Israel Update 4.9.25

THE HOUTHI THREAT

 

Context

 

The Houthis are an extremist Shia-Islamist movement designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN.  Backed by Iran, they control approximately one-third of Yemen’s territory and more than two-thirds of the country’s population and have been attacking Israel since Nov. 2023. Since March 18 2025 they have launched over 75 ballistic missiles and at least 24 drones at Israel. On 4 May a Houthi missile struck near Ben Gurion airport which led to many international airlines suspending Israel flights indefinitely.

On 22 August, for the first time the Houthis launched a missile carrying a cluster warhead which breaks up in mid-air, scattering smaller, unguided sub-munitions that explode on impact to target a large area and indiscriminately threaten civilians. Israeli air defences failed to intercept it and an 85 year old woman had a lucky escape when a part exploded near her home.

Each missile that is likely to reach Israel, triggers sirens sending millions of Israelis to seek shelter, often at night-time, disrupting sleep and causing disruption and anxiety. The Houthi attacks have caused a civilian death, several injuries and some structural damage. 

Israeli airstrikes on Houthi territory involve six hour long flights, flying 2,000 km (1,243 miles) to Yemen, including mid-air refuelling.

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping have caused the deaths and kidnappings of sailors, the destruction of several vessels and severe damage to international trade.

 

The past week.

 

The IDF assessed that the entire Houthi cabinet, including the prime minister and 12 other ministers,  were probably killed in last Thursday’s strikes in Yemen. A separate strike was said to have targeted 10 senior Houthi ministers who had gathered to hear a speech by the group’s leader.Report here

 

 

The Houthis have continued firing missiles, but many have failed to reach Israel. Early on Tuesday 2 missiles launched towards Israel exploded in Saudi Arabia. Drones were intercepted on Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with cluster bomb munitions targeting central Israel was intercepted. Large booms sounded across Israel following the interception. Secondary explosions were detected in three different locations across Israel, with bomb squads defusing any additional shrapnel. This was the first time that the Houthis had managed to fire a missile that triggered sirens in Israel after last week’s IDF strikes in Yemen. In the past week, they launched four ballistic missiles and two drones that fell or were intercepted.

Early today Thursday another missile was launched at 05.40 am and fell outside Israeli territory. Reports here& here

 

The Houthis claimed to have fired a missile at an Israeli-owned tanker in the Red Sea on Monday but the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, which monitors Mideast shipping, said the attack missed its target. Report here

 

DEBUNKING GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS

 

A new 311 page study by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University (BESA) systematically dismantles some of the most frequently levelled charges against Israel – genocide, deliberate starvation, indiscriminate killing – by re-examining casualty figures, food-truck deliveries, and UN reports. It shows how Hamas has manipulated numbers, how UN agencies have quietly “corrected” data without acknowledgment, and how aid organizations inflated needs. Full Study here

 

and see Comment & Opinion article by Herb Keinon below

 

 

THE US AND THE P.A.

 

 

The State Department announced Friday: “In accordance with U.S. law, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the upcoming UN General Assembly….It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”
“Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism – including the October 7 massacre – and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO. The PA must also end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the ICC and ICJ, and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”  US State Department Media Note

 

A State Department official confirmed that the announcement denying and revoking visas affected PA President Abbas “along with approximately 80 other PA officials.”Report here

 

The US administration has enacted a sweeping suspension of approvals of almost all types of visitor visas for Palestinian passport holders, according to an Aug. 18 cable sent by the State Department. The new restrictions cover anyone holding only a Palestinian passport.Report here (paywall)

 

 

HOSTAGES

 

Israeli forces recently recovered the bodies of two hostages held in Gaza.

Ilan Weiss, 56, was killed on Oct 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri from Hamas-led terrorists as a member of the emergency response team. Idan Shtivi, 28, was kidnapped from the Nova festival where he was a volunteer photographer who had been studying sustainability and government at Reichman University.Reports here& here

 

 

GAZA WAR

 

On Wednesday (last week), the IDF Arabic-language spokesman, released a video warning residents that “there is no alternative to evacuating Gaza City. Every family that moves south will get the most humanitarian aid possible, which the IDF is working to expand at this time.”

