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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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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.