The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen toward Israel early Saturday, the first time it had encountered fire from that country.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, raising questions about whether the Tehran-backed rebel group will again target commercial ships passing through the Red Sea corridor.
Sirens sounded around Beersheba and the area near Israel’s main nuclear research center for the third time Friday night into Saturday, as Iran and Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel through the night.
The Houthis have controlled the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, since 2014, and until now have stayed out of the war as the rebels have had an uneasy ceasefire for years with Saudi Arabia, which launched a war against the group on behalf of the exiled Yemeni government in 2015.
Attacks on ships during the war between Israel and Hamas led to an increase in shipping traffic in the Red Sea, through which goods worth a trillion dollars passed annually before the war. The rebels also launched drones into Israel.
Israel bombed Iranian nuclear facilities hours after threatening to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran on Friday.
Iran vowed to retaliate and struck a base in Saudi Arabia, wounding US service members and damaging aircraft.
Dean. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, made the claim in a statement Saturday on the rebels’ Al-Masirah satellite channel.
Sarie said that they fired a barrage of ballistic missiles targeting what he described as “sensitive Israeli military sites” in southern Israel.
The attack came hours after Sarri indicated in a vague statement on Friday that the rebels would join the war that has shocked the region and rocked the global economy.
In 2024, the Trump administration launched strikes against the Houthis that ended weeks later. The US-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense naval battle the Navy has faced since World War II.
Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 commercial ships with missiles and drones, sinking two ships and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January 2025.
This would cause further chaos in global shipping, which is already suffering from Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas once passed.
Potential Houthi involvement in the war would also complicate the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which went to the port of Crete on Monday for repairs.
Returning the aircraft carrier to the Red Sea could draw it into the same high tempo of attacks seen by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2024 and the USS Harry S. Truman in the US campaign against the Houthis in 2025.
Before the attack from Yemen, there appeared to be a breakthrough as Tehran agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, accepting a request from the United Nations. Ali Bahraini, the country’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Iran had agreed to “facilitate and accelerate” such a movement.
This vital waterway usually passes through a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and about a third of the world’s fertilizer trade. While markets and governments have largely focused on blocked supplies of oil and natural gas, restrictions on fertilizer ingredients and trade threaten agriculture and food security around the world.
“This action reflects Iran’s continued commitment to supporting humanitarian efforts and ensuring that essential aid reaches those in need without delay,” Bahraini said on the X social platform. The United Nations previously announced the formation of a task force to address the ripple effects of the war on the delivery of aid.
More than two dozen American soldiers were injured in Iranian attacks on a Saudi air base last week, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Iran launched six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in an attack on Friday that wounded at least 15 soldiers, including five in serious condition, according to the people who were not allowed to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The base was attacked twice earlier this week, including an incident that injured 14 American soldiers, according to people briefed on the matter.
The base is located about 96 kilometers (60 miles) from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and is operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force, but also used by US forces.