Harel Knafo, a retired Israeli general who recently served in Gaza, said an IDF “population evacuation unit” had spent 10 years mapping out buildings on every street in Gaza and obtaining mobile phone numbers of residents and businesses on every block. The IDF has been calling residents and blaring messages from loudspeakers installed on tanks and drones to get residents to leave. The next stage has been to drop leaflets. And if that doesn’t succeed, firing rifle rounds at building walls or tank shells at empty fields without civilians usually does.
“If people can hear it [firing], they will understand we are close and they have no time left. Every step we take is done not to harm the people, while Hamas does the opposite, by threatening people not to go and even shooting at them if they try.”  Report here (paywall)

 

Thousands of Palestinians have begun leaving Gaza City as Israel prepares for a major offensive to seize what it calls the “capital of Hamas.”
The Israeli military is urging residents to move south in advance of its Gaza operation. Report here

 

 

Gaza resident Moumen Al-Natour, 30, said the tide was really turning against Hamas in Gaza as ordinary Palestinians just wanted peace.
In a series of video calls with the UK’s  Mirror, he said: “Hamas has created hell here. They must go. We need to get out of the hell we are living in now.”
“We represent the majority of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The numbers of protesters are increasing every day. Everyone declares in Gaza that they do not want Hamas to remain in Gaza.”  “Hamas is making us pay an unbearable price for their madness… And the community here is desperate and trying to get out of the impasse that Hamas has put us in.” Report here

 

 

UN INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON (UNIFIL)

 

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to terminate the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon at the end of 2026, in a move backed by the U.S. and Israel. The U.S. had initially demanded that the force be ended in six months. Report here

See Comment & Opinion articles below.

 

DEFENCE

 

Last week, American and Polish troops test-fired two Israeli-made Spike Non-Line of Sight missiles in a first-of-its kind demonstration aimed at deterring Russia.
Produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, the Spike missile can destroy armour, air defence, artillery, naval flotillas and even troop formations up to 30 miles away, about four times the distance of the current Hellfire missile.Report here

 

 

AVIATION

 

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has become the first company to be certified by the US Federal Aviation Authority to convert aging Boeing 777s into cargo aircraft capable of carrying 100 tons. This development will significantly increase global shipping capacity, speed and efficiency and IAI is the first company worldwide to convert an aircraft of this magnitude.Report here

 

 

INNOVATION

 

 

Israeli start-up Eco Wave Power converts sea power into electricity. Pilot projects are underway at Los Angeles port and at Jaffa port. Report here

 

 

GREECE

 

A survey conducted by the Greek news site News Break asked 5,616 people: Do you agree with continuing the strategic partnership between Greece and Israel?
77% answered yes, calling Israel a natural ally of Greece, while 21% opposed the partnership.
The results suggest that while a vocal minority in Greece has tried to amplify pro-Palestinian positions, sometimes with media backing, most Greeks side with the government, which has championed closer ties with Israel in defence and diplomacy. Report here

 

 

SPORT

 

Basketball: Israel beat France 82-69 and Belgium 92-89 to advance to the knockout rounds in the Eurobasket. Report here

 

Surfing: Anat Lelior won gold and Ido Hajaj silver in the women’s and men’s competitions respectively at the ABANCA Pantin Classic Galicia Pro event in Spain.Report here

 

Sailing: Omer Vered Vilenchik 18, won the ILCA World Youth Championships.Report here

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

Houthi Threat

 

Zvika Haimovich: In the past 24 hours, the Houthis attempted to fire four missiles in three separate launches, alongside unmanned aerial vehicles. The threat remains. Their capabilities are limited but real.
The way to confront the Houthi threat is through a sustained, aggressive campaign of several days, based on precise intelligence, focused on intercepting launch capabilities (similar to what was done in Iran) and targeting leaders.
Ultimately, Israel will have no choice. Israel cannot allow normalization of a reality in which, every few days, or even several times a day, millions of Israelis are forced to seek shelter while hundreds of kg. of explosives are launched at city centres. Full article here

