Right, so Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, have declared a complete aerial blockade of Israel, a bold claim, but they reckon they can back it up and are touting further technological breakthroughs that they say means they can enforce this too. This announcement has of course followed their missile strike on Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv in the last couple of days, marking the first time a Houthi missile has successfully hit main airport since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire, possibly its first definitive hit on it full stop, though that largely depends on who you ask! This has, as you might imagine had immediate and far-reaching consequences, not least for international aviation, as well as Israel’s arrogance and military posturing, but also amongst Israeli internal political forces too, still preferring to blame Iran for everything the Houthis are doing.
What began as a regional resistance movement on the part of the Houthis in support of Gaza, has led to technological advancements already, from cheap dinghies and drones, to improved military tactics and missiles that can reach far beyond the Red Sea, transforming the Houthis into a formidable and technologically evolving force capable of challenging one of the world’s most heavily fortified states. That such a group could mount an attack on Israel’s main airport—through Israel and its multilayered air defences and through American, and Gulf-controlled airspace—has challenged everything those Western and Israeli allied forces thought the Houthis capable of and they have all been found wanting as a consequence. Who genuinely would put it past the Houthis to be raising their game again?
Right, so the Houthis ongoing military actions and the evolution of their military persistence have all come as a direct response to Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, which has escalated into what many international observers and human rights organisations describe as a campaign of annihilation and what the International Court of Justice have deemed a plausible case of genocide, but none of it seems to have deterred Israel one iota. Far-right Israeli politicians have made increasingly incendiary remarks, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call to seize or entirely destroy Gaza and displace its population in “great numbers” and the world criticises, but never steps in to do anything meaningful. Israel has not only bombed Gaza with extraordinary ferocity, but also implemented what has effectively become a war of starvation—blocking humanitarian aid, targeting civilian infrastructure, and plunging the Strip into a catastrophic humanitarian crisis and the images of malnourished babies and children show who the first casualties of such war crimes always are.
Now, with the Israeli Cabinet moving to indefinitely seize and occupy the entire Gaza Strip, the conflict has entered an especially grim point in proceedings as we move into the 19th month of this genocide. This is a timeframe that marks a complete rejection of the two-state solution framework, as if Israel were ever really into it and where before there was decades of apartheid, now Israel’s moves, especially amid such genocidal rhetoric from far right Zionist figures, are more akin to a final solution to purge the entire population of Gaza, or worse.
Where for too long politicians have talked up the Gaza Strip as part of a future Palestinian state, they’ve done little to see that end point arrive and now Gaza is facing full-scale annexation instead. The price of western indifference. The Houthis and other regional resistance groups have interpreted this development not only as a war crime, but as an existential threat to Palestinian identity and sovereignty and unlike the West they do more than talk and have increasingly become a bigger and bigger threat to the Israeli program.
Where strikes from Yemen have been nothing new to Israel, there’s no denying that the Houthis stunned the region with a missile strike that found its target near Ben Gurion Airport, reportedly causing some minor injuries and damaging property. For the Houthis, this was a milestone event—a demonstration that their long-range missile capabilities had evolved far beyond previous estimates. They quickly announced a full aerial blockade of Israel, vowing that no Israeli airport would be safe now and having hit one every airline going now knows it.
Now according to Houthis sources in Sanaa, this successful strike was carried out using a newly-developed missile and missile system. While they have not disclosed much more than that about it, the technical details, Houthi officials have also suggested that combined with this new weapon, they’ve another technological advancement to still show off, to go with it, to make sure their aerial blockade of Israeli airspace is successful, suggesting that whatever they’ve still got cooking up is designed to evade and neutralise existing air defence systems, of which Israel have several as we know, including the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow systems, not to mention the US built THAAD system as well. These claims obviously remain to be seen, will have to be independently verified, but this incident has already shown that Israeli defences, even at their strongest point around Tel Aviv, can be breached. A comment posted onto Telegram citing a Houthi official who spoke to Al-Mayadeen stated that:
‘A senior Yemeni source told Al-Mayadeen yesterday that Yemen is on the verge of a "qualitative leap" in military capabilities, warning that "no interception systems, regardless of their size or type, will be able to confront Yemen’s missiles."
The source said the army has activated new missile systems and is ready to impose “new equations,” adding that the recent targeting of Ben Gurion Airport proves “the precision of our weapons” and that Israeli efforts “failed to neutralize Yemeni capabilities or obtain a target bank.”’
As striking as this hit on Ben Gurion airport has been and the shockwaves it has sent out, the Houthis appear to be claiming that this was merely a preview. They’ve warned of "upcoming events" that will reportedly demonstrate technological advancements powerful enough to make further Israeli airspace control impossible. They even predict these events will catalyse what they term "reverse migration"—which is pretty self explanatory really, where Israeli settlers, fearing insecurity, begin to leave the region in large numbers to return to their countries of origin.
Of course to do that, they might need planes to get on of course.The implications of this aerial blockade are already being felt in that respect. Following the missile strike, numerous international airlines—including Delta, British Airways, Wizz Air, Iberia, and Air France—suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv and the reason for that is obvious, insurers and aviation authorities view Israeli airspace as no longer safe for commercial travel. Some airlines due to have restarted flights have instead extended the cancellation, leaving Israelis stranded abroad and indeed isolating Israel more and more.
