What Yemen’s ‘Yafa’ drone operation means for US-Israeli genocidal schemes

By Wesam Bahrani

News headlines and media coverage over the past week focused solely on the Yemeni military’s unprecedented ‘Yafa’ drone that struck Tel Aviv, which was followed by Israeli aggression.

The fact is that the latest Yemeni military operation is way more significant and sends a strong message that news headlines have covered. It marks a paradigm shift in operations against the Zionist entity.

For several months now, the Axis of Resistance, beginning in Gaza, decided to counter a new American proposal, which some in the Israeli political and military establishment had accepted. 

Washington has tried to convince Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime to shift to a third stage. 

This third stage is based on ground realities: The ongoing massacres and wide-scale destruction in the besieged Palestinian territory aren’t producing the desired results or achieving anything for the regime. 

Public opinion among the Palestinian people about their resistance has grown stronger despite more than 39,000 innocent civilians, most of them children and women, being killed since October 2023.

Netanyahu’s team is only hoodwinking the world and their own settlers when they repeatedly state that this is the final battle to “wipe out Hamas”, or “four Hamas battalions are left in Rafah” only to assault the same places again and again by air, ground and sea. 

The cycle has been endless. 

The US military is in direct contact with the Israeli military on a daily basis and is fully aware of the capabilities of the Israeli army and how long it can survive. 

This is the same army waging genocide in Gaza that Washington depends on for its survival in order to maintain America’s hegemony in the West Asia region. 

It’s fit to recall the words of President Joe Biden, who as a young Senator in the 1980s, famously said if Israel didn't exist; the US would have to create one to protect its interests in the region. 

For this reason, Israeli and American generals are, in essence, sitting in one operation room overseeing a genocide that is now in its tenth month and likely to continue.  

But in the rare assessments that have been heard by senior Israeli generals and alluded to by the US Secretary of Defense, the “total victory” that Netanyahu speaks of is a pipedream based on illusions, which can collapse the already shaky foundations of the Israeli army. 

Explainer: How Yemeni drone ‘Yafa’ struck Tel Aviv, adding to woes of Netanyahu

Yemeni military’s drone strike in the heart of Tel Aviv yet again laid bare the inefficacy of Israeli defense systems and gave nightmares to regime officials.

It has been well documented now that injuries have become too high among the Israeli army. And these are harsh facts that Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid touched on. 

The Israelis are saying nearly 10,000 soldiers have been discharged from duty because of disabilities sustained in battles with the resistance groups. The unofficial figure is much higher. 

As for tanks, estimates suggest that half of the Israeli military vehicles have been destroyed. 

Hebrew news outlets Yedioth, Haaretz and Maariv report there aren’t enough tanks to continue the genocidal war on Gaza, let alone think about starting another one in southern Lebanon. 

As a result, the Americans came up with the idea of a third stage. 

Washington told the Israelis that its beleaguered army must leave areas where the occupation soldiers are being confronted, ambushed and killed by the resurgent resistance forces. 

This means withdrawing from Rafah, Khan Younis, Gaza City, Jabalia, etc. 

And shift to surgical airstrikes on the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement targets while keeping Israeli forces in areas where they can defend themselves. 

In other words, retreat to areas scattered across Gaza near the separation barrier with the 1948 land (which means Israeli forces still occupy Gaza), or even stay in “Netzarim”. 

The Palestinian resistance in Gaza announced it does not play around with numbers, stage 3, stage 4, etc.

The message from Hamas is either to reach a sustainable ceasefire, withdraw your forces in full, and lift the siege, or the fighting will continue and more Merkava tanks will be destroyed as has been witnessed in recent months.

The resistance will continue fighting in a way that suits the resistance. This is what happened in southern Lebanon before the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the country in 2000. 

However, Netanyahu rejected what the US suggested to him. He believes more escalation would make Hamas and other Palestinian factions weaker, get a deal quicker and deter Hezbollah, where the Israelis believe they can also reach a deal with the Lebanese resistance as it is already on the table. 

Hezbollah leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, declared in one of his speeches that they don’t recognize a third stage. The armed solidarity front with Gaza is open: “Reach a deal with Hamas and the Lebanese resistance will halt fire”. 

Netanyahu is stuck. 

More importantly, the resistance fronts in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq aren’t going to wait forever when a genocide is unfolding in the blockaded territory. 

The three fronts are causing problems for the illegitimate regime without trying to divert global attention from the slaughter of women and children in Gaza. 

Nevertheless, the resistance fronts need to create problems so that the regime is hastened to sign an acceptable ceasefire deal for the Palestinians. 

Yemen came and put this into action with its missiles and drones. Imagine this is the poorest country in the Arab world but very rich when it comes to courage and conviction to defend the oppressed.

The Yafa operation not only exposed the efficacy of the Israeli military systems but also destroyed the third American stage planned for the Israeli army. 

All the Israeli mind games on the battlefield in Gaza are aimed at wasting as much as time as possible. 

The Israelis, and to be more precise Netanyahu and his inner circle, can’t answer a simple question.

Are they in a position to waste more time in Gaza and commit more massacres while the number of soldiers disabled has now most likely exceeded 10,000? 

That’s just disabled soldiers, not seriously injured, with moderate injuries, or mental illnesses. 

And as the Palestinian resistance has rejected a third stage, literally saying get out of Gaza or the war of attrition will force you out, the Yemeni military’s Yafa drone translated the message of time wasting. 

The Yafa operation was unique in that it was the first time Tel Aviv was hit from outside the occupied territories since October 7. And it was smacked very badly, shattering the ego of Israeli generals.

And If Tel Aviv, a tourist hotspot, the economic hub and heartbeat of the regime, in an area with foreign embassies, can be hit without interception by the Iron Dome and the David’s Sling (that the Israelis are trying to sell) then all of the Israeli occupied territories are a target. 

This is what Ansarullah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi warned about in his speech when he spoke of entering the fifth phase of operations by the Yemeni Armed Forces. 

Wesam Bahrani is an Iraqi journalist and commentator.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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