By Alberto Giovanelli
A photograph distributed by the Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah Media Center shows a huge fire erupting after reported attacks on the Yemeni rebel-held port city of Hodeidah, Sana’a airport and several power plants on May 5. Thus, Zionist violence is also spreading outside the Palestinian territory. US logistical support has been decisive in the bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen.
Tel Aviv justifies these bombings as retaliation for the recent missile launches from Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. But they are part of the same regional war plan, applied in Syria, Lebanon, etc, to crush anyone who questions Israel’s military supremacy in the Middle East and the Zionist extermination plans. The US has also been maintaining a military offensive of proportions on Yemen due to the control exercised by the Houthi army over the Red Sea, although it has recently announced a “ceasefire”.
Days earlier a drone loaded with explosives hit Ben Gurion airport in central Tel Aviv. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to continue targeting Tel Aviv and claim that their drones are not detected by Israeli radars.
This unprecedented attack on the capital of the Zionist occupation increases settlers’ fears about the real security provided by Iron Dome (an Israeli air defense system that intercepts missiles, planes and drones).
The incident is part of a series of attacks that reflect the resistance against the Zionist colonial occupation in the region. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been expanding the genocide against Palestinians, which may have exceeded 180,000 deaths. The Houthis are part of this resistance against this colonial oppression. Since November they have launched more than 200 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against Israel, intensifying their solidarity efforts with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In Yemen, bombings were also reported in the port of Hodeidah, a city in the west of the country, located on the Red Sea, killing 6 people and injuring 87. This port is the main gateway for humanitarian aid and 70% of the imports of Yemen, which is considered the poorest of the Arab countries, so humanitarian aid plays a fundamental role in the survival of the population.
Once again, Israel is using the pretext of “fighting terrorism” to implement a policy of genocide of Arabs by starvation, as it does with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
What are the Houthis and how did they emerge?
The Houthis are one more of the Arab organizations that confront Israel beyond words, and with whom, although we have strategic differences, we agree to confront the Zionist enemy.
The Houthis are an armed political and religious group that defends Yemen’s Shiite Muslim minority, the Zaidi.
They claim to be part of the Iranian-led “axis of resistance” and maintain political ties with Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
Formally known as Ansar Allah (Supporters of God), the group emerged in the 1990s and takes its name from the movement’s late founder, Hussein al-Houthi. The current leader is his brother, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
In the early 2000s, the Houthis waged a series of rebellions against Yemen’s long-ruling authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.
During the Arab Spring of 2011, a popular uprising forced President Saleh to hand over power to his vice president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
President Hadi’s government was overwhelmed by the problems it could never assert itself and eventually the Houthis took control of the northern province of Sa’ada before also seizing the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
In 2015, rebels seized large parts of western Yemen and strategic control of the Red Sea coast, forcing Hadi to flee abroad.
Most of Yemen’s population lives in these areas, and the Houthis run a de facto government that collects taxes and prints money.
The Houthis say they will not stop disrupting trade in the Red Sea until there is a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and claim they are targeting ships flagged, owned or operated by Israel. U.S. President Donald Trump has said in recent hours that “We are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis, effective immediately,” at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. However in a statement, theHouthisclaimed that their stance on Gazahadnotchanged and that their “initial understanding” with the United States would not affect their support for the Palestinians.
From the ISL (International Socialist League) we reaffirm our unconditional support to the Palestinian people, the Arab peoples and the peoples of the world who rise up against Zionist barbarism.
