Israel Uses Its Navy to Attack Houthi Targets

The IDF has been repeatedly hitting Houthi targets from the air, including the international airport in Sanaa, the port in Ras Isa, and the port of Hodeidah, inflicting heavy damage. But the Houthis still manage to send rockets and drones into Israel, and now can do so without fear of American retaliation, as President Trump has made a deal with the Houthis to not attack them as long as they refrain from attacking American ships. Trump has thus left Israel to take on the Houthis alone.

Now the Israeli navy — that is, two of its missile boats — have been used for the first time to inflict greater pain on the Houthis in Yemen, especially on the main port of Hodeidah, which, though it has been damaged in previous airstrikes, has still not been completely closed down. More on Israel’s use of its navy can be found here: “Israel Navy attacks Houthis for first time in Hodeidah Port strike,” Jerusalem Post, June 10, 2025:

Two of Israel’s navy missile boats, one of them a Sa’ar 6, fired two long-range precision missiles from hundreds of kilometers away at the Houthi port in Hodeidah on Tuesday at around 7 a.m., marking the first time during the Israel-Hamas War that the navy has attacked Yemen.

Despite this, the Houthis managed to fire yet another ballistic missile at central Israel at around 7:51 p.m., causing millions of Israelis to head to their safe rooms and bomb shelters.

#عاجل تحذير لكل المتواجدين في الموانئ البحرية التي يسيطر عليها النظام الحوثي الإرهابي⭕️ميناء رأس عيسى⭕️ميناء الحديدة⭕️ميناء الصليف🔴أمامكم تحذير هام وعاجل🔴نظرًا لقيام النظام الحوثي الإرهابي باستخدام الموانئ البحرية لصالح أنشطته الإرهابية نحث جميع المتواجدين في هذه الموانئ… pic.twitter.com/8Yjo0HA4Dt— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) June 9, 2025

 

The IDF said that it likely shot down the ballistic missile, as well as fired additional interceptors to destroy shrapnel from the missile after it exploded.

Generally, the Arrow 3 missile defense system is used to shoot down ballistic missiles, while the Iron Dome is used to shoot down short-range, simpler rockets from Gaza or in the North.

Regarding the Israel Navy’s attack on the Houthis on Tuesday morning, some of the Houthi targets that were struck were platforms for ships to anchor on within the port….

The navy strikes on platforms for ships to anchor on makes it difficult for Iranians to load and unload cargo, including — most importantly —weapons sent from Iran.

The missiles fired from the Israeli ships apparently cause much more damage than do bombs dropped from the air. Their explosives will “leave a lasting mark” — impressions left by the missiles that can cause whole buildings not just to be hollowed out, but to crumble into dust. The effect is to cause the Houthis to rethink their ability to withstand Israeli attacks and strengthens their value to deter.

Israel’s ships can stay within missile-firing distance off the coast of Yemen for weeks at a time. Airplanes are different: they fly from Israel, thousands of miles away, drop their bombs, or make their airstrikes, and immediately have to fly home. They cannot loiter, waiting for the ideal time to strike. They strike, instead, just as soon as they enter the sky over Yemen, and then turn around and go home. The ships remain in place, firing their missiles at various Yemeni targets, and able to change their targets over time — as airplanes cannot — as conditions on the ground may vary.

The navy missile boats can carry out attacks over weeks at a time. This means there is no time when foreign ships can feel safe in coming to deliver weapons, or to load up with Iranian oil for delivery to Iran’s remaining sanctions-ignoring customers, China and India.

Israel had enough on its plate, fighting both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, so that until a Houthi drone actually killed an Israeli, the IDF was content to leave the Houthis alone, especially since the Americans had taken on the task of hitting them with airstrikes. But after the Houthis managed to kill an Israeli in Tel Aviv, the IDF started its missile-and-drone strikes both in retaliation and to keep the Houthis off balance.

The Gaza War has several months to run before the IDF will be satisfied that Hamas has been totally dismantled, but the Houthis may not be able to keep on striking Israel “as long as the war in Gaza continues,” as it has threatened in the past.

Could Trump be persuaded to reenter the fray against the Houthis? He is certainly becoming ever more impatient with the demands made of Steve Witkoff by Iran, and he realizes that Iran has no intention of giving up the uranium it has already enriched to just below weapons-grade, or to give up the means to enrich still more. If Trump is not willing to join Israel in a possible attack on Iran, could he be persuaded to supply Israel with the bunker-buster bombs, and the B-2 bombers to carry them, that the IDF would need to destroy the nuclear facilities built deep underground at Natanz and inside a mountain at Fordow? And one more request to make of our president: could he renew American attacks on Iran’s last proxy in the region, the Houthis of Yemen, so that, should Israel launch that attack on Teheran’s nuclear facilities that many believe is inevitable, and then have to absorb the inevitable retaliatory blow, the Jewish state will at least be able to worry less about attacks from the Houthis if the Americans are pounding them?

The two Israeli missile ships that sent several long-range missiles into Yemen, to inflict still more damage on what remains of the three main ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa Marine Terminal, and Salif Port, have proven their worth. I suspect that the IDF will now make greater use of its navy, perhaps even sending ships up the Persian Gulf to stand offshore of Iran’s port of Bandar Abbas, ready to set fire to the port, with its oil facilities and tankers, at the same time as the IDF attacks the country’s nuclear facilities. In the Yemeni theatre of war, Israel’s navy has found its sea legs.