Houthis planned to send 'hundreds of thousands' of fighters to Israel

The leader of the Houthis, Abdul Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, gave a public speech on Monday for the first time since the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. 

"We were ready to mobilize hundreds of thousands to fight alongside the Palestinian people, but the geo-political conditions did not allow this," he said. He blamed neighboring governments, with "did not agree to open safe land routes to arrive and participate in the battle with the Palestinian people in Gaza."

The decision to join in the "resistance" against Israel, al-Houthi said, came after the Al-Ahali hospital in Gaza was hit, which was initially attributed to an Israeli strike, although later was confirmed to be by an errant rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

According to al-Houthi, the pro-Iranian factions are now closely following the stages of the agreement's implementation. "We are ready for any stage in which the Israeli enemy will return to escalation and will violate the agreement," the Houthi leader threatened. "We are constantly on alert and our hands are on the pulse. The renewal of our activity is linked to the level of commitment of the enemy."

He hailed the unity between the Iran-backed groups in opposing Israel and its international allies. He added that the Houthis received threats from the US following the attacks launched on Israel's southern city of Eilat. According to him, however, "we continued our operation and emphasized the stability of our position."

According to the IDF, the Houthis have so far fired about 40 ballistic missiles at the country's territory, most of which the IDF intercepted. More than 300 unmanned aircraft have been launched at Israel as well, of which more than 100 were intercepted by various defense systems.