Besides Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria, Israel is targeting the Houthis in Yemen for their several attacks on Israel.

Since the Israeli-Hamas war that commenced after the October 7 attack, the Houthis, a Shia Islamist political and military organisation movement that emerged from Yemen in the 1990s and is also backed by Iran, have been rocketing Israel with assaults. Egypt was a target as well because most of the failed rockets have been landing in many Egyptian cities in the Red Sea areas, like Nuweibaa and Ras Sedr.

Similar to Hezbollah, the Houthis support Hamas in their conflict with Israel, deliberately ambushing Israel to diminish their power against Hamas in Gaza.

This time Israel couldn’t sit still unless it carried out its retaliatory action when a Houthi drone launched from Yemen burst into Tel Aviv on July 19. It was tracked by the Israeli Air Force for at least six minutes before the attack that killed an Israeli man and wounded others, according to an initial probe carried out by the military. A day later, on July 20, Israel detonated the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, which was awash with oil.

“In the port area, we targeted dual-use terrorist infrastructure, including energy infrastructure,” the head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Avichay Adraee, stated on his X account.

“Houthi terrorism is directed and funded by Iran and harms freedom of navigation, the region’s ports, the Suez Canal, and all global trade,” he added.

Adraee assured that Israel expects the countries in the world affected by Houthi terrorism directed by Iran to stand united in the face of this terrorism. “This is a common international interest.”

In another post, Adraee elaborated that the Houthis have rocketed around 200 missiles in the last few months all over Israel. Most of the threats were intercepted or shot down by the international coalition led by the US Central Command and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The IDF has targeted the port from more than 1,700 kilometres away.

There have been reports and assumptions roaming around that Saudi Arabia has opened its airspace for Israel to strike Yemen. Those have been on the rise because Israeli politicians on X have thanked the country, and many Arabs expressed their gleeful demeanour for bringing down this movement.

“Saudi Arabia is not linked to or participating in targeting Hodeidah in Yemen, Ministry of Defence spokesperson Turki al-Malki says. Saudi Arabia will not allow its airspace to be infiltrated by any party,” he affirmed.

Egypt expressed its deep concern over the Israeli military operations in Yemen, which are escalating tensions on all fronts, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emigration, and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs.

For nine months, the Red Sea was a tumultuous region. Houthis have been obstructing ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, where it is routed to the Suez Canal. They have been doing this assuming that these ships are connected to Israel, the United States, or Britain to provide more supply. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the war, including some bound for Iran, which backs the Houthis.

They even impose fees of around 500, 000 US dollars in order to let the passing European ships continue their route safety, according to the Sheba Intelligence agency. It has been reported by the agency that the money paid by European ships goes to external bank accounts belonging to companies owned and managed by the official spokesman for the Houthi group, Mohammed Abdel Salam.

Before the war, 60 ships were crossing the Bab al-Mandab Strait in both directions. But now about 12 ships pass this vital waterway every day. The Suez Canal has also been negatively affected by this ongoing crisis, making the canal lose 40% from the beginning of the year compared to 2023, canal authority head Osama Rabie stated. Ship traffic was down 30% in the period between Jan. 1 and Jan. 11 compared to a year prior, Rabie added. The number of vessels to pass through the Suez Canal has dropped to 544 so far this year from 777 in the equivalent period of 2023.

Israel has been contending with many sides besides its ground operation in Gaza. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis are all backed by Iran in the region. Israel has been shooting them in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and then Yemen. Israel never stops hitting Gaza, as Hamas hideouts in the tunnels are popping out from time to time especially in Khan Younis.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the importance of Rafah crossing control under Israeli authorities. There was an American proposal for temporary management of the Rafah crossing, which would take place during the first phase of the Gaza truce and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, which is supposed to last for 6 weeks, according to a Palestinian source to Al-Sharq News (Arabic version).

The Palestinian Authority rejected it, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal from Rafah and its border crossing with Gaza so that the crossing could be operated by a declared Palestinian administration.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, a day before Israel’s attack on Houthis, to end its activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The court has marked Israel’s existence as illegal, and it should withdraw its troops from Gaza as soon as possible.

The war in Gaza is expected to continue until the rest of 2024, as announced by Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, and it might even extend until early 2025. “The Israeli army is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi Route,” Hanegbi claimed. “I believe we will be in control of it all with time.”

Hanegbi added that in tandom with the Egyptians, they shall prevent any smuggling between Egypt and Gaza in the future.

On the other side, Egypt reinstated that they won’t allow any cooperation with Israel in Gaza unless the strip is back again under Palestinian authority. They reiterated their stance with the latest ICJ statement this month, adding that Palestinian borders should return to those before 1967, whereas East Jerusalem, which is known in Arabic as Al Quds, is the capital of the state.

Israel’s economy is making slow progress rather than a deep collapse. The Bank of Israel’s growth projection for 2024 is 2%, while the Finance Ministry’s estimate is lower at 1.6%. GDP remained 2.8% below its pre-war level in the third quarter of last year, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which downgraded its 2024 growth forecast for Israel to 1.2% from 1.6%.

Surprisingly, Israel’s currency is at 3.63 shekels against the USD pre-war and after-war. Also, Israel’s annual inflation rate remained unchanged at 2.8% in May 2024, lower than market expectations of a 3.1% increase.

All of Israel’s force is poured into the military sector after the October 7 attack, as military service is obligatory for many citizens since the country is in regular wars.