Having become “indispensable” to Iran after the hard blows inflicted on its Palestinian and Lebanese allies, the Houthi rebels in Yemen say they want to maintain pressure on Israel despite the truce agreement in the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian territory, the Houthis have fired dozens of missiles and drones towards Israel and targeted ships they believe are linked to it in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Israel. 'Aden.
Claiming to act in support of the Palestinians, they remain difficult to counter despite repeated strikes carried out by Israel, the United States and sometimes the United Kingdom against their positions.
Coming from northern Yemen, the Houthis ousted the Yemeni government from Sanaa in 2014 and have since seized large swathes of the territory, with the support of Tehran, Israel's sworn enemy.
They are part of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance” against Israel, which also brings together the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Iraqi groups and Lebanese Hezbollah.
But unlike the latter, who have been weakened in recent months by Israel, the Houthis “have strengthened and are now an indispensable member of the axis”, underlines Thomas Juneau, professor at the University of Ottawa.
Consequently, they “have become much more important for Iran”, underlines this Yemen specialist.
The fight against Israel and its American ally in the war in Gaza has also earned them renewed popularity in Yemen, a very poor country whose 30 million inhabitants are largely committed to the Palestinian cause.
On Friday, their military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, reported three new attacks against Israel and a fourth targeting an American aircraft carrier in the Red Sea. These attacks have not been confirmed by the Israeli or American military.
The leader of the rebels, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, had warned the day before that stopping the attacks would depend on Israel respecting the truce agreement in Gaza.
“We will follow the stages of the implementation of the agreement, and if there is the slightest Israeli violation, massacre or siege, we will be ready” to react, he declared in a speech broadcast on the channel rebel television.
-A “defiant” speech in which Abdel Malek al-Houthi signaled that his movement would continue to mobilize fighters and develop its military arsenal in preparation for the “next round of confrontation”, comments Mohammed Al-Basha, founder of Basha Report, a risk consultancy firm based in the United States.
– “Popular momentum” –
On Friday, a movement brought together thousands of Yemenis in areas under Houthi control, notably in Sanaa. Like every week for 15 months, a human tide invaded the center of the capital, held with an iron fist by the rebels.
“We are here to celebrate the victory (of the Palestinians) and those of our missiles and our drones which forced Israel to stop its aggression against Gaza,” said one of the demonstrators, Zeid al-Astout.
Further away, a Houthi supporter, Khaled al-Matri, says he supports the truce agreement announced on Wednesday. But “we will not give in, until the disappearance of the Zionist entity, God willing”, he adds, before chanting “Death to America, death to Israel”.
In Hodeida, a city in the west of the country also controlled by the Houthis, some residents are more critical.
“The Houthis have never done anything positive. Their support for Gaza is the only thing that allows them to improve their image,” says Assem Mohammed, 36.
Hanaa Abdel Rahmane, a teacher in Hodeida, fears that the Houthis will seek at all costs to maintain “the popular momentum obtained thanks to their support for Palestine”, at the risk of aggravating reprisals on a Yemen already devastated by ten years of civil war.
According to Thomas Juneau, the attacks could stop “in the short term” after the planned entry into force of the truce on Sunday and the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
But “given their regional objectives and ideology, it is likely that later they will again use the threat of attacks in the Red Sea to put pressure on Israel”, or the United States.
