Confusion in Israel… “Our raids stimulate the Houthis’ appetite for launching missiles” | policy

Israel finds it difficult to define a policy that would lead to stopping the attacks carried out by the Houthis in Yemen against it with ballistic missiles and drones, despite the counterattacks it launched against them.

After avoiding attacking Yemen for several months at the beginning of the war, Israel carried out its first strike on Yemeni sites last July, then followed it with two additional attacks and is planning a fourth attack.

In recent months, the Houthis have focused their missile and drone attacks on the central region of Israel, especially Tel Aviv.

These attacks, especially those launched at night, cause widespread confusion for millions of Israelis, who are forced to run to shelters and safe rooms.

Sirens blaring day and night

Ron Ben Yishai, a military analyst at the Israeli Ynet news site, points out that “the Houthis are not deterred despite the economic damage” as a result of the Israeli attacks.

He added, “Only a decisive strike on the Houthi leadership and their weapons, similar to Israel’s strategy against Hezbollah, can change their position.”

However, Yossi Yehoshua, a military analyst in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, pointed out that the Houthis were not deterred by the Israeli attacks.

“The air strikes in Yemen only encouraged the Houthis to continue the attack,” he said.

“The Houthis continue to entrench themselves as a major nuisance after the ceasefire in Lebanon and the dismantling of most of Hamas’ capabilities in Gaza,” Yehoshua added.

He continued, “In fact, the combination of missiles and drones on this front (Yemen) has created a reality that is evident in the activation of alarm systems day and night.”

Based on military estimates in Israel, Yehoshua indicated that the third attack carried out by Israel on sites in Yemen on December 19 “did not deter the Houthis.”

“The attack actually increased the Houthis’ appetite to continue launching missiles,” he said.

He added, “In the field of drones, they even added an infiltration route to the route they had previously occupied, across the Mediterranean Sea and from there to the coast, to a route that crosses Sinai to the Gaza Strip and from there to the Western Negev” in southern Israel.

Therefore, Yehoshua pointed out that, “In the meantime, Israel is still discussing whether to attack Iran, as Mossad chief David Barnea suggests, or in Yemen, as the army believes.”

He said, “Barnea presented his proposal in the Israeli mini-ministerial council (cabinet) on the basis that this would deter the Houthis and exert pressure from Tehran on their branch in Yemen.”

Yehoshua added, “But a senior official in the Israeli army claims, on the other hand, that the Iranians’ influence on the Houthis is not the same as their influence on Hezbollah, and that they are a kind of independent and disturbed child. The attack will not achieve the goal of deterring the Houthis, and will renew a direct front against Iran.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, “We will not accept the Houthis continuing to fire on the State of Israel, and we will respond to the Houthi leaders in Sanaa and everywhere in Yemen.”

Lack of information

Yehoshua said, “The challenges in this sector are well known, most notably the lack of intelligence information. It is not because the Intelligence Division and the Mossad did not invest in this threat, but rather they had more urgent tasks such as Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Gaza.”

“The second problem is distance, which makes attacks complex and expensive,” he added.

Speaking to Israeli Radio 103 FM, retired General Gadi Shamni, a former commander of the Gaza Division, said that the Houthis understand that the night has a great impact on the population and that the need to wake up is exhausting, referring to the launching of rockets at night.

He added, “They have been fighting for a very long time. They know how to fight and are accustomed to suffering. If you bomb their civilian infrastructure, you will not stop this. That is why the entire system, the international system, must be harnessed in this effort.”

Shamni considered, “One of the big mistakes in the past few months is that the State of Israel did not launch a more serious attack on Iran and did not strike the nuclear facilities when it was possible to do so. Even today, this is possible, but at the time there was more legitimacy.”

He added, “We are in a situation where it is difficult for us to stand up and attack Iran. There is a new administration that will enter the United States within a month, and in my estimation, Trump will not go in this direction. Rather, he will go in the opposite direction, in the direction of sanctions and pressure.”

He continued, “This could embarrass the Americans, and we do not want to involve the new administration in something that it does not want to get into, so in my opinion, the window of opportunity has been lost.”

Shamni pointed out, “The Americans who are leading this story must be harnessed in this effort. Israel is fighting and succeeding in doing amazing things on the battlefield, but there is no need to be confused. In the end, Israel is not alone, and we need to harness the countries of the region, as we cannot and should not.” We can do everything on our own.”

Beating at dawn

It is noteworthy that the Houthis fired a missile at Israel on Wednesday at 04:26 am, while they fired a missile on Tuesday at 01:30 am.

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli army announced the interception of a drone launched from Yemen, off the shores of Tel Aviv.

At 03:45 am on Saturday, the head of a missile launched from Yemen fell on a school in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, causing great destruction, while on Friday afternoon it was announced that a drone launched from Yemen had been intercepted.

With every Houthi attack, and in implementation of the instructions of the Israeli army, millions of Israelis rush to safe rooms or shelters in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.

Although the army announced the interception of two missiles, the impact of sounding the sirens on the Israelis appears to be significant, with human casualties and material damage.

On Tuesday, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation announced that 20 Israelis were injured, including seriously, while running to shelters, while on Wednesday it reported that 9 were injured in a similar incident.

Usually, sounding sirens in the areas of central Israel has a tangible impact, given that they are relatively far from the borders with Lebanon in the north and with Gaza in the south.

In “solidarity with Gaza”, since November 2023, the Houthi group has begun targeting cargo ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, in addition to launching attacks on targets inside Israel.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli genocide in Gaza has resulted in more than 153,000 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.