And this is arguably the greater weapon the Houthis have unveiled here, it marks a new type of pressure campaign—one not simply dependent on military engagement, but on economic and psychological warfare as well. By forcing international airlines out of Israeli skies, by making them doubt the benefit to continuing those flights, the Houthis are also showing that they can disrupt Israel’s economic and logistical lifelines without even having to fire another rocket, though I’ve said that before and they’ve continued to do so,
So what has Israel had to say about all this themselves then, in amidst the usual whining and professional victimhood that they readily put on show then? Well, their response to the missile strike and the subsequent blockade declaration, have seen Israeli officials jumping to quickly blame Iran for it all, accusing it of orchestrating or at least supporting the Houthi operation. Yes, that old chestnut again. This is the oh so predictable, oh so familiar narrative, please Mr Trump won’t you just bomb Iran already? Kind of narrative where Israel has long tried to portray everything negative that they are experiencing as manifestations of some sort of a grand Iranian masterplan Iran has nevertheless swiftly and unequivocally rejected said accusations. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has stated according to Press TV that:
‘Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday night that Yemen's decision to support the Palestinian people is an independent decision, rooted in the Islamic nation's humanitarian and solidarity with Palestinians.
The top Iranian diplomat pointed out that it is the US military that has entered into war with Yemen in support of the Zionist regime’s ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza.
Araghchi slammed the US for committing war crimes by targeting infrastructure and civilian areas across Yemeni cities.
He characterized the accusations as diversionary tactics aimed at deflecting attention from the Zionist regime’s crimes in occupied Palestine, masking strategic failures, and justifying further destabilization of the region.
At the end, Araghchi condemned the US attacks on Yemen as a clear violation of the UN Charter and the fundamental principles of international law.’
In retaliation for the attack, Israel launched airstrikes on key targets in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport and Hodeidah Port—the usual targets not necessarily Houthi in nature at all, just their best guess because of an ongoing dearth of intelligence on Houthi whereabouts. The United States has also conducted several airstrikes in Yemen under the pretext of targeting “terrorist threats.” However, resistance groups and Yemeni civil society organizations have condemned these attacks as unjustified aggression against civilians and those US strikes might now have been the last ones too, but that’s another story I’ll cover separately from this.
A particularly severe round of US airstrikes though was launched on the port of Hodeidah—one of the few remaining lifelines for Yemen’s already devastated civilian population, still recovering from the years of war with Saudi Arabia as they are. These attacks have drawn fierce criticism from across the region, with commentators highlighting the lack of strategic clarity, the Americans, like everyone else are striking in civilian areas where they have no idea where the Houthis actually are.
Though the Houthis’ claim that their actions will lead to mass reverse migration may sound like propaganda to some, statistical data suggests that Israel is indeed facing a surge in emigration. According to recent figures, nearly 83,000 Israelis left the country in 2024—a record-setting number. Many of these departures have been driven by fears of security deterioration, political extremism within the Israeli government, and the economic impacts of prolonged war, as Israel’s economy tanks even further.
As Israel becomes increasingly more volatile internally, as it comes in for yet more criticism externally, its demographic future looks uncertain. The start-up nation for Zionists has become a fortress state, one where growing numbers of young professionals and middle-class citizens are considering futures abroad and getting the hell out of dodge.
The Houthis’ rhetoric taps into this anxiety, their actions arguably even more so. They argue that as long as Israel continues its occupation of Palestinian lands and commits such barbaric atrocities in Gaza, no amount of technological superiority will ensure its long-term viability. Whether or not their missile program can actually enforce a total aerial blockade will remain to be seen, but if a poor nation, with a military force that gets underestimated time after time, invariably to the cost of their opponents like the Houthis can do what they’ve done already, you don’t feel confident betting against do you? But the psychological effect—of watching an expanding number of Israelis flee their homeland—has already taken root and can only grow with the direction Netanyahu is dragging the country in.
From a strategic standpoint, Israel now faces a multi-front conflict, all of its own doing of course, in a way it has not had to deal with for decades. In addition to its operations in Gaza, it must contend with threats from Hezbollah in the north in Lebanon, who’s patience is wearing thin, and now a resurgent and emboldened Houthi threat from the south. There is Hamas in Gaza, other forces in the West Bank. I won’t say Syria, Al Sharaa only attacks his own people, not Israel for invading after all.
So what is Israel going to do about all of this then? An obvious move seems to be the continued military escalation in Yemen and increased diplomatic pressure on the United States and Europe to further isolate the Houthis and their allies. Already, Israeli officials have ramped up calls for designating the Houthis as a terrorist organisation more widely, but the US might have walked away from that table now. Domestically, Israel may use this external threat to justify even more repressive measures against Palestinians and dissenting citizens, but frankly with full plans to annex Gaza entirely now, where do they escalate from there?
Reacting like this, which seems predictable will only deepen the crisis they’re in here. Military responses have failed to deter Houthi advances so far, and diplomatic isolation is unlikely to be effective against a movement that thrives on local legitimacy and plenty of regional support – global support these days even.
What we are witnessing is not simply a momentary escalation but the unfolding of a whole new phase in the Israel-Palestine conflict—one in which non-state actors like the Houthis are increasingly taking centre stage. They certainly operate outside of the traditional norms of state diplomacy and military engagement. They are networked, ideological, and increasingly technologically capable. Their resistance is not just military, but psychological and narrative—they are challenging Israel’s right to operate as an unaccountable occupying power without consequence.
By declaring an aerial blockade and striking one of Israel’s most important and well protected civilian infrastructures, the Houthis are effectively saying: no more business as usual. No more impunity. And if Israel chooses to escalate, it may find itself in a prolonged and unpredictable struggle with adversaries it can neither bomb into submission nor isolate diplomatically.
The Houthis have forced the world to pay attention, not just to the missiles—but to the misery, the occupation, and the growing will to resist. It’s only going to become all the more inexcusable for countries and heads of state who continue to choose to do nothing to stop it.
For more on the events leading up to and the actual strike on ben Gurion airport itself, please do check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit, like, share and subscribe if you haven’t done so already, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on all new daily content as well as support the channel at the same time which is very much appreciated, holding power to account for ordinary working class people and I will hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.