US Defense System Fails For 2nd Time This Week Amid Houthi Missiles On Israel

In a potential sign of more escalation to come, Yemen’s Houthis (Ansarallah) have fired another ballistic missile directly on Israel – and this time it was reportedly intercepted. Last weekend saw a ballistic missile hit Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, injuring six – and Israel’s military then launched massive airstrikes on Yemen’s international airport in Sanaa.

The timing of the Friday attack is interesting given just days ago President Trump declared a US-Houthi ceasefire in the Red Sea. This was widely seen as Washington taking a step back from defending Israel, and the question of whether the US military could intervene against attacks on Israel was left open.

Friday’s inbound missile was intercepted not by a US-supplied system, but by Israel’s Arrow long-range air defense system. 

Israeli media is currently highlighting the failure of the American THAAD system, which missed the intercept:

The Houthi ballistic missile fired from Yemen at Israel a short while ago was successfully intercepted by Israel’s Arrow long-range air defense system, a security source tells The Times of Israel.

The American THAAD system deployed to Israel also engaged the missile but missed, for the second time this week, the source says. On Sunday, a THAAD interceptor missed a Houthi missile fired at Israel, while an Arrow interceptor malfunctioned, allowing the projectile to strike Ben Gurion Airport.

More of these failures of US-supplied systems could prove highly embarrassing. This is especially as the Houthis alter their attack priorities from US warships in the Red Sea (based on the purported ceasefire) – to more direct attacks on Israel.

Recent weeks saw an uptick in Houthi drone in the Red Sea, including against the USS Truman carrier, which reportedly resulted in a F-18 Hornet fighter jet going overboard. Within the last week, another F-18 Hornet crash landed and went overboard. Three total have been lost throughout the campaign, and many more MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Mass panic at Tel Aviv beach following launch of Houthi missile toward Israeli territory — social media footage

IDF says missile was intercepted pic.twitter.com/xEQza9HaOg

— RT (@RT_com) May 9, 2025

But then Trump shocked by saying Tuesday, “The Houthis have announced that they are not…that they don’t want to fight anymore.”

“They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that, and we will, we will stop the bombings, and they have capitulated, but more importantly, they we will take their word they say they will not be blowing up ships anymore,” he added.

“We just found out about that. So I think that’s very, very positive… I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the booties, effective immediately,” he said. He claimed the Iran-backed rebels have essentially admitted defeat:

“We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said.

Each Ansarallah missile Israel was forced to shoot down only helped them learn how to evade THAAD and Arrow. Now we have situation where a militia group in one of the poorest countries on earth—under constant US bombing— figured out how to overcome billions in air defense tech. pic.twitter.com/hDdhpoYROc

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) May 4, 2025

The fact that the US Commander-in-Chief had said that US attacks would go into effect “immediately” is quite significant – as the fight has been on for over a year. The Houthis have long vowed to keep up the attacks on Red Sea shipping so long as Israel occupies Gaza, but have given China and Russia a pass.