By Shahrokh Saei

Yemen's Ansarullah: A game changer in the Gaza war

September 16, 2024 - 22:28
Ansarullah is a painful thorn in the side of Israel and US

TEHRAN- Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has dealt crushing and painful blows to Israel and the United States in response to their aggressive actions in West Asia amid the ongoing Gaza war.

The Yemeni army spokesman said on Monday that another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down over the country’s airspace. 

Yahya Saree said the army hit the drone with a locally produced surface-to-air missile over the Dhamar governorate.

He noted that the aircraft “was conducting a hostile operation”. 
Yemeni Armed Forces successfully downed another US spy drone, bringing the total number of American aircraft targeted since October last year to 10Saree said it was the 10th US drone that the Yemeni army has targeted since the start of the Gaza war in October last year and also the third in a week.

According to the Associated Press, Reapers cost around $30 million apiece and can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The US military and the CIA have flown the aircraft over Yemen for years.

The downing of the US drone has thrown a spotlight on the military capabilities of the Ansarullah movement despite the strikes that the US, Britain and Israel have carried out against Yemen over the past months. 

It also came a day after a long-range ballistic missile fired from Yemen hit central Israel triggering air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion International Airport.  It caused panic and local media aired footage of people racing to shelters at the airport. 


Saree said on Sunday that the Yemeni army “targeted a military position of the Israeli enemy in the Jaffa area” with a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” that had managed to evade Israel’s air defense systems.

He added that the projectile traveled 2,040 kilometers (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.

On Sunday, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, Ansarullah’s leader, also warned of further attacks on Israel. “The operation our forces carried out today (Sunday) with an advanced Yemeni missile is part of the fifth stage of the escalation. What is to come will be greater,” he said in a speech.
Panic is spreading like wildfire in Israel after the Yemeni army fired a hypersonic ballistic missile that hit Tel AvivIsraeli media acknowledged the regime’s weakness in the face of the Yemeni missile attack. 

“The warhead of this missile is separate from the body, and with the help of wings and jam-proof navigation systems it zigzags its way towards the target, which can make interception systems very difficult,” said a report on the Ynet newspaper website.

The Yemeni army has repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinian people. 

Yemen also started targeting Israeli-linked ships in November last year. 

Attacks by the Yemeni army later expanded to cover vessels linked to the United States and Britain after the two countries launched airstrikes on the country to force it to stop its anti-Israeli operations.

Israel also carried out a strike against Yemen’s Hodeidah in July after Ansarullah hit Tel Aviv with a drone attack. 

Ansarullah officials have stressed attacks against Israel will not stop unless the regime ends its war of genocide in Gaza which has claimed the lives of more than 41,000 Palestinians over the past 11 months. 
For now, the Yemeni army’s missile attack in central Israel and the downing of US drones clearly indicate that Ansarullah and other regional resistance movements remain undeterred in the face of American and Israeli acts of aggression.