Right, so the Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis have moved from shutting down commercial airspace over Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, to shutting down airspace across more airports further afield, to apparently now having sought to shut down shipping headed to the port of Haifa, all stories I’ve previously covered on this channel, but in the aftermath of the US pulling out of the Red Sea and leaving the Houthis behind as Israel’s problem, the Houthis have found a way to once again escalate and widen that aerial blockade over Israel still further and the reaction to it shows it is clearly working.
On one hand no longer is the plan to simply block Israeli airspace, but the flightpaths now used by Israel to attack Yemen are now in the target bank. Alongside that however, the shutdown of commercial aircraft flights to and from Israel have widened amid further missile strikes by the Houthis on Israel’s airspace with some airlines now saying it will be months before they resume flights.
In light of the Israeli raid desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Houthis have rinsed other Muslim states for saying nothing and have taken further steps against Israeli airspace as a result of that and just to round things out a bit more there’s the latest news in the Houthi’s increasing capabilities towards taking down Israeli fighter craft now as well. Israel are still without an answer to Ansar Allah and they are not backing down at all anytime soon.
Right, so the Houthis have announced an expanded aerial blockade against Israel, widening the remit of their obstruction even further than it already is and we had pretty much thought given it already covered all Israeli airspace anyway, that you couldn’t go further than that surely? Never underestimate a Houthi apparently, because they can and they are. Having already been targeting all commercial flight pathsto and from Israel, driving many international airlines to stop flights, suspensions being extended time and again has marked an increased significance in the group's ongoing regional response to Israel's continued military operations in Gaza, the genocide they are carrying out. The intensification of Houthi actions over the last few weeks without US involvement has led to exchanges of fire, with Houthis missile strikes on Israel being exchanged with Israel's bombardment of Houthi positions in Yemen, not least of including the destruction of aircraft at Sanaa International Airport. Rather than push the Houthis back though, they continue to not only push back, but innovate whilst they’re at it.
The Houthis, having positioned themselves as one of the few groups in the Arab world willing to confront Israel directly, right now they seem to be the only ones outside of Palestine doing so at that and have launched a series of increasingly sophisticated drone and missile attacks targeting Israeli airspace and infrastructure. The Houthis have warned in the aftermath of the departure of the US from the Red Sea that Israeli airports, most notably Ben Gurion International Airport, were now considered unsafe due to the actions of the IDF at the behest of the Israeli government. The warning followed a barrage of Yemeni missiles that set off air raid sirens across Israeli territory, triggering panic and flight suspensions, actions that have not only continued to disrupt Israel's domestic security but also sent shockwaves through global air travel systems, leading to the responses from international airlines that we have seen increasing numbers of.
The Lufthansa Group of airlines have cancelled flights currently until the Middle of June, along with the likes of ITA Airways, Air India and United Airlines. Others have cancelled flights for just a few more days, such as KLM, Transavia and Air Baltic, but others are shutting down flights for much longer, Ryanair and Air Seychelles have cancelled flights until August and Air Canada until September, many other airlines have shut down without giving any further notice as to when flights will restart, though a few have restarted flights, for example Air France, but clearly they reserve the right to cancel at a moments notice should Houthi rocket fire require it.
Ben Gurion Airport has been the principal target of the Houthi missile campaign. Strikes have triggered multiple evacuations and interruptions in Israel's civil aviation network, with sirens blaring across the Jordan Valley and northern West Bank as missiles penetrated deep into occupied territory. Of these, just a couple of days ago, the Houthis claimed to have launched another of their hypersonic missiles at Ben Gurion, showing increased escalation and a refusal to stop standing up for what they believe is right and just.
The Houthis’ actions are not without cost to themselves and the people of Yemen of course, not that this has fazed any of those concerned, with the Houthis still retaliating and mass demonstrations of the Yemeni public in support of their actions for Palestine. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly struck targets in Yemen, including a raid that heavily damaged Sanaa International Airport and destroyed commercial planes belonging to Yemenia Airlines.
In retaliation for the attack on their own airport and the symbolic desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces, led by the odious Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Houthis have escalated matters further. They have now, in addition to their aerial blockade of Israeli airspace added Israel’s national airline, El Al, to their target bank. No matter where El Al flights may be headed to or from, they may now be subject to a Houthi attack. It also came with a message for other Muslim states from the Houthi leader.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi has framed this campaign as a form of legitimate resistance against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. In a televised address, he lamented the destruction wrought upon Palestinian children and communities, accusing Israel of being "hell-bent on decimating" the children of Gaza. He further criticized the silence of the Muslim world, arguing that their inaction emboldens the Israeli regime to commit further atrocities without fear of consequence and it’s a point I find pretty difficult to argue with.