 

 

Brendan O’Neill:  The anti-Israel movement is a gathering of pathetic cry-bullies…The Houthis say “We hate the Jews and we want to kill them” and then act all affronted when the Jews say “Nah, not today.” The Israelophobes of the West seem to think it’s “war” when you kill Jews and a “war crime” when Jews fight back. I can’t believe this needs to be said, but if you start a war, you should expect war. Full article here

 

 

Propaganda War on Israel

 

Herb Keinon:  Israel is fighting two wars against Hamas. The first is the grinding military campaign in Gaza. The other is the battle over narrative and legitimacy. On the first front, Israel is winning resoundingly. On the second front, Israel is taking a beating. The (BESA) report (see item above)  provides Israel with the kind of factual ammunition needed to demonstrate clearly that the sweeping allegation of genocide is without foundation

But the damage has been done. During long stretches of the war, more food entered Gaza than before the Oct. 7 massacre. But the claim of an Israeli-induced famine has already hardened into conventional wisdom. For Hamas, propaganda is a doctrine and a weapon of war. It invested in narrative warfare as systematically as it invested in rockets. Full article here

 

Bernard-Henri Levy:
Foolish notions about Israel are being repeated morning and night, relayed by high international authorities. (For example) Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. To say “genocide” means a plan – a deliberate, targeted initiative to destroy a people. That isn’t what the Israeli army is doing. Who would do better in an asymmetric conflict when the enemy’s goal isn’t to minimize casualties on its own side but to maximize them, so that every martyr is a trophy?
A genocidal army doesn’t take two years to win a war in a territory the size of Las Vegas. A genocidal army doesn’t send SMS warnings before firing or facilitate the passage of those trying to escape. A genocidal army wouldn’t evacuate, every month, hundreds of Palestinian children suffering from rare diseases or cancer, sending them to hospitals in Abu Dhabi. Full article here (paywall)

 

 

“Palestinian state”

 

M.E. McMillan: At the UN General Assembly in September, governments around the world intend to recognize a Palestinian state. The idea of a two-state solution is not new. In November 1947, the General Assembly voted to partition the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Arab, one Jewish. The Jews agreed. The Arabs did not.
What is new about the current push for recognition of a Palestinian state is the backdrop against which it is due to happen. Governments, including Britain’s, have decided to recognize a Palestinian state, seemingly without tying that commitment to any reciprocal commitment on the part of Hamas to release the hostages it took at gunpoint on Oct. 7, 2023, and have held in inhumane conditions ever since.
Right now, with Gaza in ruins, the decision by Hamas to launch an unprovoked invasion of Israel does not look like it has delivered anything but disaster for the Palestinian people. But recognition of a Palestinian state at this time offers Hamas the opportunity to justify the horrors of Oct. 7 because it will say its actions delivered. It will say that Hamas alone delivered international recognition of a Palestinian state.
Moreover, if Hamas can achieve an outcome no other Palestinian group or leader could, and can do it while committing to nothing, why would it release the hostages? Article here (paywall)

 

 

Elliott Abrams: Why, after 80 years of efforts to partition the Holy Land, has a Palestinian state never been created? …The UN General Assembly voted in November 1947 to create two new states, one Arab and one Jewish. The Jews said yes and the Arabs said no. The essence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains in 2025 what it was in 1947: the Arabs said no.

As Daniel Pipes has written: “If your enemy wants to eliminate you, telling him that you’ll get him clean water is not going to convince him otherwise. What’s so striking is that the Palestinians have retained this genocidal impulse for such a long period. I would argue, as an historian, that this is unique. No other people have ever retained that kind of hostility for such a length of time.”

