Yemen’s Houthis said on Tuesday they will attack any Israeli ship that violates the group’s ban on Israeli vessels passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, effective immediately.
The “ban on the passage of all Israeli ships” will continue “until the crossings to the Gaza Strip are reopened and aid, food, and medicine are allowed in,” said the Houthi terror group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, on behalf of the Houthi leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi.
This announcement follows al-Houthi’s Friday statement that the terror group would resume its naval operations against Israel if Israel did not lift a blockage of aid into Gaza within four days.
The Houthis, who control most of Yemen, also said in February that they would take military action if the US and Israel tried to displace Palestinians from Gaza forcibly.
Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, noted on Friday that al-Houthi warned “that Yemen cannot tolerate the escalation of tension, the prevention of aid entry into Gaza, or the return of famine to this region of Palestine. The Zionist enemy has significantly reduced its obligations, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and the number of patients moving outside of Gaza has decreased drastically.”
Houthi naval attack history and wider context
The Iran-aligned movement staged more than 100 attacks on shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza – and the assaults tailed off in January after a ceasefire there.
Over that period, it sank two vessels, seized another, and killed at least four seafarers in an offensive that disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to reroute to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.
The US State Department said on March 4 that it was designating the Houthi movement as a “foreign terrorist organization” after US President Donald Trump’s call for the move earlier this year.
Earlier on March 4, the Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya reported that Houthi radars in Yemen had been targeted in airstrikes.
Seth J. Frantzman contributed to this report.
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