Yemen’s Houthis emerge from Gaza war emboldened, and with more enemies

The Houthis have gone through something of a transformation in their reputation since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

A rebel group from Yemen’s far north, the Houthis had fought the Yemeni government and a Saudi-led coalition for almost a decade, proving a degree of military prowess, but had little ability to project power regionally, even as they occasionally fired missiles and drones towards Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

And domestically, among many Yemenis, they were unpopular, regarded by their enemies as a theocratic and repressive group that wanted to end Yemen’s republic – even as the Iranian ally defended their takeover of much of Yemen as a popular revolution.

A lot has changed in the past 16 months as the Houthis demonstrated their capabilities – firing projectiles deep into Israel and causing damage – as well as their willingness to challenge the West and attack shipping in the seas around Yemen, all ostensibly in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

For those actions, among many in the region and beyond, the Houthis have become a symbol of resistance against Israel and the West and the true representative of the Yemeni state.

And domestically, it has proven difficult for the group’s enemies to criticise their actions in support of the Palestinians, a popular position in a country as staunchly pro-Palestinian as Yemen.

“The Houthi leadership has not feared the United States or any other Western force,” said Abdullah Yahia, a high school graduate from Sanaa. “Offering support to Gaza is the real gauge of courage and humanity. This is why I have changed my view on the Houthis.”

“They have succeeded in increasing their popularity considerably,” Adel Dashela, a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia Global Centers – Amman, told Al Jazeera. “Countless people worldwide feel Gaza has been wronged, and that any action to support its population is praiseworthy.”

On the military front, Dashela believes that the true impact of the Houthis’ actions has been on the global shipping industry, rather than in its attacks on Israel – which have only caused limited damage.

Many shipping companies now avoid the Red Sea – a vital international shipping route – because of Houthi attacks that US-led reprisals were unable to stop. The attacks on shipping – which, according to a tally by the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), have numbered more than 200 since the start of the war – have increased shipping costs and led to cargo traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal plummeting.

All in all, the Houthis have grown in strength and are emboldened, at a time when Iran and pro-Iranian groups across the wider region – such as the Palestinian group Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah – appear weaker.

“No longer content to focus their sights just on Yemen, [the Houthis’] growing ambitions to fill the void left by Iran’s crumbling axis cannot be ignored,” wrote Beth Sanner, a former US deputy director of national intelligence, and Jennifer Kavanagh, senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, in an article for Foreign Policy last month.