Who are the Shia Houthis, and why are they aligned with the Sunni Palestinian Hamas?

The Israeli military action has claimed around 23,000 lives so far, most of them civilians and including a very large number of children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Relentless Israeli bombardment has reduced vast areas in the tiny Palestinian enclave to uninhabitable rubble.

Ever since the Hamas attack, there have been concerns around the conflict drawing in other countries and groups such as the Houthis, given the various alliances and rivalries that have existed for decades in the Middle East. Who are the Houthis, why have they involved themselves in the Israel-Hamas war, and what risks do the latest escalation pose?

First, why have the US and the UK launched strikes on Houthi positions along Yemen’s western coast (and deeper inland)?

On January 11, President Joe Biden said in a statement that the strikes were conducted with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands “against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways”.

Over 60 targets across 16 Iranian-backed Houthi militant locations were struck, the US Air Force Central Commander said in a statement.

Biden said the strikes were a direct response to the “unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea — including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history”. More than 50 countries have been affected in 27 attacks, and crews from more than 20 countries have been threatened or taken hostage in acts of piracy, he said.

Biden specifically mentioned the attack of January 9, the largest so far, using drones, antiship cruise missiles, and an antiship ballistic missile, which were intercepted by the US and British militaries.

And why are these attacks such a cause of concern for the West?

Around 12 per cent of the world’s trade passes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal that connects the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean. After the Houthi attacks began around November 19, several major shipping and oil companies have announced they were pausing movement on this East-West passage.

Map showing the Red Sea. (Via US Energy Information Administration)

Concerns over the safety of vessels have meant that some ships have had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. This route around the African continent takes much longer, and leads to higher costs of fuel.

While the Houthis initially said they were targeting Israel-linked ships, they have also attacked vessels registered in other countries, and carrying crews of other nationalities. In December, a Liberia-flagged merchant vessel, MV Chem Pluto, carrying a crew of 22 (of which 21 were Indians), came under a drone attack around 220 nautical miles southwest of Porbandar, Gujarat, while it was on its way to New Mangalore.

Who are the Houthis and why are they getting involved in the Israel-Hamas war?

The Houthis are a militant group that has been fighting the civil war in Yemen for a decade. After they seized power in the capital Sana’a in 2014, a Saudi-UAE alliance attempted to dislodge them. The Houthis now control northern Yemen, including Sana’a, and have a presence in most regions of the country. The earlier government now operates out of the port of Aden.

“Tribal and regional identities clearly overlap and have been at the core of struggles for political power in Yemen for decades. More recently, sectarian factors have become more pertinent, and religious education has played a growing role in political conflicts,” a report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted.

The Houthis are Shia, and are backed with arms and finances by the Shia regime in Tehran. Iran’s great regional rival, Sunni-majority Saudia Arabia, along with Western allies like the US, backs the Yemen government.

Though Hamas is a Sunni organisation, it is backed by Iran because of their mutual opposition to the US and Israel. The Houthis’ support for Palestine and the Yemen conflict are both, therefore, also a manifestation of existing regional rivalries. The Iranian regime also backs and funds the Shia militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been taking on the Israeli defence forces in the north of the country.

So what are the concerns for the region now?

Last month, the US launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a coalition of more than 20 countries with a commitment to maritime security in the region. However, many partner countries were reluctant to send military ships or personnel in large numbers to the region. This was an indication that most allies of the US remain extremely wary about provoking or being involved in a wider conflict in the Middle East with dangerous and unpredictable outcomes.

The US has itself repeatedly warned of a spread of the conflict beyond the borders of Israel and Gaza, but the action against the Houthis suggests they are willing to risk the costs arising out of retaliation to repeated provocation.

After the US-led strikes, a Houthi spokesperson said it was “not possible to not respond to these operations”, Al Jazeera reported. Iranian state media described the attacks as a violation of Yemen’s sovereignty and international laws, and Hamas called it an “act of terrorism”.

The Saudis have been negotiating with the Houthis for an end to the civil war in Yemen with the mediation of Oman and the United Nations. Houthi negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam had told Reuters recently that the Red Sea attacks had no impact on the peace process, “unless the Americans want to move other countries in the region to defend Israel which is another matter”.

It is unclear what the fallout will be on the Yemeni peace negotiations.

Meanwhile, Russia has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the strikes — and France, the current Council president, has said the meeting would take place on Friday (January 12) afternoon. On January 10, the 15-member UNSC passed a resolution condemning the Houthi attacks “in the strongest terms”. No member voted against, and Russia and China abstained.