"Ongoing military campaign" .. Israel strengthens its intelligence to collect information on the Houthis in Yemen

The General Staff of the Israeli occupation army decided to define the situation related to the Houthi group in Yemen as an ongoing military campaign, against the backdrop of the launching of missiles and drones from Yemen towards Israeli targets, despite the distance of about 2,000 km, according to what the Hebrew Walla website reported today, Monday.

The website considered that this means a gradual increase in the interest of the security establishment in general and the intelligence community in particular in Yemen after the decline in "activity" on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts, noting that Israel and its security and intelligence agencies have not invested efforts in Yemen over the past years due to the lack of sufficient budgets.

According to the directives of the Chief of Staff of the Occupation Army, Herzi Halevi, the Military Intelligence Division (Aman) will receive more resources to collect intelligence on the Houthis in Yemen.

According to the Hebrew website, the Israeli Air Force will receive greater resources to launch attacks against targets in Yemen, such as senior Houthi figures, military infrastructure, systems, and supply chains in various fields, with a focus on supplying weapons systems and raw materials for weapons production from Iran and other countries.

Israeli analyses indicate that the gaps and deficiencies in intelligence information cannot be filled or the Houthi threats eliminated with the “push of a button,” and they agreed that Israel cannot eliminate the threats from Yemen alone, and it needs to develop a strategy against the Houthis, through partnership with the United States and its elected president.

strategic threat

In a reading of the missile attacks launched by the Houthi group deep inside the Israeli home front, the readings of analysts and the estimates of research centers agreed among themselves that Israel was surprised by the Yemeni front and was not even prepared to develop its military capabilities against the Houthis, and they agreed that there are no shortcuts to deter them.

Strategic advisor for security and media affairs, Ofir Dayan, wrote an article on the Walla website in which he pointed out that the Israeli security establishment and intelligence agencies, which are still ignorant of the components and nature of the Houthis’ work and the strategic attacks they are launching, which have become a threat to the Israeli home front, have concerns and fears about the escalation of attacks from Yemen.

"But so far, despite the security establishment's concerns and the restrictions it has in confronting the Houthi threats, there is an impression that Israeli society - in all its components - is not aware of the nature of the threats from Yemen, and lacks the ability to understand the ideology in which the Houthis believe, considering that they are not a source of disturbance that prevents Israelis from sleeping," he explains.

The same approach was adopted by Eyal Zisser, an expert on Middle East and African affairs and vice president of Tel Aviv University, who stressed that the Houthis “are not a nuisance but a strategic threat to Israel,” saying, “If at first the threat from Yemen was seen as a curiosity, today it is clear that it has become a central threat arena.”

In an article in the newspaper "Israel Today", he criticized the handling of the threats and missile attacks by the Houthi group on Israeli sites, describing the Israeli attacks on infrastructure targets in Yemen as "public relations."

“Israel can and should narrow the gaps in preparedness against the Houthis, by working closely and jointly with the United States under President Trump, who seems to be showing increasing interest in Israel’s needs, as well as the threat posed by Iran and its network of proxies in the region, and should formulate a joint strategy with the Americans to confront the Houthis,” he concluded.

Source: Yemen Youth Net + Al-Araby Al-Jadeed + Al-Jazeera