Tel Aviv – Yemen's Houthi leadership is reduced in size in Jerusalem as negotiations for a hostage ceasefire between Israel and Hamas take place in the Gaza Strip and a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon largely holds. There is an opportunity to commit additional military resources to this end. to a former Israeli official.
“Israel must accelerate and expand its attacks.” [in Yemen]Not just the national infrastructure, but the political leadership as well,” retired Major General Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli military intelligence and chairman of MIND Israel, told FOX News Digital.
“Targeted killings are also an option, provided we have good intelligence to enable such operations. The Houthi leadership should meet with Sinwar and Nasrallah, and the sooner the better,” he said. added.
US Navy ships repel Houthi attack in Gulf of Aden
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu split the screen with Houthi leader Abdul Malik Badruddin al-Houthi. (Getty Images)
On September 28, an Israeli Defense Force airstrike killed Hezbollah terrorist mastermind Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon, and on October 17, Israeli ground forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. , and finally eliminated Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas in Iran. summer.
Houthi terrorist leaders:
The Houthis are led by Abdul Malik Badruddin al-Houthi (Abu Jibril), who the U.S. State Department designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2021.
Other executives include Abdul Khaliq Badruddin al-Houthi (Abu Yunis), commander of the Republican Guards (Presidential Reserve Forces), according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), and the U.S. Blacklisted. Muhammad Ali Al Houthi (Abu Ahmad), Member of the Supreme Political Council. and Abdul Karim Amiruddin Hussain Al Houthi, Minister of Interior and Director of Ansar Allah Administration.
An undated photo of Houthi terrorist leader Abdul Malik Badruddin al-Houthi. FDD's Long War Journal notes that he was designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the State Department in 2021. (FDD's long war diary)
Joe Truzman, a research analyst with FDD's Long War Journal, told FOX News Digital that intelligence operations take time and that Israelis have been preoccupied with Gaza and Lebanon. spoke.
“But it is possible. We have seen Israel target Iranian nuclear scientists and military personnel. This could be replicated in Yemen. If the Houthis continue with these attacks, Israel The focus will be even more on them,” Tolsman said.
Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidrol, Israel's former national security adviser and senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank JINSA, outlined the complexities of such an effort to FOX News Digital.
US military successfully launches airstrike against Houthi rebels in Yemen
A handout photo obtained from Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah Media Center shows a huge column of fire erupting after an IDF attack on the Yemeni rebel-held port city of Hodeidah on July 20, 2024. There is. (Ansarullah Media Center/AFP via Getty Images)
“We need to make sure there's a target where we're going to bomb. If he has three houses, how do we know which house he's in? We need real-time information.” said Amidrow, noting that it was relatively easy. Israel attacked Nasrallah from the moment its exact location was known.
“The attack took 15 to 20 minutes. [the Hezbollah headquarters] “Beirut is so close to Israel that Yemen is a major logistics operation, requiring refueling of jets, not to mention tactical issues on the ground,” he said. It requires a completely different kind of intelligence.
“Both Nasrallah and Sinwar are known enemies and we have collected intelligence on them over the years, but the Houthis were not a priority,” Amidrow continued. “The way forward is to start building bridges with people who can provide information and ramp up the collection of information.”
The IAF struck a target about 1,200 miles away in Yemen on Wednesday night after a Houthi missile hit an elementary school in Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv.
IDF profile photo of Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah. The IDF confirmed that he was killed in the September attack. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
The pre-dawn attacks were carried out in two waves, targeting the Ras Isa oil terminal in the Red Sea, the ports of Hodeidah and Salih, and the Dabang and Hajiz power plants in Sana'a, the report said.
In July, Houthi drones killed civilians in Tel Aviv, and the IAF attacked Yemen's Hodeidah port. Israeli warplanes also carried out dozens of airstrikes in the Hodeida area in September.
Overall, the Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones toward Israel since Hamas massacred 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Since then, the Houthis have also attacked more than 60 commercial ships, particularly in the port of Bab el-Mandeb, Egypt's southern maritime gateway to the Suez Canal.
“The distance to Yemen is close to the longest range ever flown by the IAF, but with increased refueling the distance could be increased further,” Brigadier General said. Gen. Relik Shafir (Re), a former International Air Force pilot who participated in Operation Opera, the attack on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981, told FOX News Digital.
“For a pilot, sitting in an F-15, F-16 or F-35 for seven hours is uncomfortable. You have to be very conscious and use the highest level of concentration,” he said. continued. “Israel is able to strike existing enemies at long ranges, and its air force uses guided missiles that fire with an accuracy of 2 to 3 feet.”
Late Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar is pictured on a poster in Tehran, Iran, on August 13, 2024. (Fateme Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the Houthis: “We will attack their strategic infrastructure and decapitate their leaders, just as we did.” uttered. [former Hamas chief Ismail] We will also do it in Haniya, Shinwar, Nasrallah, Tehran, Gaza, Lebanon, Hodeidah and Sanaa.”
Jerusalem had previously refrained from taking responsibility for the July 31 killing of Haniyeh, who was in the Iranian capital for the presidential inauguration.
On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Israelis “certainly have a right to self-defense.”
On August 1, 2024, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and his bodyguard were killed in Tehran in an assassination allegedly carried out by Israel. (Cem Tekkesinoglu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Houthis are “a danger to everyone in the Middle East,” former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevi told Fox News Digital.. ”Ultimately, most countries in the region will be interested and willing to cooperate in efforts to end these unjustified attacks. ”
Israeli airstrikes target Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa and port city of Hodeidah
Israeli Air Force planes depart for attack on Yemen. (IDF)
“Terrorist activity of any kind is a challenge that must be met with an appropriate response. The Houthis are suffering losses and if they continue to provoke us, we must do more,” Halevi said. Deaf,” he claimed.
In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched a military intervention against the Houthis at the request of then-Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, who had been expelled from Sanaa the previous September. Yemen's civil war remains at a stalemate, with the internationally recognized government based in Aden in the country's south since February 2015 and led by the Presidential Leadership Council since 2022.
Sources close to the Saudi government told Israel's Kan public broadcaster on Saturday that Jerusalem should begin assassinating Houthi leaders, while Saudi news agency Al Arabiya reported that Houthi leaders reported that they fled Sana'a because they feared they would be targeted.
“We need to better understand what are the factors that are paralyzing the Houthis' ability to operate,” former Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hrata told Fox News Digital. “That requires more intelligence, more evaluation, and coordination between different parties.”
A Houthi fighter wields a heavy machine gun mounted on a vehicle at a rally in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. (Mohamed Hammoud/Getty Images)
The big question is whether the Houthis will continue to pose a threat if Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire, Frata said.
“If Israel were to become a major enemy, it would have to, and perhaps still wants to, address this problem by committing resources that it had hoped to avoid,” he said. Ta.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged Israelis to “be patient” while hinting that Jerusalem was preparing to step up operations against the Houthis.
“We will take strong, determined and sophisticated action. It may take time, but the result will be the same,” he vowed. “Just as we have acted strongly against the Iranian Axis of Evil terrorist organizations, we will also act against the Houthis.”
