Yemen’s Houthis say Intl. waterways secure except for Israel-bound ships

“Sana’a explicitly stated that only Israeli ships, those heading to Israel, or affiliated vessels are targeted, while all other ships worldwide are not targeted,” Mohammed Abdul-Salam, Ansarullah’s spokesman, told Euronews on Thursday

The Houthi movement and Yemen’s Armed Forces have been staging missile and drone attacks against vessels heading towards Israeli ports in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has come under an unrelenting genocidal Israeli war.

At least 21,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed during the war, which the Israeli regime launched on October 7 following an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The Yemeni forces have vowed to keep up their strikes until the regime stops the war and lifts a concomitant siege that it has been enforcing on Gaza.

Abdul-Salam, meanwhile, commented on a naval coalition, which the United States recently announced forming with the aim of heading off the Yemeni attacks.

“The American coalition in the Red Sea is solely aimed at protecting Israel, failing to persuade the world of any risks in the Red Sea or the Arabian Sea,” he stated.

Washington, he added, had started exerting pressure on some shipping companies to stop transiting their vessels through the Red Sea as means of coercing some nations into joining the coalition.

“Yemen’s blockade against the Zionist enemy is founded on religious, ethical, humanitarian, national, and patriotic principles,” Abdul-Salam remarked.

He said Sana’a “understands the consequences of this decision,” adding, “Yet the gravest repercussions would result from abandoning the Palestinian cause” of liberation from Israeli occupation and aggression.