The Houthis in Yemen threatened new attacks against Israel on Saturday following overnight Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, even as a ceasefire in Gaza took effect after Israel approved a hostage-release deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Senior Houthi official Hazam al-Assad, who frequently posts in Hebrew on the social platform X, accused Israel of aggression, writing that “Zionist aggression struck the al-Musayla area before dawn. It seems they want to go back into their shelters.”
Aftermath of the IDF strike in southern Lebanon
Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen network, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, reported that the Israeli strikes targeted bulldozers and other engineering equipment between the villages of Masilakh and Najariya in southern Lebanon. Ali Shoeib, a correspondent for Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV, said 10 separate strikes occurred in the area and claimed that a vehicle carrying vegetables was hit after entering the strike zone.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed and seven others were wounded. A nearby road was closed after the strikes. At the same time, local media reported drone attacks on a building in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta ash-Shab.
The Houthis’ threat came despite their earlier praise for the Israel-Hamas deal. Analysts, however, say the group is unlikely to halt its attacks.
“The ongoing conflict with Israel is more of a necessity for the Houthis than a tactic or strategy,” a Yemeni political and military analyst told Ynet on Thursday. “They benefit from maintaining the confrontation by reinforcing their narrative that they are fighting the United States and Israel, using it to avoid dealing with domestic issues.”
The analyst added that the Houthis have accumulated “excess power” after years of channeling economic, media and religious resources toward military activity. “They will not stop their confrontation with Israel unless they decide to redirect that power toward defeating their local rivals in Yemen,” he said. “If they go that route, it could pause attacks on Israel temporarily — but that shift, while convenient for Israel in the short term, could have even more dangerous long-term consequences.”
“If the Houthis defeat their domestic opponents,” he continued, “they will return to provoking Israel and find justification to renew hostilities. In that case, Israel would have to deal with them across all of Yemen, not just in areas they currently control — and the cost would be much higher.”
He concluded that the Houthi threat would not end even if Trump’s ceasefire plan succeeds. “The Houthis could evolve from being a nuisance into a persistent existential threat driven by their religious beliefs and long-term political ambitions,” he said.