Yemen's Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area that is within their range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Friday.
Yahya Sarea, the Houthi military spokesperson, delivers a statement, during a pro-Palestinian rally, saying they launched an attack on the "Pacific 01" ship in the Red Sea with missiles, in Sanaa, March 15, 2024. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah
Yemen's Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area that is within their range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Friday.
"We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach," he said.
The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.
This has forced shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and has stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilise the Middle East.
The Houthis should exercise more caution if they do not want to see their power destroyed by an international military operation, the outlines of which are becoming clearer.
Reporting by Jana Choukeir
Ship traffic through Bab el-Mandeb fell on Sunday after Yemeni Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast, while transit through the Strait of Hormuz stayed low over the weekend, shipping data from Kpler showed on Monday.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the U.S. next week.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks.
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