Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked Israel with a barrage of ballistic missiles – their first such strikes since the US-Israel war on Iran began.
Brigadier-General Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, announced the attack on Saturday on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television.
Strikes “will continue until the declared objectives are achieved, as stated in the previous statement by the armed forces, and until the aggression against all fronts of the resistance ceases”, Saree said.
The Israeli military said it intercepted one missile.
The attack came hours after Saree signaled in a vague statement on Friday that the rebels would join the war that has rattled the Middle East and shocked the global economy.
Saree said on Saturday the rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
Sirens went off around Beer Sheba and the area near Israel’s main nuclear research centre for the third time overnight Friday into Saturday as Iran and Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel.
The Houthis have held Yemen’s capital Sanaa since 2014 and so far stayed out of the US-Israel war.
The militia’s attacks on shipping vessels during the Israel-Hamas war upended commercial transit in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion worth of goods passed each year.
The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two ships and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January 2025.
In 2024, the Trump administration launched strikes against the Houthis that ended weeks later.
Mohammed Mansour, the Houthis deputy information minister, told local media on Saturday, “We are conducting this battle in stages, and closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait is among our options.”
Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry, reporting from Yemen’s capital Sanaa, said a potential naval blockade on Israel-linked ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait would hurt Israel’s economy, as about 30 percent of its imports pass through the waterway in the Red Sea.
BREAKING: Yemen's Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group has carried out its first military attack against Israel. pic.twitter.com/N8cbNVu6aq
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) March 28, 2026
