Report: Israel plans new foothold on the Red Sea to fight the Houthis

While the Iran war rages, Israel is quietly planning for a potential base at the mouth of the Red Sea from which to strike one of the Islamic Republic’s last proxies still operating at full strength: the Houthis rebels of Yemen, according to a report published by Bloomberg News

The report cited Khadar Hussein Abdi, Somaliland’s minister of the presidency. “In terms of security, we will have a strategic relationship (with Israel) and that encompasses a lot of things,” Abdi told Bloomberg at his office in Hargeisa, the capital. “We haven’t discussed with them if it becomes a military base, but definitely there will be an analysis at some point.”

Israel has already begun laying the groundwork for a potential base. Last June, a small group of Israeli security officials arrived in Somaliland to visit its strategic coastline, according to people familiar with the matter. The group spent days surveying the self-declared nation’s beaches, in order to identify a possible site for a base or installation to fight the Houthis, based just 160 miles across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen, the people said.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. One location under consideration by Israel, according to people familiar with the matter, is an area of high terrain about 62 miles west of Berbera, the port city where the United Arab Emirates – which normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords – has both a DP World harbor and a military airstrip.

Tensions between the Houthis and Israel escalated in 2023, after the rebels began bombing both the Red Sea and the Jewish state in retaliation for the war in Gaza. An Israeli general has established a special intelligence unit on the Houthis and said in a background briefing with Bloomberg that they have hundreds of rockets that can reach Israel.

“The Israeli relationship with Somaliland matters in large part because the Houthis are expanding along the Horn of Africa,” said Ari Heistein, a research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. “If the ongoing U.S.-Israel campaign degrades Iran’s ability to support the movement, the region could become an even more critical strategic arena for them.”

Shortly after Israel’s recognition on Dec. 26, more than a dozen senior military officials from Somaliland travelled to Israel for training as part of a push to deepen security ties, according to people familiar with the matter.

Following the diplomatic move, 21 Arab, Islamic and African states including Egypt and Qatar expressed outrage, warning of its potential “serious repercussions” for peace and security in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

 “The events in the Gulf, especially with Iran now attacking allies of the U.S., also highlight a dilemma for Somaliland – namely the prospect of getting dragged into regional conflicts without adequate defenses in place,” said Omar Mahmood, a senior analyst for Somalia at the International Crisis Group.