Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claim missile launches towards Israel

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-long war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming two missile launches at Israel.

About 2,500 US Marines arrived in the region and Pakistan’s government said regional powers plan to meet on Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting.

The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertiliser shortages and disrupted air travel.

Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices, while the United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states. More than 3,000 people have been killed.

The Houthis’ entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world’s trade typically passes.

There could be limited relief after Iran on Friday agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the strait following a United Nations request. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has given Iran until April 6 to reopen the strait.

Witnesses in Tehran reported heavy strikes late on Saturday. Israel’s military earlier said it targeted Iran’s naval weapons production facilities and that it would finish attacking essential weapons production sites within “a few days.”

The US said it has struck more than 11,000 Iranian targets in the war.

Iran fired missiles towards Israel, while air defences early on Sunday intercepted missiles and drones across Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Two Israeli strikes early on Sunday in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians, including three policemen.

One attack hit a police checkpoint while another hit a group of people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes.

Israel’s military said early on Sunday that a soldier had been killed while three others were wounded in combat in southern Lebanon.

The death raised the total to five Israeli soldiers killed there since the conflict with Hezbollah reignited on March 2.

Houthi Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite television station that they launched missiles toward “sensitive Israeli military sites” in the south.

If the Houthis increase attacks on commercial shipping, as they have in the past, it would further push up oil prices and destabilise “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.”

The Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is crucial for vessels heading to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has been sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through it because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.

Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels, between November 2023 and January 2025. The group said it acted in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

The Houthis’ latest involvement would complicate the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the aircraft carrier that arrived in Croatia on Saturday for maintenance.

Sending the ship to the Red Sea could draw attacks similar to those on 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 they now have an uneasy ceasefire.