CAMERA’s Israel office today prompted correction of an Associated Press article which wrongly stated that the Iranian-backed Houthis of Yemen “sat out” the June 2025 war between Iran and Israel.
The Jan. 26 article by Jon Gambrell had originally erred: “Both the Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah sat out from Israel’s 12-day war on Iran that saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear sites” (“At least 6,126 people killed in Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests, activists say“). (A screenshot of the original wording is at left.)
The Houthis did not sit out the 12-day war.
The reported point of impact of a Houthi missile in Sa’ir, a Palestinian town near Hebron in the southern West Bank, June 14, 2025. (Screen capture: Shehab News Agency)
As the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies reported:
The Houthis are the only Iranian proxy to openly attack Israel in solidarity with Iran during the latter two countries’ most recent conflict. The Yemeni terrorist group has fired ballistic missiles at Israel on two confirmed occasions since Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s campaign to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, began on June 12.
On June 13, the Houthis launched a missile at Israel that fell near Hebron. The resulting explosion injured five Palestinians, including three children. Another Houthi missile fired on June 16 fell outside of Israel’s territory.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on June 15 that the Houthis targeted “the occupied Jaffa area with a number of Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missiles at different times over the past 24 hours. This operation was coordinated with the operations carried out by the Iranian army and the Revolutionary Guard against the criminal Israeli enemy.”
Indeed, Gambrell himself reported on June 17, 2025 (“How else could Iran retaliate over the ongoing Israeli strikes targeting the country”?):
Iraqi groups backed by Iran so far haven’t gotten involved, leaving just Yemen’s Houthi rebels as the only member of the axis to launch attacks on Israel since its campaign against Iran began.
In addition, AP reported the June 13 Houthi attack:
Israel says it intercepts missile launched from Yemen, setting off sirens in Jerusalem
There were no immediate reports of casualties or fallen shrapnel in Israel. A loud boom could be heard in the Holy City, possibly from Israeli interceptor fire.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen did not immediately claim the attack.
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, AP today updated the article in both English and Spanish, deleting the erroneous claim that the Houthis did not participate in the June 2025 war. The corrected version appeared in more than 50 English-language media outlets including The Baltimore Sun, The Houston Chronicle, and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In addition, the corrected Spanish article appeared in at least nine media outlets including Infobae.
See also “AP Clarifies That Houthi Missile Attack On ‘Israeli Military Targets’ Hit School“
For the Spanish version of this article, see CAMERA Español. This article was updated on Feb. 1 to note the secondary corrections.