The Houthis would have launched missiles invisible to radar against Israel

Yemen’s Houthis announced for the first time an attack on Israel coordinated with allies in Iraq, namely the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq”, an umbrella organization of Shiite paramilitary groups linked to Iran. The attack would also have involved a new type of missile, the “Palestine”, with unique and technologically advanced characteristics.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi militias, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, announced on Thursday: “Today at dawn, our military forces began coordinated operations with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, carrying out a major operation towards the port of Haifa” .

“The Yemeni Armed Forces conducted two military operations coordinated with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance. The first targeted two ships carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa,” a Houthi military statement said.

However, the Israel Defense Forces quickly released a statement denying that there had been a successful attack on the port of Haifa, which is located in the north of the country.

Reaching Haifa would have been a significant long-range achievement, but there is no evidence of this yet.

Iraqi militants aligned with Tehran have conducted several attempted drone or missile operations against Israel since October 7, with the projectiles often intercepted once they came close to Israeli airspace.

The Houthis also fired missiles into southern Israel, which fell in the desert or were intercepted by the country’s considerable anti-aircraft capabilities.

Yemen’s Houthis currently claim to have carried out the following operations in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea and Mediterranean in the past 30 days alone:

• they launched 91 ballistic missiles
  38 operations against ships
• presented and launched a long-range ballistic missile capable of evading radar

The Houthis said they had already fired the new “Palestine” missile on Monday at the port of Eilat in the southern Gulf of Aqaba, Israel. According to a description and some details from the Associated Press:

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have unveiled a new solid-fuel missile in their arsenal that resembles some aspects of a missile previously displayed by Iran that Tehran has described as capable of flying at hypersonic speeds.

… Footage released by the Houthis late Wednesday shows Palestine being lifted onto what appears to be a mobile launcher and quickly rising into the air with plumes of white smoke coming from its engine. White smoke is common on solid-fuel missiles.

There is widespread suspicion that the Houthis obtained the technology or even the entire missile and its components from Iran. There also remains deep skepticism about whether the Houthis actually possess hypersonic missiles capable of evading radar.