The Israeli army had announced activating its anti-aircraft defense after “identifying the firing of a missile from Yemen towards Israeli territory.”
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/2026/03/28/69c774e343df6418805804.jpg "The Houthis claim their first attack against Israel since the start of the war in the Middle East")
The Houthi rebels of Yemen, allies of Iran, claimed on Saturday, March 28, their first attack on Israel since the beginning of the Middle East war, shortly after the Israeli army announced detecting a missile launch from Yemen. The Houthis had threatened the day before to join the conflict triggered on February 28 by the Israeli-American offensive on Iran.
In a video statement posted on X, their spokesperson Yahya Saree declared that the movement had carried out its “first operation” against Israel and hit “sensitive military sites of the enemy” during a ballistic missile attack.
Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli army had said it activated its anti-aircraft defense after “identifying the firing of a missile from Yemen towards Israeli territory.” “We are ready for direct military intervention in case of a new alliance with the United States and Israel against Iran (…), hostile operations against Iran or any Muslim country from the Red Sea (…), and in case of escalation against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Yahya Saree had stated in a video released on X on Friday.
These pro-Iranian insurgents, who control a large part of Yemen, had launched numerous attacks on Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza between 2023 and 2025. Their missile and drone strikes had significantly disrupted traffic in this strategic maritime route, now used by Saudi Arabia to export its oil without going through the Strait of Hormuz, where navigation is blocked by Tehran.
