Yemen's Houthi militant group claimed to have fired missiles into Israeli territory on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised broadcast that they had launched a large number of ballistic missiles and drones towards Israel, and that more such attacks would follow to help Palestine achieve victory, as reported by Reuters on Wednesday, November 1, 2023.
However, the Israeli military claimed to have intercepted the missiles.
"Israel's Arrow air defense system intercepted missiles launched from the Red Sea area. The missiles are believed to have been launched by the Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen," as reported by The Times of Israel on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
So, who are the Houthis?
According to the Lawfare Institute's report, *Understanding the Houthi Faction in Yemen*, the Houthis are a Yemeni political opposition group that emerged in the early 1990s.
From the 2000s onwards, the Houthi group grew to have its own military organization.
They then fought against the official Yemeni government, seizing control of parts of Yemen and repeatedly attacking neighboring countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
"The Houthis have transformed from a small rebel group in northern Yemen into a central participant in what is arguably the most significant regional conflict in modern Arab and Arabian Peninsula history," said the Lawfare Institute.
"Since 2011, the Houthis have gained control of Sa'dah, a marginalized province in Yemen, and now control much of northern Yemen, including the Yemeni capital and its institutions," it continued.
According to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), from 2010 to 2022, the only country recorded as supplying weapons to the Houthi group was Iran.
SIPRI found that in 2015 there was one contract for the delivery of Iranian-made Qiam-1 ballistic missiles to the Houthi group.
Beyond that, no other specific weapons contracts for the Houthis are publicly accessible.
SIPRI also found 25 other weapons delivery contracts to Yemen during the 2010-2022 period.
The countries of origin varied, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United States (US), South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Jordan, Russia, and others, with the number of contracts as shown in the graph.
However, some of these weapons delivery contracts were intended for the official Yemeni government, and others did not specify the recipient.
SIPRI gathered this data from various publicly accessible sources, including media reports, annual reports of weapons companies, weapons import-export reports, and national policy documents.