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On March 18 and 19, 2025, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis) claimed responsibility for the launch of a "hypersonic ballistic missile" at a military base in southern Israel, and for a fourth missile-drone attack on the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier within 72 hours.[1]
Houthi Armed Forces spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yahya Sare'e announced that the Houthi forces "will expand their scope of targets in the occupied Palestine during the coming hours and days."
Houthi leader Abd Al-Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi added that they "will do everything they can against the Israeli enemy."
The following is a review of statements and remarks by senior Houthi officials on March 18 and 19, 2025:
On March 18, Brig.-Gen. Yahya Sare'e posted a message in Arabic and in English on his Telegram channel in which he stated that the Yemeni Armed Forces had "carried out an operation targeting the Nevatim Air Base [in southern Israel] using a Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missile." He added that the Houthi forces "will mobilize all their capabilities and abilities to defend and support the oppressed in Palestine... and they will continue to confront the criminal American enemy and prevent Israeli navigation until the aggression stops, the blockade is lifted, and aid is allowed into the Gaza Strip."[2]
Later that day, the IDF spokesman confirmed that Israel's air force had intercepted one missile from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory.[3]
The next day, Sare'e published another claim of responsibility for the fourth drone and missile attack in 72 hours on the USS Harry S Truman and a number of "enemy warships."
According to Sare'e, this Houthi attack had thwarted an "extensive airstrike" planned against Yemen. He reiterated that "the U.S. aggression will not deter the steadfast and struggling Yemen from fulfilling its religious, moral, and humanitarian duties toward the Palestinian people."
He also warned of an escalation of military operations against Israel "unless the brutal aggression on Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted."[4]
On March 18, in a prerecorded 38-minute video speech Al-Houthi once again accused Israel of perpetrating "genocide" in Gaza, calling its attack on and starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza completely unjustified, even if it is fighting the members of the resistance. He maintained that the entire Islamic nation has a religious obligation to assist the Palestinians and to wage jihad for Allah, and called on the Arab and Islamic world to help the Palestinians with weapons and with money, as a counterweight to the Western aid to Israel, and criticized their ineffectualness in this matter. Al-Houthi also called for a political and economic boycott of the U.S. and of Israel, and declared: "We will renew the escalation to the highest level and do everything in our power against the Israeli enemy."[5]
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