“The Investigator” reveals the details of the first Israeli operation in Yemen news

In a new investigative investigation, the “Investigator” program revealed the details of Israel’s first operation in Yemen, and the details of a specific operation carried out by a young Palestinian from Gaza starting from Yemeni territory in the 1970s.

The episode (10/31/2025) shed light on the old, renewed conflict in an arena of intense international competition to impose influence over the crossing gateway to the Red Sea, the main scene of events that have, over decades, constituted a source of threat to Israel’s maritime security southward through Yemen.

Through archives and documents dating back 80 years, the investigative report presented by Jamal Al-Maliki monitored the roots of the conflict between Yemen and Israel and traced Israel’s first military operation outside its geographical scope.

The investigation indicates that the revolution in North Yemen (in 1962) against the monarchy constituted an arena of international conflict, and it is noteworthy that Israel had a direct role during the process, the details of which the investigation revealed for the first time.

In October 1962, a secret meeting was held between two high-ranking Israeli and British intelligence officers. The idea of ​​establishing an air bridge was proposed in which Israel would support the royalists with weapons. But, as the documents indicate, the so-called “Aden Group” was the main driver in that process.

Ibrahim Kahane, professor at the University of Haifa and author of the book “Espionage,” comments on these events by saying, “It was the first proxy war in the Middle East. The British were tired after the Cold War,” noting that “Israel suggested during the meeting that it would help and provide support to the royalists.”

Israel’s goals

The report explains that on the evening of March 31, 1964, the operation was launched, as the planes took off from the “Tal Nouf” base south towards Sana’a, and after dropping the payload, they landed in Djibouti to refuel, then returned north on the same route. Two bases in Djibouti and Ethiopia have been designated as emergency landing strips in case of danger. Fourteen flights were carried out over a period of two full years, the last of which was on May 5, 1966, after the Egyptians were informed of the weapons shipments and their willingness to intercept Israeli aircraft.

Regarding the goals of Israel’s intervention, Asher Orkabi, a historian specializing in Yemen, says, “Israel knows that, with the help of the royalists, it is indirectly weakening the Egyptian army, because it was fighting with the Yemeni Republicans against the royalists.”

According to the “Investigator” presenter, some documents indicate that Imam Muhammad al-Badr Hamid al-Din promised that if he won the war, he would recognize Israel.

According to Abdullah Al-Ashtal, the former permanent representative of Yemen to the United Nations, the Israeli penetration into the country was linked to several factors, the most important of which was the British presence in the East Africa region, indicating that Ethiopia was a fertile region for Israeli strategies at that stage.

As for Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Dr. Mahmoud Mari, he said, “The main interest historically began with the conflict or war between Egypt and Israel, and the closure of the Straits of Tiran and Sanafir, which changed the Israeli strategy to pay attention to this region.”

He added, “Israel is striving hard for the Red Sea to not be an Arab lake. It was relying on Ethiopia for that, and now it is relying on Eritrea.”

The investigation, titled “Yemen and Israel…The Roots of the Conflict,” stated that despite the state of relative calm and stability that the Red Sea experienced geopolitically from the end of the 1990s to the end of the second decade of the new millennium, the events of October 2023 in Gaza put the Red Sea back on the map of regional and international attention again.

Training and planning

On the other hand, Al-Muharri’s investigative investigation indicates that since its independence, South Yemen has been a starting point for Palestinian organizations and a back base for them, as it was one of the stations of the Palestinian struggle in the 1970s, as Aden was the safe headquarters for training and planning for many operations.

According to Bassam Abu Sharif, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (1967 to 1987), the special work for which the leader of the Front, Dr. Wadih Haddad, was responsible, took Yemen as a center for a group of special training sites, so the attention of one of the Mossad (Israeli intelligence) teams was focused on Yemen.

Left-wing fighters from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine targeted an Israeli oil tanker near Mayon Island while it was on its way through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Al-Sharif says that the one who carried out the operation was a young Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip named Abu Hanafi, who died two years ago in Gaza, and he was the one who fired 5 missiles at the tanker and seriously injured it.