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Iran Using Houthis’ Yemen as Weapons ‘Testing Ground’
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
JNS.org – Israeli air defense officials are reviewing the performance of Air Force detection and interception capabilities on Sunday, hours after the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen fired a surface-to-surface missile that set off sirens across central Israel.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, at 6:21 on Sunday morning, the missile was launched from Yemen towards Israeli territory, and it likely fragmented mid-air, according to preliminary findings.
The attack triggered several interception attempts by Israel’s Arrow and Iron Dome defense systems, the IDF said. These attempts, and the effectiveness of the interceptions, are under review. Warning sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol.
IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Michael Segal, an expert on Iranian strategic issues who is today chief information officer at the Tel Aviv-based Acumen Risk intelligence and risk management consultancy, told JNS that in recent years, Yemen has served as Iran’s largest testing ground for various types of weapons.
“During the Saudi coalition’s operations in Yemen, following the Houthi takeover of parts of the country during the Arab Spring, the Houthis fired a wide range of missiles, drones, and rockets at strategic sites in Saudi Arabia, including oil facilities and airports. Yemen, where active fighting continues in various regions, offers Iran an opportunity to test a variety of weapons, from roadside bombs, sniper rifles and anti-tank weapons to ballistic missiles and drones,” Segal said.
“These weapons are transferred to the Houthis either as complete systems or in parts and are assembled in Yemen,” he continued.
Since early September, the Houthis have downed two American MQ-9 Reaper drones, likely using Iranian 358 surface-to-air missiles, which are also likely in the possession of Hezbollah in Lebanon and pro-Iran militias in Iraq.
Iran’s strategy of integrating the Houthis into the “axis of resistance” proved successful after Hamas’s Oct. 7 mass murder attack, when the Houthis joined the campaign in the Red Sea, disrupting Israeli shipping routes and severely damaging Egypt’s revenue from the Suez Canal, Segal noted.
In August, a Houthi drone expert, Hussein Mastour al-Shabeel, was killed in a U.S. strike on the Kata’ib Hezbollah Shi’ite militia in Iraq, a reminder that Iran is transferring information via its proxies from one arena to the other, through trainers, he added. This knowledge transfer includes long-range missiles, Segal said, including the past use of Hezbollah trainers in Yemen.
Underpinning this strategy is a fanatical Iranian religious ideology, expressed recently by the commander of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, who stated during a ceremony of the Iranian military, “We have come to prepare the Earth for the reappearance of Imam Mahdi,” according to the Iran Dossier website.
This messianic Shi’ite Islamist vision has been defined by Iranian officials as the goal of the Islamic Revolution, and used to justify aggression and proxy-building throughout the Middle East.
‘Fight to the last Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi‘
“I would argue that Iran’s long-term strategy, similar to its approach in Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza and Judea and Samaria, has successfully encircled Israel and kept it occupied on multiple fronts, all without Iran itself paying any direct price. Iran’s rationale is to push conflicts away from its borders and avoid involvement unless necessary—thus far, Iran has not responded to the assassination of Haniyeh on its soil,” said Segal.
“In essence, Iran is willing to fight to the last Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni and Iraqi. If Israel and the West seek long-term stability in the region, they must remove Iran from the equation, primarily by posing a direct threat to Iran and its leader, [Ali] Khamenei, personally,” he added.
Sunday’s missile attack led to debris from the interceptors falling in open areas, with fragments landing at the Paatei Modi’in Railway Station, west of Jerusalem. Additionally, a fire broke out near Moshav Kfar Daniel, with Israel Fire and Rescue Service crews arriving to contain and extinguish the flames.
The Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for the attack. According to Israel’s Army Radio, Saree said the missile was a hypersonic ballistic projectile capable of reaching a range of 2,040 kilometers (1,268 miles) in 11.5 minutes. He described the strike as part of the fifth escalation phase in the Houthi campaign against Israel.
A hypersonic missile is usually defined as a weapon capable of traveling at least Mach 5 or faster (five times the speed of sound)—a speed that can be matched by existing ballistic missiles. The difference is in the ability of hypersonic missiles to maneuver within the atmosphere after they re-enter it from space, according to the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
No indication they reached the testing stage
Uzi Rubi, founder and first director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization in the Defense Ministry, who played a key role in the development of the first Arrow missile defense program, expressed skepticism about claims that Sunday’s missile was hypersonic.
He noted that while Iran has announced its intentions to develop such weapons, there is no indication that they have reached the testing stage. Rubin, a senior research associate at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, assessed that the missile’s flight time matched that of a conventional ballistic missile.
“There is no doubt that the Iranians provided the Houthis with a version that is a little longer in range than the Qader missiles, which the Houthis have been using to attack Eilat until now,” he said.
In an analysis published at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in June, Rubin noted that the Ghader missile is a “more advanced version of the famous Iranian missile, Shahab 3,” which itself is a North Korean design that is manufactured under license in Iran.
He noted that Iranians have delivered Ghader missiles to “their Houthi allies in Yemen,” who used them to target Eilat six to seven times between October 2023 and June 2024. The Ghader’s accuracy is not very high, he said, and it is more suited for targeting population centers than precise facilities.
The Houthis have fired more than 200 projectiles at Israel since Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, according to IDF assessments. The Iranian-backed terrorists in Yemen also declared a maritime siege on Israel and parts of the Middle East, and attacked dozens of vessels from around the world, sinking some and disrupting the global economy.
The IDF is investigating its air defense performance. It declined to comment further on the incident.
Army Radio reported that since the start of the war, the Arrow system has intercepted numerous ballistic missiles, with a near-perfect success rate. This includes previous Houthi-launched ballistic missiles and the Iranian missile barrage on April 14.
On July 19, the Israeli Air Force targeted the Houthi-controlled fuel port of Hudeidah in “Operation Long Arm,” which involved fighter jets flying the same distance needed to hit Iran and striking port infrastructure used for terror activity, after which the Houthis vowed retaliation. The IAF attack came a day after the Houthis fired an Iranian-made Samad 3 suicide unmanned aerial vehicle at Tel Aviv, killing a civilian and injuring several others.
In April, a cruise missile fired from Yemen exploded north of Eilat,
This latest incident underscores the complex challenges Israel faces as it continues to defend itself against a multi-front war, addressing threats from both regional actors and distant adversaries like the Iran-backed Houthis. With the investigation underway, Israeli officials are reassessing the effectiveness of their missile defense systems in the face of evolving missile threats.
The post Iran Using Houthis’ Yemen as Weapons ‘Testing Ground’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.