German Network: Houthi militias feel weak and fear being Israel's next target after Hezbollah

Despite thriving on its support for Hamas in Gaza and consolidating its power inside the country, the Houthi militia is increasingly cracking down on locals and international workers. So what’s so frightening about the Iran-backed group?

In the latest wave of arrests, Yemen's Houthi rebels have jailed dozens of people for celebrating a national holiday on a date the Iran-backed militia considers a false date.

“Since 1962, Yemenis have celebrated September 26 as the birth anniversary of the Yemen Arab Republic,” said Thomas Juneau, a Middle East analyst and professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada.

"For the Houthis, this date symbolically represents a very clear threat to their legitimacy," he added, adding that "any celebration of September 26 could be seen as a call to return to the Republic of Yemen, which contradicts what the Houthis represent."

Instead, the Houthis sought to impose September 21 as the country’s national holiday. On that day in 2014, the militia—which the United States redesignated as a terrorist organization in January 2024—took control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

This led to a civil war between the Houthis and the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The situation escalated in 2015 when an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia joined to support the government.

Since then, the country has effectively been split in two. The northwest, including Sanaa and about 70 percent of the population, is under Houthi control, while the government, represented by a presidential council, heads the southern port city of Aden. The Southern Transitional Council, a separatist group allied with the presidential council and backed by the United Arab Emirates, controls territory to the east.

But Saudi Arabia has become more open about its desire to exit the conflict, and has already met with Houthi representatives for peace negotiations.

"The Houthis have won the civil war in a way over the past few years, but they run a very authoritarian and repressive government in northern Yemen. They have absolutely no tolerance for dissent, whether republican or otherwise," Juno told DW .

Escalating crackdown

“The Houthis have shown far more interest in ensuring that Yemen remains at war than in actually governing it,” said Nicole Jafarnia, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“The majority of the population living in areas under their control lack basic necessities such as food and water,” she added. Yemeni civilians have borne the brunt of the brutal war over the past decade.

About half of Yemen's 38.5 million people depend on humanitarian aid, hunger is on the rise and levels of severe food deprivation in Houthi-controlled areas have doubled since last year, Joyce Msuya, a senior official with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in October.

The United Nations and human rights organizations have repeatedly pointed out that Yemenis are suffering from one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, which has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. The humanitarian situation in the country is likely to worsen in the near future.

He explained that the financial situation in the areas they control is not good at all, the humanitarian situation is very bad, and the fact that the Houthis have not been able to control the entire country makes them feel weak.

The group is also under increasing international pressure for targeting international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. While the attacks have boosted the group’s popularity at home, they have also led to US and Israeli strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

"The American strikes carried out last week with B-2 bombers increased the pressure on the Houthis," Al-Omeisi said. In his opinion, the militia is preparing for "things to get worse."

"The Houthis now fear that after Israel targeted Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, they will be next on the list," he added.

“In return, they have imprisoned more people in Sana’a, including people from their own ranks, because they have become so paranoid that they have infiltrated their ranks,” he said. “They are in a state of complete panic, and at the same time, they do not want to show that they are afraid.”

Source: DW German