Israel said to urge US to resume strikes on Yemen’s Houthis, call for broad military coalition

Following this week’s intensified Houthi attacks on maritime traffic, including the deadly seizure of two vessels, Israel has asked the United States in recent days to renew its military strikes on the Iran-backed group in Yemen, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Israel told the US that ongoing Houthi assaults on shipping “can no longer remain solely an Israeli problem,” and called for “more intense combined attacks against Houthi regime targets — not just [Israeli] air force fighter jet strikes, but also a renewal of American attacks and the formation of a coalition including additional countries,” the Hebrew-language network reports, citing a source familiar with the matter.

An unnamed security official tells Kan that the move comes in response to expanding Houthi aggression: “A broad coalition is needed to convey to the Houthi regime that it is in danger.”

In May, Washington and the Houthis reached an agreement that ended a US aerial campaign against the terror group, which controls much of Yemen.

The report comes on the final day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington. Kan does not say through which bodies the message was communicated.