Who are Yemen's Houthis?

An apparent drone attack – claimed by Yemen’s Houthi group – hit central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday, killing one man and slightly wounding four others, the Israeli military and emergency services said.

The explosion, which did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon.

The military spokesman of the Houthis said the group fired a drone at Tel Aviv and the city would remain a target.

Who are the Houthis?

In the late 1990s, the Houthi family in the far north of Yemen set up a religious revival movement for the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, which had once ruled Yemen but whose northern heartland had become impoverished and marginalised.

As friction with the government in the capital Sanaa grew, they fought a series of guerrilla wars with the national army and a brief border conflict with Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia.

Their leader, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, created the defiant force challenging world powers from a group of ragtag mountain fighters in sandals. Al-Houthi established a reputation as a fierce battlefield commander before emerging as head of the Houthi movement.

Under the direction of Al-Houthi, who is in his 40s, the group has grown into an army of tens of thousands of fighters and acquired a huge arsenal of armed drones and ballistic missiles. Saudi Arabia and the West say the arms come from Iran, though Tehran denies this.

Al-Houthi is known for rarely staying long in one place, for never meeting the media and for extreme reluctance to make scheduled public appearances.

In 2014, a civil war erupted in Yemen after the Houthis seized Sanaa. Worried by the growing influence of Shia Iran along its border, Saudi Arabia led a Western-backed coalition in March 2015, which intervened in support of the Saudi-backed government.

READ: Israel says Eilat Port ‘bankrupt’ after months of Houthi naval blockade

The Houthis established control over much of the north and other large population centres, while the internationally recognised government based itself in the port city of Aden.

Yemen has now enjoyed more than a year of relative calm amid a UN-led peace push, but a sharp escalation in regional tensions since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza has increased risks of a new conflict between the militia and Riyadh.

Attacks on ships

The Houthis have waded into the Gaza conflict with attacks on Israel-linked or bound ships in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea

as a show of support for Palestinians.

This has led to disruptions of global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.

The US and Britain have retaliated with air strikes against the Houthis.

The Houthis have said they will consider ending their missile and drone attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea only when Israel ends its aggression in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli resort city of Eilat on the Red Sea has also been a target of Houthi attacks, though today’s attack is the first the group has claimed against Tel Aviv.

READ: Yemen: Houthi govt. demands complete opening of Sanaa Airport

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