Up until October 2023, Yemen’s Houthi movement and its elusive leader were little known in the Global North. Rising to power in the country’s north during the 2011 Arab Spring, the movement eventually forced out the Saudi-backed government in 2021, and now control most of Yemen.
But it’s Abdul-Malik’s recent efforts to interfere with Israel’s war machine that has got the world suddenly talking about the Houthis. Using Yemen’s strategic position in the Red Sea, the Houthi leader has sent airstrikes into Israel and targeted Israeli-connected shipping heading for the Suez Canal. Between January and November 2024, the group managed to sink two ships and damage 80 others, virtually shutting down the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat, which has since declared bankruptcy. In response the US and Britain have fired missiles into Yemen.
