Posts falsely claim Yemen officially entered Israel-Hamas conflict

"Yemen has announced they are now AT WAR WITH ISRAEL," says Jackson Hinkle, an American political commentator who has repeatedly spread misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, in an October 31, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Similar claims gained thousands of interactions on X and spread on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The posts often include a video of what appears to be a press conference held by an army officer.

Image

A collage made November 3, 2023 shows social media posts that claim Yemen is at war with Israel

The allegations spread as Israel entered a new phase of its month-long war, encircling Gaza City and urging residents in the besieged territory to head south.

Fighting was triggered by Hamas's bloody raids on October 7, which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 9,200 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes, mostly women and children.

Top US diplomat Anthony Blinken visited Israel on November 3 to urge its leaders to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but President Benjamin Netanyahu warned that there could be no "temporary truce" unless Hamas releases the estimated 241 Israeli and foreign hostages it took during its October 7 attacks.

The Arab world has been united in condemning Israel's air strikes -- but the social media posts about Yemen are inaccurate.

The country's internationally recognized government has repeatedly condemned Israeli operations in Gaza, but it had not taken military action as of November 3.

Aerial attacks on Israel have been claimed by Yemen's Huthi rebels, an Iran-backed group that seized Yemen's capital Sanaa in 2014 and controls large swaths of the country.

On October 31, the Huthis pledged more attacks against Israel if its war on Hamas in Gaza continues, saying it had already fired drones and ballistic missiles in three separate operations.

"The Huthis frequently assert themselves as the legitimate representatives of Yemen, a stance often amplified in their media channels," said Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, on November 1. But the Huthis are not Yemen's official authorities.

Yemen's official government has "refrained from military interventions," Nagi said.

A reverse image search indicates the officer in the video shared on social media is Yahya Saree, a Huthi military spokesman (archived here). News network France 24 published a dubbed version of the video November 1 (archived here).

"The Yemeni Armed Forces ... confirm they will continue to carry out qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops," Saree said.

Image

Screenshot of a video on France 24's website taken November 3, 2023

But Mohammed Al Basha, a Middle East analyst at the Virginia-based research group Navanti, said despite these statements and claims of responsibility, Huthi rebels "have not formally declared war."

Basha told AFP on November 2: "Meanwhile, the internationally recognized government in Aden has criticized Israeli military actions in Gaza but has not issued a declaration of war, either."

Israel continues to face aerial attacks from groups around the Middle East -- including Yemen's Huthi rebels and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

More of AFP's reporting on misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict is available here.