Some good quotes:
Radhiya al Mutawakil, chair of Mwatana for Human Rights, in Sana’a:
When we heard the airstrikes’ explosions yesterday, it brought back memories of the Saudi airstrikes of the past eight years and the memories of that ugly war.
We were shocked, not knowing the extent of this new round of violence. Is it just a show of force? Or is it a new round of fighting? As the day passed and we saw that the strikes were almost identical to those of Saudis, the Yemenis in the streets dismissed them, joking:
“Ah, they are the same strikes, but this time in English.”
The Houthis, as we can hear and see in the streets today, are happy with these strikes; they are using them as a propaganda victory. They say: “We are finally facing the real enemies: the US and Britain"
The irony is that eight years of war, with the pretext of weakening the Houthis, had, in fact, made them stronger. When the war started, the Houthis didn’t own rockets to hit their targets in Yemen. Now they have missiles that can strike targets in the sea and far into the region,
(And this one is for
klang )
The Houthis are the de facto authority that rules Sana’a. They have committed their share of violations, and the people [living in areas under their control] do not have much love for them. Still, as much as the Yemenis are exhausted from their own war, it is hard for them not to sympathise with the Palestinians. So for the Yemenis, even those who are opposed to the Houthis, it is hard for them not to sympathise with the Houthis attempt to support the Palestinians by attacking Israeli shipping in the Red Sea. At the same time, the Houthis are using these strikes to expand their popularity.
Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme:
for sure, the Houthis will now militarily mobilise more Yemenis to fight; they have already mobilised thousands of people in the past few weeks, and now they will recruit more and they will use these new forces to fight their opponents internally. These airstrikes are like a nugget of gold for the Houthis.
Finally, they are in a direct confrontation with the US. Whatever the price for that, it is worth it for them. I do believe they will attack more ships in Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea and oil infrastructure in the Gulf and US bases there.
The donkey has entered the market.
In Yemen, whenever a problem is out of control, we say
khalas – it’s done – the donkey has entered the market and is running havoc, and we can say the same thing after these strikes: the donkey has entered the market.
Look I think there should be a ceasefire in Gazza, what Israel is doing looks criminal to me. However Attacking civilian, cargo ships is quite obviously going to get a robust response at some point. It’s not like they weren’t warned.
