The battle-tested Yemeni Houthis seem eager to take a lead among Iran’s anti-Israel, America-hating Mideast proxies, publicly claiming responsibility for the first time for aiming a long-range missile at the Jewish state. 

Yemen perennially suffers famine, water shortages, natural disasters, deep poverty, and endless wars. Even though it is situated more than 900 miles away from Israel, though, the Houthis have long adopted the Palestinian cause as their own. The group’s trademark slogan reads: “Allah is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.” 

“We launched a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Zionist enemy in the Palestine Occupied Territories,” the Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement Tuesday. 

Mr. Saree called the attack “the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine,” and vowed to follow through with similar attacks as long as Israel maintains its “aggression” in Gaza. 

On October 19, the USS Carney intercepted Houthi missiles aimed at Israel. Interceptions of missiles and drones from Yemen were also reportedly carried out by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, Israel unveiled its Arrow anti-missile system, which is designed to intercept ballistic missiles.

The Houthis’ 1,000-mile-range surface-to-surface missile was aimed Tuesday at Israel’s southernmost city, Eilat, where many of those who fled their burnt and ransacked homes near the Gaza border are sheltering. 

“This is unacceptable,” the national security adviser, Tsachi Hengebi, said, adding, “I will not use this forum to telegraph to our enemies the punishment they would undergo if they continue.” While Yemen is far away, Israeli security officials hint that the IDF has the capacity to hit missile launchers there.

Yet, some are looking at the bigger picture. “This, of course, is Iran,” a senior member of the Knesset’s foreign and security committee, Danny Danon, tells the Sun. “We may decide to take action against Iranian targets. These targets don’t necessarily need to be on Iranian soil. They could include Hezbollah or other Iranian assets around the world.”

While “we are concentrating on Gaza, regional forces are attempting to divert our attention,” the IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Danial Hagari, said Tuesday. The army’s air and naval forces, in coordination with America’s Central Command, can defend against far-flung enemies while Israel attacks Hamas in Gaza, he said.   

Beside the Houthis, Hezbollah has continuously used mortars and anti-tank missiles to attack targets in northern Israel. So far at least 47 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Israeli counterattacks, and the Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has been careful to limit the scope of his attacks. He is expected to deliver a speech on Friday, which may change his posture.  

Iran seems intent on using its proxies to widen the war. “By now, the Houthis have struck or attempted to strike at American positions, as well as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and now Israel,” an Iran watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, says. Tehran “uses one proxy to bail out another,” he adds. 

Several groups in Iraq and Syria, as well as other terrorist cells around the world, are harassing American and Israeli targets while keeping their heaviest assets out of battle, perhaps for later use. At the same time, Iran’s Yemeni pet proxy seems more ambitious. 

The Houthis emerged as a major power in Yemen 10 years ago and soon managed to capture the capital, Sanaa. Iran realized that the group, a Shia offshoot, could be useful to enhance its Mideast expansionist goals. It trained, indoctrinated, and armed the Houthis with mid- and long-range missiles, which were used to attack Saudi oil fields and targets in the United Arab Emirates. 

As the Houthi slogan makes clear, Israel is the Iranian proxies’ immediate target, but the West is also in the crosshairs. While President Biden removed the Houthis from the Department of State’s terrorist list after it was added by President Trump, “death to America” is integral to its battle cry. 

“The Gaza invasion is carried out with the support of the United States and the involvement of some regimes,” the spokesman, Mr. Saree, said Tuesday. The implied threat is widely shared by other Iranian proxies seeking revenge for America’s support of Israel.

“We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago,” the FBI chief, Christopher Wray, told the Senate’s homeland security committee Tuesday. 

American troops are stationed in the region to fight ISIS, and their mission is “distinct” from the war in Gaza, the Pentagon’s spokesman, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said Tuesday. As the Houthi attack shows, Iran proxies make no such distinction, ever raising the risk of an all-encompassing Mideast war.