Senior security officials say the Israeli defense establishment is preparing for a Houthi response to Operation “Tipat Mazal,” in which the Houthi government was eliminated on August 28, 2025.
They assess that the Houthis will attempt to strike senior Israeli political and security figures and national infrastructure.
As a result, security for senior Israeli officials has been heightened.
The Houthis continue to launch ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles from Yemen toward Israel, and last week, Israel struck military and fuel facilities in the Sana’a area of Yemen.
The leader of the Houthi “Ansar Allah” movement in Yemen, Abd al-Malik al-Houthi, said in a speech on September 10 that “during the past two weeks 38 operations were carried out using missiles and unmanned aircraft.” He added: “A successful operation was the strike on Ramon Airport, and another important operation at Ben Gurion.” He also noted that “there were two operations to hit two commercial ships of the Israeli enemy in the northern Red Sea.” He claimed that “the killing of the Houthi prime minister and his colleagues, who were among the dead and worked in civilian ministries, does not constitute a military or security achievement for the Israeli enemy.”
Senior security sources say the Houthis are today Iran’s most active and strongest proxy, and that Yemen has become a primary confrontation zone between Israel and the Iranian-led resistance axis.
Israeli intelligence is now making a concentrated effort to acquire high-quality intelligence that will enable targeted assassinations of the Houthi military leadership, principally the leader Abd al-Malik al-Houthi.
The strategy of striking economic facilities in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen is not sufficient to stop the fire toward Israel.
Israel has upgraded the deterrence equation to a new phase and moved to targeted neutralizations: direct strikes on the Houthi leadership.
This was manifested in the Israeli strike in Sana’a, in which the Houthi prime minister, Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahawi, was eliminated along with nine ministers and several other senior figures.
Within one year since it began its strikes in Yemen, Israel has succeeded in delivering a severe blow to the Houthi leadership – a significant achievement that indicates a qualitative change in how the theater is being managed.
This success rests both on partnerships with actors possessing logistical knowledge in Yemen and on the exploitation of a permissive geographic environment where central sovereignty is absent.
In addition, intelligence cooperation between Israel and the United States – which has refrained from direct military action against the Houthis and has preferred economic sanctions – provided Israel with an important information base.
The U.S., seeking to avoid regional escalation, left the military mission to Israel, and Israel succeeded in achieving an important result.
The partnership with the United Arab Emirates also played a critical role in securing this Israeli achievement.
Perceiving the Houthis as a threat to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea strengthened cooperation between Israel and countries neighboring Yemen, led by the United Arab Emirates.
That opened an aerial operational space for Israel. Abu Dhabi’s direct military presence along Yemen’s coast helped Israel consolidate its military and intelligence foothold.
At the same time, the Houthis themselves present as the only supportive force for Hamas in the Gaza Strip and align with Iran’s interests.
Following the Israeli strike in Sana’a that eliminated the Houthi government, the Houthis intensified their attacks almost daily against airports and Israeli cities, as well as against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea.
Recently, they even struck an Israeli-owned tanker that was carrying chemicals in the northern Red Sea. The Houthis have expanded the range of weapons used – from drones and ballistic missiles to missiles with cluster warheads and canister munitions – all as part of a clear strategy of sustained military escalation.
However, Israel’s commitment to expand the fighting in Yemen presents the Houthis with a new military and political challenge.
The Israeli strike in Sana’a that eliminated the Houthi government exposed the imbalance of forces. It demonstrated the security vulnerability of the Houthi leadership and caused erosion of its political rule.
The deaths of the Houthi ministers raised serious questions inside Yemen about Houthi activity.
At the same time, reactions from the international community emphasized the isolation of the Ansar Allah movement, portraying the assassination as an attack on the Houthi entity rather than as Israeli aggression against Yemen as a state.
Israeli strikes on Houthi targets have widened internal fissures within the country. Even the way the Houthis handled the elimination of their civilian leadership – including the absence of official state mourning ceremonies – revealed weaknesses in their conception of statehood and authority and sent shockwaves through their alliances.
Therefore, senior security officials say, the recent outcomes of Israeli strikes in Yemen force the Houthis to undertake a profound reassessment of their war strategy against Israel.
Above all, they must make a new risk assessment regarding the direct consequences for the lives of Yemeni civilians in the face of Israel’s military power, which does not hesitate to strike hard at the Houthis as long as they continue launching missiles and UAVs toward Israel.
