Yemen's Houthis have launched strikes at Israel during the war in Gaza. What threat do they pose?
Yemen have chanted slogans at their mass rallies calling for the destruction of Israel. But they never acted on it until the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.
Since then, the Iran-backed Shiite Muslim force has launched at least six drone and missile attacks toward southern Israel, causing little to no damage.
Most have been intercepted by Israeli air defenses on their journey of over 1,600 kilometers (960 miles) from northern Yemen.
The Houthis said the barrage is in retaliation for the Israeli army's bombardment of Gaza and will continue until «Israeli aggression stops.» Here's a look at the attacks and what threat they pose.
THE REBELS WHO SEIZED SANAA In 2014, the Houthis swept from their stronghold in Yemen's northern mountains and seized the capital, Sanaa, along with other central areas of the country.
The Islamist group follows the Shiite Zaydi faith, a branch of Shiite Islam almost exclusively found in northwest Yemen. The majority of Yemen's population are Sunni Muslim, but Zaydis make up a large minority. The Houthi movement was fueled by decades of marginalization by Yemen's ruling elite.
Their takeover sparked a brutal civil war.
Saudi Arabia and its allies formed a military coalition to back the government that was driven out of Sanaa to the south. Yemen became another front in the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The war has killed more than 150,000 people and created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.
The Houthi movement espouses a hard-line Islamist ideology.
Over time, it has hardened its anti-American, anti-Saudi and anti-Israeli rhetoric. Their official slogan reads «God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel. Curse the Jews, victory to Islam.»
WHY
