Fact Check: Has Yemen Declared War With Israel?

Israel's conflict with Hamas has led to fears of spillover fighting between other Middle Eastern nations sympathetic to Palestinians in Gaza.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has already begun drawing up legislation for U.S. military force in the Middle East if Iranian-backed forces become involved in the ongoing conflict, amid concerns a wider conflict could begin.

According to a viral social media post this week, at least one nation had now declared itself involved, with the post saying that Yemen was at war with Israel.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by Sulaiman Ahmed, posted on October 31, 2023, viewed 7.1 million times, stated: "BREAKING: YEMEN DECLARED THEY ARE NOW AT WAR WITH ISRAEL."

"The Republic of Yemen is the first country officially to announce its entry into the "Battle of the Flood" of Al-Aqsa and launches a large number of ballistic and winged missiles and drones at a number of Israeli IOF targets inside occupied Palestine."

The Facts

Yemen has not declared war on Israel.

The Houthis, who govern parts of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa, said on Tuesday that since October 7 they had launched three drone and missile attacks toward Israel and pledged there would be more "to help the Palestinians to victory."

The Houthis are embroiled in a seven-year civil war against a Saudi-backed government that they expelled from the capital in 2014. They are believed to have access to a vast arsenal of drones and missiles.

On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia mobilized a coalition of Arab states to launch a joint campaign of economic isolation and airstrikes backed by the U.S. in support of the embattled Yemeni government, then headed by Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

But last year, Hadi resigned, leaving the Presidential Leadership Council led by Chairman Rashad al-Alimi in charge of the internationally recognized Yemeni government now based in the southern port city of Aden.

The U.S. had previously recognized the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, a status it revoked in 2021. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in 2021 that the revocation was intended to help address Yemen's humanitarian crises and "ensure that relevant U.S. policies do not impede assistance." The U.S. has since received calls to reimpose the terrorist status.

The Houthis, an Iranian-backed alliance, have offered moral and financial support for Hamas, whose attack on southern Israel killed 1,400 people, according to Reuters. It was followed by an Israeli bombardment of Gaza, as well as a ground operation. Gaza's health ministry said that at least 8,525 Palestinians had been killed, Reuters reported.

Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi has said Houthi attacks were intolerable, but he did not specify how Israel would respond.

Missiles and drones fired at Israel from the Red Sea over the past three weeks have either been shot down or fallen short. On October 27, Israel said the Houthis launched a drone attack intended for Israel that instead hit two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea.

The Israeli military said it has several layers of air defenses to protect against Houthi attacks. The U.S. military is also deployed in the Red Sea region, and in October intercepted missiles and drones fired by the Houthi movement that were heading for Israel.

A follow-up tweet by Sulaiman added that the earlier statement was a statement reported "by the Houthi group in Yemen." Sulaiman did not explain how this follow-up altered the meaning of the original post.

The Ruling

False.

Yemen has not declared war against Israel. The claim is based on a statement released by an Iran-backed militarized alliance called the Houthis, who have control of the country's capital. It is not part of the internationally-backed government in Yemen.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team