For the second time since Israel declared it was at war with Hamas early last month, the Yemeni rebel group Ansarallah, better known as the Houthi movement, launched missiles and drones at Israel on Tuesday, with several projectiles being shot down over the southern Israeli city of Eilat. However, Gen. Yahya Saree, a spokesperson for the group, claimed that at least one had struck its target.
During its eight-year-long conflict with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Ansarallah demonstrated its ability to strike targets hundreds of miles away using ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones, including Saudi Aramco petroleum sites that were defended by American anti-air systems.
The Eilat attack is the latest in a string of incidents targeting Israeli or US bases in the region, including against US troops in Syria and Iraq by local militia groups, and ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel has also struck targets in Lebanon and Syria.
Luciano Zaccara, an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a research associate professor in Gulf Politics at Qatar University, told Sputnik that Ansarallah’s declaration “underscores” how the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, has become international.
“This evolution highlights the inability of regional governments and international powers to broker even a temporary, humanitarian ceasefire, essential for preventing further devastation in Gaza and ensuring the release of hostages,” Zaccara said.
“This evolution highlights the inability of regional governments and international powers to broker even a temporary, humanitarian ceasefire, essential for preventing further devastation in Gaza and ensuring the release of hostages,” Zaccara said.
“While countries like Iran, Qatar, and Turkey have attempted mediation - as proven by the two visits of [Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein] Amirabdollahian to Doha to meet [Hamas political bureau chief Ismail] Haniyeh and three visits to Ankara, as well as the direct communication between [Iranian President Ebrahim] Raisi and [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] - the US, UK, and EU have yet to present a unified call for Israel to halt its Gaza offensive despite the visits of [US President Joe] Biden, [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen and [UK Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak to Tel Aviv,” he said. “Given this backdrop, threats, particularly from Iran, about mobilizing the 'axis of resistance' across the Middle East are becoming increasingly tangible, especially given the broader Arab states' apparent paralysis in the face of escalating Israeli actions in Gaza.”
The widening scope of attacks “directly harm the interests of countries other than Israel, including the United States and Saudi Arabia," Yoram Meital, a professor of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, told Sputnik.
Mehmet Rakipoglu, a researcher on international affairs at the London-based Dimensions for Strategic Studies think tank, said that for many groups across the region, expressing support for Palestine is “more rhetoric.” He noted, however, that if Israel “achieves serious gains in the ground operation in Gaza,” it could still be enough to spark a regional war.
After militants from Gaza broke through the Israeli border fence on October 7 and attacked several settlements near the border, killing more than 1,300 Israelis, the IDF declared a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip and severed essentially all contact with the outside world. The IDF’s bombing campaign has killed nearly 9,000 people in the three weeks since, including more than 3,000 children, prompting a global outcry and demands for a ceasefire - demands so far rebuffed by Israel and its chief benefactors, including the United States.
Late last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the opening of a “third phase” of the war: a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip by more than 300,000 IDF troops. With communications into Gaza severed, little information is known about developments in the battle, but Hamas has claimed to have put up stiff resistance to the IDF incursion, which has been mostly limited to the agricultural and suburban areas surrounding Gaza City.