State-building is not a Palestinian priority, and the absence of a state is not the cause of the conflict. A Palestinian state will fail to meet Palestinian aspirations since it will still have to exist alongside Israel. Why would the violence not continue (or increase) across the border of an independent Palestine, as it did across the border from the West Bank and from Gaza? Will Palestinian society ever abandon support for violence and terrorism? Full article here

 

Tom Harris: On July 29, 2025, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK will recognize a Palestinian state. Starmer said the only thing that could prevent such recognition would be a ceasefire. In other words, provided Hamas could extend the conflict, then recognition by the UK would go ahead… Consider the fact: before October 7, 2023, Britain had no intention of recognizing a borderless country with no legal status. But after the brutal massacre of 1,200 innocent people, the very people who carried out the slaughter are celebrating and thanking Keir Starmer for this latest advance. That is something of which we in Britain should be ashamed. Britain used to pride itself on its policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Now we’re in danger of rewarding them.Full article here

 

 

Jonathan S. Tobin: The claim that Abbas is a peace-loving “moderate,” which is at the core of the statehood push, is a myth. The PA continues to subsidize terrorism in the form of its “pay-for-slay” programme that also applies to those who committed the crimes of Oct. 7. He has refused peace offers from Israel, making it clear that he will never accept one that compels them to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state… The U.S. is right to hold him accountable and to refuse to participate in a UN charade in which he pretends to be the head of a non-existent state… The post-Oct. 7 war began with an orgy of mass murder, rape, torture, kidnapping and wanton destruction that was committed by ordinary Palestinians rather than just Hamas fighters. The hostages were mostly held captive by ordinary Palestinians, not Hamas fighters. The denial of visas is a long-delayed and entirely justified reaction to a century of a Palestinian culture of hatred and intolerance, in which a war against the Jews became an inextricable part of their national identity.  Full article here

 

UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

 

Wall St Journal Editorial: The UN peacekeepers in Lebanon keep no peace…After the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, it (UNIFIL) stood by as Hizbullah turned southern Lebanon into an armed camp again…The peacekeepers have been Hizbullah’s human shields. They failed so abysmally to keep armed terrorists out of southern Lebanon that the IDF had to do the job for them last year, after 11 months of Hizbullah rocket fire. When the IDF finally advanced, UNIFIL refused to move and then blamed Israel for endangering peacekeepers by rooting out Hizbullah.
Israel found UNIFIL’s area of responsibility teeming with weapons and Hamas-style tunnels. Hizbullah had dug them under UNIFIL’s nose – in one case 110 yards from its outpost.Editorial here (paywall)

 

Hussain Abdul-Hussain: Deployed in 1978, UNIFIL has persisted for 47 years. During this period, three major wars have erupted between Israel and militias in Lebanon, and UNIFIL has failed to pre-empt, prevent, or resolve any of them. Costing $500 million annually, UNIFIL is an ineffective expenditure.
Since its inception, UNIFIL has not engaged outlaw forces in any law enforcement actions. Hizbullah, Iran’s proxy militia, thwarted UNIFIL’s efforts by sending military-age men in civilian clothing to burn tyres, block roads, and throw stones whenever UN peacekeepers approached arms depots. When confronted, UNIFIL personnel simply retreated to their bases. Full article here

 

(THE UNSC has now voted to terminate UNIFIL over 12 months from 31.12.26)

 

Journalists

 

Itamar Marcus: Why Gazan journalists are unreliable.
The foreign media is uniformly blaming Israel for the so-called starvation in Gaza, often broadcasting completely fictitious images…Most reporters working for the international media in Gaza are themselves Palestinians and thus are anxious to present Israel negatively…
Another important reason was spelled out by Nasser Abu Bakr, chairman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, speaking on official PA TV: “There are indeed attacks against journalists. We are monitoring and recording daily attacks by Hamas and the ‘Arrow Battalion.’ It is a known group that belongs to Hamas that attacks journalists, arrests journalists, [even] in hospitals and institutions.”
Thus, journalists in Gaza know that deviating from Hamas’s version of events places their freedom and even their lives in danger. Survival comes first; truth comes second. This explains why the foreign media are megaphones for Hamas’s lies. Out of concern for their future, their safety, and their lives, the journalists hired by these media outlets must publish Hamas propaganda that makes Israel look immoral or evil. Full article here