Israel Missile Ships Deployed to Red Sea Amid Yemen Threat

Israel has sent Navy missile boats to the Red Sea to bolster its presence there following missiles attacks from Iranian proxies in Yemen.

Video released by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) showed Sa'ar-class corvettes patrolling near Eilat port in the Red Sea, amid concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could spill over into the wider region.

The IDF said the vessels were deployed on Tuesday "as part of the increased defense efforts in the area," after the Tehran-backed Houthi movement said it had launched missile and drone attacks on Israel and vowed to carry out more.

The X (formerly Twitter) account of The Crisis Watch, which posts about defense news, said that each of the Sa'ar 6-class corvettes had 16 Barak-8 and 40 Tamir surface-to-air missiles "which not only protects the Corvettes but also Eilat."

The Houthis are part of the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance, which is hostile to Israel and the U.S. and includes Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias in Iraq. The Houthis govern parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa, which is more than a thousand miles from Israel.

The group said on Tuesday said that since the start of the war on October 7, it had launched three drone and missile attacks towards Israel and pledged there would be more "to help the Palestinians to victory."

Members of the Iranian-backed alliance offer moral and financial support for Hamas whose attack on southern Israel that killed 1,400 people has been 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 said the 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 last 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.

Since the start of the war, there are concerns about what role Hamas-supporting groups in the region might play, especially given U.S. expressing its support for Israel in fighting the militant group following the attacks of October 7.

Experts have dismissed the likelihood that Iran would enter directly into the war, although there are fears that clashes between Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces with Israel's military along its northern border with Lebanon could escalate.