Houthis threaten Israel with imminent response, US efforts to curb Houthis in Red Sea fail

Yemen’s Houthi group said that its retaliatory response to Israel is “imminent” and will involve all the “resistance axis” fronts. “The response is coming from all the resistance axis fronts and will be painful and impactful on the Israeli enemy,” senior leader, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, said, adding that “planning for the response is one of the reasons for the delay.”

According to Middle East Monitor media outlet, He revealed that the Houthis have carried out 21 military operations with missiles, drones and naval boats against Israel over the past week. Al-Houthi explained that the number of ships targeted for their connection to the Israeli enemy and for violating the decision to ban access to Israeli ports has risen to 182 vessels since November.

The US-led multinational coalition's Operation Prosperity Guard, which was launched in December 2023 in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the southern Red Sea, has failed to work, according to an article in The Telegraph.

The operation was said to have been aimed at providing a united international front to deter further attacks by the Houthis and to reassure shipping companies, which were already beginning to avoid the long route around the Cape of Good Hope due to concerns about the risk and associated insurance costs.

But the Houthis were not deterred, the journalists said. They continued to shell everything from ships to Iranian grain carriers to Russian "shadow fleet" vessels. This led to Operation Poseidon Archer, which began in January 2024 and involved counter-strikes by the US and UK against Houthi targets. But these efforts also failed.

Since January, the number of attacks has not only increased steadily, but also diversified. Drones and cruise missiles have been joined by ship hijackings and ballistic missiles. In April, a ground drone was used for the first time, and since then, there has been a steady increase in the use of this method. Recently, the Houthis have begun to accompany their attacks with small arms fire from speedboats. The number of attacks has increased in recent weeks, exceeding the average of 2.5 attacks per week.

Back in May, when the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower was present, the US had 12 warships on station, providing a combination of missile pickets and escorts. Now there is none.

"From the UK's perspective, the reason is simple: we don't have enough ships, or rather, we don't have enough ships that are operational. In the US, it's more complicated because they have ships but they've simply decided not to send any... The US Navy has announced that it may have to park 17 auxiliary support ships because of crewing problems," the authors write.