AP
Dubai
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-old war in the Middle East on Saturday by claiming a missile launch that Israel said it intercepted. Pakistan said regional powers plan to meet Sunday on how to end the war, while Iran expressed skepticism about the diplomatic efforts.
The war has threatened global supplies of oil, natural gas and fertilizer and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states.
The Houthis’ entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea.
There could be limited relief in sight after Iran on Friday agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of Hormuz following a request from the United Nations.
Israeli airstrikes continued Saturday. Associated Press footage showed smoke rising from northeastern Tehran. Iran fired missiles toward Israel, and Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said 11 people were lightly wounded in a town near Jerusalem.
Houthi Brig Gen Yahya Saree said on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television station that they launched a barrage of ballistic missiles toward what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
Sirens went off around Beer Sheba and near Israel’s main nuclear research center as Iran. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants also fired on Israel overnight.
If the Houthis increase attacks on commercial shipping, as they have in the past, it would further push up oil prices and destabilize “all of maritime security,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International
Crisis Group. “The impact would not be limited to the energy market.”
Countries have scrambled for alternative routes to the Strait of Hormuz. Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is crucial for vessels heading to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea and Saudi Arabia has been sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through it because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.
About 12% of the world’s trade typically passes through Bab el-Mandeb and about 10% of global maritime trade – including 40% of container ship traffic – passes through the Suez Canal each year.
Houthi rebels attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels, between November 2023 and January 2025, saying it was attacking in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during the war there between Israel and Hamas.
The Houthis’ involvement also would complicate the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the aircraft carrier that arrived in Croatia on Saturday for repairs. Sending the carrier to the Red Sea could draw attacks similar to those experienced by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2024 and the USS Harry S Truman in 2025.
The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014. Saudi Arabia launched a war against the Houthis on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government in 2015, and the rebels had stayed out of the current conflict due to their uneasy ceasefire with Saudi Arabia.
