Who the Houthis Are

What it is

The Houthi movement calls itself Ansar Allah, which means Partisans of God. ¹ It is a mostly Zaydi Shia revivalist political and insurgent movement, formed by the Houthi family in northern Yemen in 2004, and the Congressional Research Service describes its beliefs as anti-American, anti-Zionist, and anti-Jewish. ¹ From 2004 to 2014 it built up local power in Saada governorate along the Saudi border, fighting the Yemeni central government and at times Saudi Arabia itself. ¹ After a 2012 popular uprising forced out president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Houthis rejected the national dialogue meant to produce a new government, went back to insurgency, seized the capital Sana'a in 2014, and pushed south toward Aden. ¹

Yemen's interim leaders fled in March 2015 and asked for international intervention. ¹ A coalition led by Saudi Arabia began a military campaign against the Houthis that month, with American logistical, intelligence, training, and advisory support. ¹ Yemen's underlying conflict is still unresolved more than a decade on. ¹ A truce has frozen the conflict lines since 2022, and as of February 2026 the Houthis control most of northwestern Yemen, including Sana'a and most of the country's population. ² The UN reports that 19.5 million Yemenis, more than half the country, need humanitarian aid. ²

Zaydism is a branch of Shia Islam distinct from the Twelver Shiism that predominates in Iran, and the International Crisis Group describes it as closer to Sunnism in rites and practice. ¹ The Congressional Research Service notes that this religious difference with Iran's Twelver establishment may shape how the Houthi leadership approaches cooperation with Tehran. ¹

The ADL renders the slogan on the Houthi banner as "Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews," and traces it to a January 2002 sermon by the movement's founder, Hussein al-Houthi. ⁴ In that sermon he said he had included the Jews because, in his telling, they move the world and spread corruption in it. ⁴ A month earlier, in a Quds Day sermon in December 2001, he had argued that Arab and Muslim nations would not be delivered from the Jews except by eradicating them and eliminating Israel. ⁴

Yemen's own Jewish community shrank as the movement grew. ⁴ The country's Jewish population fell from roughly 200 people to 43, and in 2007 the Houthis gave the roughly 70 Jews of Saada ten days to leave. ⁴

Why it still matters

Yemen sits on the Bab al-Mandab, the strait at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, and the UN Security Council has said that merchant and commercial vessels transiting it must be allowed to move unimpeded. ³ Yemen has long been the Arab world's poorest country, and control of that coastline is what turns a militia there into a problem for global commerce. ²

On November 19, 2023, Houthi fighters landed on the car carrier Galaxy Leader by helicopter and seized it along with its 25 crew. ⁷ The ship was Bahamas-flagged and connected to the Israeli businessman Abraham "Rami" Ungar; the crew were Filipino, Bulgarian, Romanian, Ukrainian, and Mexican. ⁷ The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2722 on January 10, 2024, condemning at least two dozen Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels since that seizure, demanding the attacks stop, and demanding the release of the Galaxy Leader and its crew. ³ The resolution also condemned the supply of arms to the Houthis in violation of the existing UN embargo, and cited a Panel of Experts report from October 2023 that had found large-scale violations of it. ³ The crew were held for fourteen months and released on January 22, 2025. ⁷ By that point the campaign had targeted more than 100 merchant vessels, sunk two, and killed four sailors. ⁷

Between August 2024 and August 2025, the Houthis launched 220 missile and drone attacks on Israel, according to the UN Panel of Experts. ¹ One drone reached Tel Aviv on July 19, 2024, and killed Yevgeny Ferder. ⁵ Israel struck back at Houthi port, airport, military, and electricity targets, and in August 2025 killed the prime minister of the Houthi government in Sana'a along with other officials. ¹ The stated Houthi rationale is pressure on Israel over the war with Hamas, and they paused attacks after the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire while saying they would resume if the war did. ²

The Iran question is where serious analysts disagree. Iran has supplied the Houthis with components and technical knowledge for long-range missiles, rockets, and drones; Houthi fighters have trained at an Iranian naval academy and received instruction from the IRGC. ¹ Yemeni government officials estimated in 2024 that Houthi forces might number as many as 350,000 fighters, and the group has displayed weapons with ranges up to 2,150 kilometers. ¹ The strongest case for calling them an Iranian proxy is that the arsenal and the training are Iranian, and the ADL calls them Iran's terror proxy in Yemen. ⁵ The strongest case against a pure proxy reading comes from the same Congressional Research Service report that documents the Iranian support: it notes that Houthi leaders may act independently of and contrary to Iranian preferences, that their rhetoric mixes Yemeni, pro-Palestinian, and pan-Islamic themes, and that the Zaydi and Twelver differences may shape how far they will go for Tehran. ¹ Our view is that both readings hold at once: Iran supplies the arsenal, and does not control every decision about when it gets used.

The United States designated Ansarallah a Foreign Terrorist Organization effective March 5, 2025, in an order signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on February 19, 2025, covering the aliases Ansar Allah, Ansarullah, Partisans of God, Supporters of God, and Houthi group. ⁶ As of May 2026 the Houthis had carried out a limited set of new attacks on Israel during the 2026 US and Israel conflict with Iran, and had not resumed attacks on ships. ¹

The words you'll hear

Ansar Allah. The movement's own name for itself, meaning Partisans of God. It is the name used in the US terrorism designation, which lists Houthi group as an alias. ⁶

Zaydi. The branch of Shia Islam that is the Houthi movement's core religious constituency, distinct from the Twelver Shiism of Iran and, per the International Crisis Group, closer to Sunnism in rites and practice. ¹

Bab al-Mandab. The strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. Resolution 2722 singles out merchant and commercial vessels transiting it as traffic that must be allowed to move unimpeded. ³

The slogan. The text on the Houthi banner, rendered by the ADL as "Death to America, Death to Israel, Damn the Jews," coined by Hussein al-Houthi in a sermon in January 2002. ⁴

Galaxy Leader. The car carrier seized with its 25 crew on November 19, 2023, whose release the Security Council formally demanded and which the Houthis granted on January 22, 2025. ^{3 7}

Foreign Terrorist Organization. The US State Department designation applied to Ansarallah effective March 5, 2025, under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. ⁶