Why is Israel still in southern Lebanon? A war to shape Lebanon's future How many countries has Israel attacked in 2025? Israel has attacked more countries than any other country this year. In 2025, Israel attacked at least six countries, including Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, and Yemen. It also carried out strikes in Tunisian, Maltese and Greek territorial waters on aid flotillas heading for Gaza.

A weapons smuggler, who used a fishing boat to ship ballistic missile parts from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen, has been sentenced to 40 years in a US prison. Pakistani national Muhammad Pahlawan was detained during a US military operation in the Arabian Sea in January 2024 - during which two US Navy Seals drowned. Pahlawan's crew would later testify they had been duped into taking part, having believed they were working as fishermen. The Houthis were launching sustained missile and drone attacks on Israel at the time, as well as targeting international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they were acting in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. Iran has consistently denied arming the Houthis.

Israeli strike on Yemen's Houthis reportedly kills eight The Israeli military says its air force has carried out its most powerful strike in Yemen in response to the Houthi movement's repeated drone and missile attacks on Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said dozens of its aircraft bombed targets belonging to the Houthis' security and intelligence services, and military in the capital Sanaa. The Houthi-run government's health ministry denounced what it called Israel's brutal crime, saying civilian facilities and residential buildings were hit and that eight people were killed. It comes a day after 22 people were injured, two of them seriously, in a Houthi drone attack in the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat. The Houthis have controlled much of north-western Yemen since they ousted the country's internationally recognised government from there 10 years ago, sparking a civil war.

The Israeli military says a drone launched "from the east" crashed in the southern city of Eilat, causing material damage but no casualties. The drone reportedly fell in the city's hotel zone. Israel has repeatedly conducted its own attacks on Yemen. Following its bombing of Qatar on September 9, Israel intensified its strikes on Yemen, killing dozens. The drone attack in Eilat follows a series of 12 strikes carried out by Israel on Tuesday against Yemen's port of Hodeidah.

A fragile ceasefire remains in place between Israel and Iran, one day after US President Donald Trump announced a truce, ending 12 days of fighting that erupted following Israeli strikes on Tehran's nuclear and military sites. An analysis of data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) shows that between October 7, 2023, and just before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, 2025, Israel carried out nearly 35,000 recorded attacks across five countries: the occupied Palestinian territory, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. These attacks include air and drone strikes, shelling and missile attacks, remote explosives, and property destruction. The majority of attacks have been on Palestinian territory with at least 18,235 recorded incidents, followed by Lebanon (15,520), Syria (616), Iran (58) and Yemen (39). While the bulk of Israel's attacks have concentrated on nearby Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon, its military operations have also reached far beyond its immediate borders.

Sometimes journalists befuddle me, and I'm a journalist – although my touchy detractors would dispute that. Perhaps like you, I have been watching – with a healthy dose of bemusement and amusement – the outrage-du-jour dominate the latest 24-hour "news cycle" in North America and beyond. Such is the squirrel-like attention span of many of my perpetually outraged colleagues, that today's outrage usually has a short life expectancy since another outrage inevitably comes along tomorrow. But the outrage seizing Washington, DC – the capital of outrage – appears poised to consume the Beltway press corps for more than a day or two. When that happens, the outrage tends to evolve into a four-alarm scandal which journalists crave because it often translates into a big, ego-boosting award for the lucky scribe who triggered the original outrage.

Yemen's Houthi group says it has carried out a drone attack in central Israel's Tel Aviv area in "a specific military operation" in support of Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis said in a statement on Monday that their forces struck "a sensitive target of the Israeli enemy". An Israeli military statement said a drone hit a building in the city of Yavne after air defence systems failed to detect it and an investigation into the failure is under way. The Houthis said the operation "achieved its objective" without providing details. No injuries were reported in the attack, which caused damage to several apartments in the building, according to Israeli media reports.

US warships came under sustained missile and drone attack from Houthi fighters as they sailed off the coast of Yemen, the Pentagon has confirmed, with the armed group claiming it attacked the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and two US destroyers. Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said on Tuesday that the United States military's Central Command (CENTCOM) forces "successfully repelled multiple Iranian backed Houthi attacks during a transit of the Bab al-Mandeb strait", which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Ryder told reporters at a news conference that two US-guided missile destroyers – the USS Stockdale and USS Spruance – were attacked by at least eight one-way attack drones, five antiship ballistic missiles and three antiship cruise missiles. All the Houthi drones and missiles "were successfully engaged and defeated", and neither of the US Navy ships were damaged or personnel hurt, he said. Ryder added that he was not aware of any attacks against the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Israel launched its first-ever strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen just days after Jerusalem vowed revenge for a drone strike on Tel Aviv. Russia has been aiding the Houthis' assault on Western shipping lanes in the Red Sea by providing them targeting data. As the Houthis ramped up their strikes on the U.S. and other nations' postures in the region after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Russians offered satellite data allowing them to expand their strikes, take out multimillion-dollar U.S. drones and hit ships sailing through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, through which 12% of global trade passes, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Each munition used to intercept a Houthi strike costs the U.S. upwards of between 1 million and 4 million. The data passed through Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Here in northern Israel we hear booms at regular intervals as Iron Dome intercept rockets that Hezbollah fires from southern Lebanon. Israel says it hits more than 90% of its targets. But Iron Dome works because Hezbollah's rockets are crude – and it's possible to calculate where it's rockets will go at take-off and then intercept them. Stopping drones is more complicated. And has in this war become a recurring problem.