The Houthi rebellion, which began in earnest in 2014 when the Shia-aligned Houthi movement seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and escalated in 2015 with the Saudi-led intervention, initially appeared as a regional conflict rooted in sectarian tensions. The Houthis, backed by Iran, sought to overthrow Yemen’s Sunni-led government, prompting Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy, to launch a military campaign to restore the internationally recognized government and curb Iran’s influence. This conflict quickly became a proxy war, with Iran providing weapons, training, and financial support to the Houthis, while Saudi Arabia received logistical and intelligence backing from the U.S. and other Western allies. By 2015, the war had already metastasized into a broader geopolitical struggle, with the Houthis framing their fight as resistance against Saudi oppression and foreign interference, while Saudi Arabia positioned itself as a bulwark against Iran’s expansionist ambitions in the Arabian Peninsula.
 

Over the years, the conflict’s scope expanded dramatically, drawing in global powers and intersecting with other regional flashpoints, particularly after the Houthis began targeting Israel in 2023 during the Israel-Hamas war. The Houthis’ launch of missiles and drones at Israel, coupled with their attacks on Red Sea shipping, pulled Israel and its allies, including the U.S., into direct confrontation with the Iran-backed rebels. By 2025, what began as a localized rebellion had evolved into a sprawling network of proxy conflicts, with Israel and its Western allies—already engaged in countering Iran’s influence through operations against Hezbollah and other militias—now facing off against the Houthis as part of a broader anti-Iran axis. Iran, meanwhile, doubled down on its support for the Houthis, supplying advanced ballistic missiles and drones, turning Yemen into a staging ground for attacks not just on Saudi Arabia but also on Israel and international shipping lanes, effectively globalizing the conflict and raising fears of a World War III scenario.
 

The escalation into a potential World War III proxy conflict between Israel and the Houthi rebels reflects the entanglement of superpower rivalries and ideological divides. Israel, backed by the U.S., UK, and other Western nations, has conducted airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, such as the December 2024 strikes on Hodeidah port, aiming to degrade their military capabilities and secure maritime routes. Conversely, Iran has leveraged the Houthis as part of its “Axis of Resistance,” alongside groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, to challenge Israel and its allies, framing the conflict as a broader struggle against Western imperialism and Zionism. This proxy war has drawn in other nations—Russia and China have voiced support for Iran’s position, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite scaling back direct involvement in Yemen, remain aligned with the U.S.-Israel bloc—creating a global fault line. The Red Sea, a critical chokepoint for world trade, has become a battleground, with Houthi attacks disrupting 30% of global container traffic by 2025, forcing naval engagements and economic fallout that ripple across continents, inching the world closer to a full-scale, multi-theater conflict.