UN experts say Houthis exploited Gaza war to boost regional status, aided by Iran
Yemen rebels get ‘unprecedented’ outside military support, in particular from Iranians and Hezbollah, making them a potent force, according to report presented to Security Council
Yemen’s Houthi rebels are transforming themselves into a “powerful military organization” due to “unprecedented” military support from outside sources, particularly Iran and Hezbollah, according to a UN report published Friday.
The Iranian-backed Houthis have exploited the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and worked to enhance their status in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Hamas and Hezbollah, to gain popularity in the region and beyond, the experts monitoring sanctions against the Houthis said in the 537-page report to the UN Security Council.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza last year, the Houthis, who have controlled large swaths of war-torn Yemen for a decade, have “exploited the regional situation and enhanced cooperation with the Axis of Resistance,” the UN experts said.
The panel noted “the transformation of the Houthis from a localized armed group with limited capabilities to a powerful military organization, extending their operational capabilities well beyond the territories under their control.”
The report, which analyzed the period from September 2023 through July 2024, said such a transformation was aided by the transfer of military materiel and financial support.
The rebels also benefited from training and technical assistance provided by the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, as well as Hezbollah and pro-Iran groups in Iraq, the UN experts said.
It said joint operations centers have been set up in Iraq and Lebanon with Houthi representatives “aimed at coordinating joint military actions of the Axis of Resistance.”
“The scale, nature and extent of transfers of diverse military material technology provided to the Houthis from external sources, including financial support and training of its combatants, is unprecedented,” the report warned.
The report is based on testimony from military experts, Yemeni officials and sources close to the Houthis. Experts found that the rebels themselves lack the ability to “develop and produce complex weapon systems,” such as the missiles they have used to target ships in the Red Sea.
But they also said some of their weapons bear similarities with equipment used by Iran and Iran-backed groups.
To support Hamas — which led the cross-border invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza — the Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, disrupting global shipping in a key geopolitical area. They have also directly attacked Israel with ballistic missiles and drones.
Despite Houthi claims that they would target ships linked to Israel, the panel said its investigations revealed the rebels have been targeting vessels indiscriminately.
Its analysis of data from the International Maritime Organization, the US and the United Kingdom revealed that at least 134 attacks were carried out from Houthi-controlled areas against merchant and commercial vessels and US and UK warships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden between Nov. 15, 2023 and July 31, 2024.
“The group’s shift to actions at sea increased their influence in the region,” the UN experts said. “Such a scale of attacks, using weapon systems on civilian vessels, had never occurred since the Second World War.”
The attacks have seriously disrupted a route that carries 12 percent of global trade, triggering reprisal strikes by the United States and Britain against rebel targets in Yemen. Israel has also twice bombed Houthi targets in retaliation for ballistic missile and drone attacks, including one that killed a man in Tel Aviv.
Houthi fighters are being trained outside Yemen, either in Iran or at Hezbollah training facilities in Lebanon, the panel said.
Hezbollah was named as one of the Houthis’ “most important supporters” due to the terror group’s involvement in rebel decision-making, support for assembling weapons systems, financing, “ideological guidance” and propaganda efforts.
The report said the Houthis have carried out a vast recruitment project, resulting in a force that numbered 350,000 in mid-2024, as compared with 220,000 in 2022.
“While the panel has not been able to independently verify the number of newly recruited fighters, a large-scale mobilization would be a matter of concern,” it said.
The Houthis also have been recruiting large numbers of Yemeni youths and children as well as exploiting Ethiopian migrants, forcing them to join the fight against the government and engage in trafficking narcotics, it said.
Exploiting high illiteracy rates, particularly in tribal areas, they have reportedly mobilized boys as young as 10 or 11, often despite parental opposition,” they said. “Recruitment sermons and weekly classes on jihad are reportedly delivered in schools.”
Child recruitment reportedly increased after the war in Gaza started and the US and UK airstrikes in Yemen, the experts said. Yemen’s government said it received 3,298 reports of child recruitment in the first half of 2024, with youngsters reportedly used as human shields, spies and in combat — and for planting landmines and explosives, reconnaissance and as cooks.
The Houthis have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, when they took control of the capital Sanaa and most of the north.
The Hamas-led attacks in October last year killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Israel’s military response is aimed at destroying Hamas in Gaza and saving the hostages. The day after the Hamas attack, Hezbollah began firing rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, also saying it was supporting Gaza, and eventually escalating into a broad conflict that has included an ongoing, limited Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon.
