Israel is likely to finally respond to Yemen’s Houthis in the coming weeks, The Jerusalem Post learned on Monday following yet another ballistic missile attack by the Iranian proxy.

The IDF air defense intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis on Monday, setting off sirens across central Israel, the army announced at 3:23 p.m.

The IDF added that the missile did not cross into Israeli territory. However, alerts were triggered due to the possibility of falling debris from the interception.

Generally, only the Arrow missile defense system is capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, as opposed to the Iron Dome, which shoots down lower-grade rockets.

Moreover, the cost of shooting down ballistic missiles can be as high as two to three million dollars per interceptor when the Arrow 2 or 3 is used.

Israeli security forces at the scene where a drone fired from Yemen hit a building in Yavne, December 9, 2024 (credit: Liron Moldovan/Flash 90)

Estimates are that the Houthis have fired around a dozen ballistic missiles and drones at Israel since the start of November, including several in the last two weeks.

Despite these ongoing attacks, Israel has failed to respond since October.

Tackling the Houthi threat

On December 2, the Post reported that it was unclear if or when Israel would respond to the Houthi ballistic missile attack from the day before.

The ballistic missile on December 1 was shot down outside of Israeli territory. No Israelis were killed or injured directly from the missile, but some shrapnel did land in certain central Israel areas, and a small number of persons got injured rushing for shelter.

Also, that missile – like Monday’s missile – set off warning sirens for almost all of central Israel since it was unclear exactly where it might hit if it had penetrated Israel’s air defense.

Because no one was killed or injured, because Israel had recently wrapped up a ceasefire with Hezbollah, because Israel has been hoping to wrap up a deal with Hamas as well, because Yemen is more than 1,800 km away, and because some of Israel’s grand strategy for the region is waiting for US President-elect Donald Trump to enter the White House on January 20, there were no signs whatsoever to date of an Israeli response.

If Yemen had not attacked again after December 1, Israel might have chosen not to respond at all.

Unlike the other two instances when the Houthis attacked in July and September and top Israeli officials quickly vowed a response, here officials were largely silent – until Monday.

But on Monday, sources finally indicated a loss of patience with the Houthis. On September 29, the IDF undertook a massive strike against the Houthis, which greatly exceeded the massive strike on Hodeidah in July.

Each of these attacks achieved some temporary quiet from the Houthis, but in both cases, within a month or so after Israel’s counterstrike, the Houthis started to attack Israel again.

US efforts to stop Houthi aggression beyond their country have also failed to date.

THE IDF on Monday announced that the volume of suspected West Bank terrorists it has arrested crossed the 6,000-person mark since the start of the current war 14 months ago.

While at the start of the war, around 60% or more of those arrested were members of Hamas, already in early 2024, the ratio was reversed and the majority of those arrested were not necessarily affiliated with Hamas.

At this point, the IDF said that 2,350 – or around 39%, a low for the war – are members of Hamas.

Those arrested who are not members of Hamas can be members of Islamic Jihad or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but more recently have been local gangs and militias who are not affiliated with wider terror groups.

Some of the arrests made overnight were unusual, such as the arrests of more than 10 suspects and the seizure of over NIS one million in terror funds from Jericho, villages in the Etzion bloc, and other areas.

There were also arrests and seizures of terror funds in northern Samaria near Salem, including confiscating some weapons. Eight suspects were arrested in northern Samaria and three in the other areas.

According to the human rights NGO HaMoked and based on data from the Israel Prison Service, as of December 2024, Israel holds 10,154 different categories of security prisoners – by far the largest number since the First Intifada of 1987-1991.

Of these, 2,003 are sentenced prisoners, 2,951 detainees are remanded in custody pending their trials, and 3,428 administrative detainees are being held outside standard criminal proceedings. Most of these Palestinians come from the West Bank.

Israel also holds 1,772 people as “unlawful combatants,” though this number has continually dropped after having reached thousands at the start of the war. Periodically and quietly, Israel has sent many of the unlawful combatants back to Gaza if and when it does not feel it has sufficient evidence to indict them.

Israel has also killed over 750 Palestinians in the West Bank, though IDF sources have told The Jerusalem Post that only around 3%, or around 25 Palestinian civilians, have been mistakenly killed during gunfights between the IDF and Palestinian terrorists in urban settings.

Israel has been criticized for the number of arrests and especially the number of administrative detainees. However, so much criticism has focused on alleged war crimes in Gaza, that there has been less attention this year to alleged violations by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank.

On the other end of the spectrum, Israelis living in the West Bank have criticized the IDF for being too lenient and slow to attack and arrest suspected Palestinian terrorists, which they say has led to an unprecedented number of terror attacks throughout the war.

In Gaza, the Israel Air Force struck Hamas terrorists operating in a command and control center embedded in what had previously been the UNRWA “Sheikh Jamil School” in Khan Yunis on Sunday, the military said on Monday morning.

The school, also dubbed the “Ahmed Abdul Aziz School,” was located within the Khan Yunis humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the IDF added.

The military further noted that the terrorists had planned to carry out terror activities against IDF troops and the State of Israel from within the training compound in the area.

Before the strike, the IDF implemented extensive precautions to minimize civilian harm, including the use of aerial surveillance, intelligence, and precision munitions, the military said.

“The terrorists operated from a structure that previously served as a school, which is yet another example of how the terrorist organization systematically operates within civilian population,” the IDF stated.

“The terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip systematically violate international law, exploiting civilian infrastructure and the Gazan population as human shields for terrorist activity,” it added.

Yonah Jeremy Bob is The Jerusalem Post’s senior military correspondent and intelligence analyst.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.