The fire lit in Gaza is spreading, and it must be stopped

The Middle East has just witnessed another unexpected and unwanted first. By directly hitting targets in Yemen for the first time, Israel has followed up on its unprecedented April 1 strike on Iran’s embassy complex in Damascus. At a time of intense volatility, the sight of Israeli warplanes conducting a bombing raid at the far end of the Arabian Peninsula should make it clear that the danger facing the region is widespread.

Yemen’s Houthi militants chalked up their own first, with the rebels claiming responsibility for an explosive drone that reached Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one person. Yesterday, the Israeli army said it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched from Yemen on Sunday morning as residents of the southern Israeli city of Eilat reported hearing sirens. More dangerously escalatory tit-for-tat attacks are not unlikely.

The Houthis and their supporters will play up the propaganda value and symbolism of hitting Israel directly. Indeed, this may find purchase among some people in the region who are understandably furious and frustrated at the protracted suffering being endured by the Palestinians. But the Houthis’ strikes against Israel and international shipping in the Red Sea have not altered Israel’s military or political agenda one iota; Palestine’s Wafa news agency has reported that 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight on Sunday.

Instead, by attempting to strike Israel directly for months and eventually succeeding, the Houthis all but guaranteed a military response. Israel has a track record of repeatedly hitting targets in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq – why would Yemen be spared? The strikes around the port of Hodeidah threaten the main entry point for humanitarian aid to support Yemen’s suffering people. As the Houthis up the ante in their search for relevance, a vulnerable facility for getting essential supplies to Yemeni civilians finds itself in the firing line.

The Houthis are aware of the price to be paid by Yemen’s people for their adventurism. The militants know their air defences have been degraded by months of strikes that followed their attacks on Red Sea shipping. The rebels’ bunkers and defensive structures are reserved for their military assets and fighters, not the country’s civilians. It is ordinary Yemenis who have been bearing the brunt of the Houthis’ irresponsible actions for years. Poverty, malnutrition and lack of health care have led to situations such as that described last week by the UN Population Fund in which a woman in Yemen dies every two hours during pregnancy or childbirth.

Like other militias in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, the Houthis act mainly as a disruptor. When it comes to governing, revolutionary rhetoric replaces taking responsibility for protecting, feeding and educating communities living under their rule.

For its part, as Israel has to be seen to respond to attacks on its cities, by bombing Yemen – and several other Arab countries – it shuts down any political route for those who oppose the Houthis or similar militant organisations that have repeatedly let them down. Reports that three people died and 80 were wounded in Israel’s strike on Hodeidah will likely serve to rally support behind the Houthis, despite whatever misgivings ordinary Yemenis may have about them.

Ultimately it is civilians whose fate is in the hands of militarists and power plays from different regional forces. As the fire lit in Gaza continues to spread, it is they who will pay the price as this regional war escalates further. And in the long run, the decades-long occupation of Palestine must end to get all sides on a path away from destruction for all the civilians of the region.