suffering to provoke outrage, frame the conflict as a binary struggle between "aggressors" and "victims," and downplay the agency of non-state actors. While the article includes multiple perspectives, the selective emphasis on certain actors’ actions could align with such a strategy. However, the inclusion of diplomatic efforts and regional mediation suggests a more balanced approach.
Patterns detected: ARC-0024 Ambiguity (selective framing of actors), ARC-0043 Motte-and-Bailey (simplifying complex geopolitical dynamics into a binary conflict).
Sentinel — Human
This text shows signs of human authorship. While it exhibits some stylometric signals that could be associated with AI-generated content, the presence of passion, idiosyncratic emphasis, and lack of a coordinated argumentative structure suggest a likely human origin.