These sentiments resonate with a growing segment of the global population increasingly disillusioned with too much inaction, from nations in the Middle East being passive observers and little else, to the double standards seen in the West. The contrast between Western responses to conflicts elsewhere, Ukraine is an easy one that springs to mind and its slow to non existent and its too often complicit, handling of Israel’s actions in Gaza is infuriating more and more people. While the United States has since stepped back from direct military involvement against the Houthis, their previous attempts to neutralise Yemen's missile capabilities only temporarily delayed the group’s operations. Notably, during recent exchanges, the Houthis nearly brought down advanced US and Israeli warplanes, including F-35s and F-16s, demonstrating their escalating military capabilities and determination. It’s also led to another significant escalation as this excerpt from Press TV explains:
‘Yemen says it is working to upgrade the country’s air defense systems amid repeated Israeli attacks, vowing that they will soon turn the pride of the enemy’s aircraft into a source of mockery.
Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, said on Friday that there would soon be good news about the Israeli enemy’s aircraft involved in the aggression against Yemen.
“You will soon receive, God willing, good news about the Zionist enemy aircraft used in the aggression against our country,” President Al-Mashat said in a statement to Yemen News Agency (SABA).
He added, “Our Armed Forces, particularly our air defenses, will soon turn the enemy’s aircraft into a source of ridicule.”
“For the safety of air and maritime navigation in the areas of our Armed Forces’ operations, we have issued directives to designate the paths used by the Zionist enemy to attack our country as dangerous zones for all companies, ” he stressed.
He said Yemen’s Armed Forces are capable of dealing with hostile Israeli aircraft without causing any harm to air or maritime navigation.
The official said the army has issued directives to designate flight paths used by the Zionist regime to attack the country as dangerous zones for all companies.
Al-Mashat stressed that for their own safety, airlines must avoid routes used by Israel to strike Yemen.’
Those flightpaths from Israel to Yemen are now target zones and they are talking up their chances of making Israeli jets, those F-35s and others look ridiculous. Given the damage they’ve done in Yemen previously, it’s a bold claim, but have we not learned to not underestimate a Houthi by now?
From a logistical standpoint, Israel's aviation industry is experiencing increasing isolation. With El Al flights now potentially under threat, and international carriers unwilling to risk transiting Israeli airspace, the country’s commercial and civilian air travel is becoming increasingly untenable. The economic and psychological impacts of such disruptions are vast, particularly in a nation where air travel plays a central role in connectivity and security and an economy heavily reliant on tourism, though this was being decimated by Israel’s own hand long before the Houthis blockaded their airspace.
It is worth reflecting on how the current state of affairs challenges conventional narratives. For decades, Israel’s military supremacy and diplomatic immunity, not to mention the scale of the propaganda they coughed up have insulated it from significant external consequences, even as Palestinian suffering was mounting in the immediate aftermath of October 7th. The Houthis’ bold aerial blockade has been a game changer as the propaganda failed and the eyes of the world were opened. Go back a couple years and imagine if the Houthis had struck Israel then? Most of the world would be leaping to Israel’s defence, denouncing the Houthis as antisemitic and yet Israel’s apartheid regime was a brutal then as it is now and has been for decades as they have illegally occupied the Palestinian territories.
These developments demand more than passive observation and certainly the Houthis and their leader al-Houthi particularly are calling for that. They necessitate international discourse, especially within the Muslim world. His warning is clear: continued silence is complicity. The aerial blockade, in his framing, is not merely a military tactic but a desperate cry for justice in a world that has too often looked away and the Houthis alone are standing against right now compared to the rest of the world still just looking on.
If the current trajectory continues, we may see further degradation of air safety and more aggressive regional escalation. My sympathy with Israel is as minimal as it gets, but with escalation comes the risk of further innocent casualties, and although the Houthis actions seem more about disruption than taking lives, Israel have no such compunction when they return fire on Yemen. Israel’s ongoing campaigns in Gaza and beyond, rather than neutralising opposition, appear to be galvanizing it. The more atrocity Israel metes out in Gaza the more the Houthis will keep up the pressure, but it just the Houthis outside of Palestine doing this.
As Israel reels from the expanding aerial siege and increasing international airline disengagement, the Houthis have increasingly made Israel’s genocide of Gaza a regional issue, and through their persistent strikes and uncompromising stance, they continue to force the world to pay attention. Whether that attention translates into meaningful change remains to be seen though. In the meantime the skies over Israel maybe just got that bit more dangerous and really they only have their government to blame.
Meanwhile, support may be coming to the Houthis from another Red Sea state that nobody has been paying very much mind to at all – Eritrea. Decades of being a convenient fall guy for various nations has now put the little East African nation on the side of the Houthis and Iran and more besides, so get all the details of that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch.
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