Yesterday (Friday), the Houthi group in Yemen announced a decision to target all ships heading to Israel in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement, “The Yemeni Armed Forces (the group’s forces) are following the developments of the battle in the Gaza Strip, including the continuation of the Israeli and American aggression and the preparations for carrying out an aggressive military operation targeting the Rafah area, as well as the offer presented to the resistance in which the enemy wants to seize "Prisoners' paper without a permanent ceasefire."

Saree confirmed that, in implementation of the directives of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (the group’s leader) to defeat the oppression of the Palestinian people, and with the intransigence of the Israeli and American enemies, the armed forces announce the start of implementation of the fourth phase of escalation.

According to Sarie, this stage includes “targeting all ships violating the decision banning Israeli navigation and heading to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Mediterranean Sea in any area within our reach.”

He continued: “Implementation of this begins from the moment this statement is announced.”

Saree explained that “if the Israeli enemy intends to launch an aggressive military operation against Rafah, the Yemeni Armed Forces (the group’s forces) will impose comprehensive sanctions on all ships of companies that are related to supplying and entering the occupied Palestinian ports of any nationality and will prevent all ships of these companies.” from passing through the area of operations of the armed forces, regardless of their destination.”

The Houthi military spokesman indicated that the group's forces "will not hesitate to prepare and prepare for wider and stronger stages of escalation until the aggression stops and the siege on the oppressed Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," as he claimed.

Since November last year, the Houthis have been launching attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait against ships that the group says are Israeli or heading to Israel against the backdrop of the ongoing war between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October.

In mid-March, the group announced that it had begun expanding the scope of its operations against Israeli ships or those linked to Israel to include the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope.

In response to the Houthi naval attacks, the United States and Britain have launched a military operation since last January 12, including air strikes and missile strikes against the group’s targets in areas under its control in Yemen, which prompted the latter to expand the targeting circle to include American and British commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and to intensify the attacks recently. .