The United States has imposed a new round of sanctions on Houthi-linked officials, companies and networks, widening its economic campaign against the Yemeni movement as fighting around the Gaza war continued to reverberate across the region. Al Jazeera reported that the US Treasury targeted Hashem al-Madani, governor of the central bank in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, along with several officials and associated entities accused of helping the group obtain dual-use and weapons-related components.
The move placed unusual emphasis on the financial architecture that Washington says sustains the Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah. Treasury described al-Madani as the primary overseer of funds sent to the movement by the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The sanctions are designed to block assets under US jurisdiction and make it largely illegal for Americans to conduct financial transactions with those listed. Treasury official Bradley Smith said the aim was to disrupt efforts by the Houthis to secure additional revenue and to expose the schemes that enable what Washington calls destabilizing activity.
The central-bank angle is especially significant because Yemen effectively has two rival financial authorities. One operates in the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa and serves territory under rebel control, while another works from Aden for the internationally recognized government and allied factions. By sanctioning the Sanaa governor, the United States signaled that it sees Houthi military capacity and Houthi financial administration as inseparable.
The announcement came just hours after Israeli strikes hit targets in Yemen, including power stations near Sanaa, killing at least nine people, according to the Al Jazeera report. Those bombardments followed a Houthi missile launch toward Tel Aviv. The rapid sequence of attack and sanction highlighted the two-track pressure now bearing on the group: military strikes by Israel and economic restrictions led by Washington.
Yet the report also made clear that neither approach had compelled the Houthis to pull back. The movement has continued launching drones and missiles toward Israel and attacking shipping routes in and around the Red Sea, arguing that these operations are part of its support for Palestinians in Gaza. The United States and the United Kingdom have for months struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to attacks on maritime traffic, and Washington has already labeled the group specially designated global terrorists. Even so, the Houthis publicly insisted they would continue.
Ansar Allah leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi said Israeli attacks would not alter the group’s position and vowed further escalation. Later the same day, the Houthis claimed another drone attack against Israel and said they were prepared for a long war. That message was reinforced by praise from Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas’s Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, both of which commended the Houthi military campaign. Hezbollah in Lebanon also condemned the Israeli bombing of what it called civilian infrastructure in Yemen.
This wider reaction matters because it shows the sanctions were imposed not in a narrow Yemen-only conflict but in a regional struggle shaped by alliances, symbolic messaging and overlapping fronts. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had suggested the Houthis might reconsider their course after setbacks for other Iran-aligned groups, but the immediate Houthi response pointed the other way.
For Washington, the latest sanctions represent an attempt to squeeze the movement where military force has not delivered decisive change: money, logistics and access to equipment. Whether that works remains uncertain. The available evidence suggests the Houthis were under heavier financial and military pressure on the event date, but not under enough pressure to stop or even pause the campaign they say is tied to Gaza.
