Yemen's Houthi rebels said on Monday they would take military action once a four-day deadline to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip expires, Reuters reported.

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said on Friday that the movement would resume naval operations against Israel if it did not end its suspension of aid to Gaza within four days, indicating a possible escalation.

The Iran-allied rebel movement has launched more than 100 attacks on shipping since November 2023, saying the attacks were in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war on the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. The attacks subsided in January after a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.

During those attacks, the Houthis sank two ships, seized another and killed at least four sailors, disrupting global shipping and forcing companies to reroute their ships to take a longer, more expensive route around southern Africa.

Al-Houthi said on Friday: “We will give a four-day grace period, and this is a grace period for the mediators in their efforts. If the Israeli enemy continues after the four days to prevent humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and continues to completely close the crossings and prevent the entry of medicine into the Gaza Strip, then we will resume our naval operations against the Israeli enemy. Our words are clear, and we meet the siege with a siege.”

On March 2, Israel blocked aid trucks from entering Gaza as the dispute over the truce escalated, and Hamas called on Egyptian and Qatari mediators to intervene.

The Palestinian movement welcomed the Houthi announcement on Friday. It said in a statement: “This courageous decision, which reflects the depth of the connection between the brothers in Ansar Allah and the brotherly Yemeni people to Palestine and Jerusalem, is an extension of the blessed positions of support and assistance they have provided over the course of fifteen months of the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip.”