Houthis pledge to step up shipping attacks to pressure Israel on Gaza

By Sherif Tarek

  Houthi militants pledged to target ships of any company that deals with Israeli ports, escalating their military operations in a bid to increase pressure on Israel to further ease restrictions on the hunger-ravaged Gaza Strip. 

The targeted ships will be attacked “in any location within the reach of our armed forces,” a spokesman for the Iranian-backed group, Yahya Saree, said in televised comments. “All our military operations will be ceased immediately upon the cessation of aggression against Gaza and the lifting of the blockade.”

 

The Houthis, who took control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014, have been striking Israel and commercial vessels in the Red Sea after Israel’s war with Hamas, which rules Gaza, began in October 2023.   

 

More than $2 trillion of global seaborne trade had passed by the coast of Yemen per year — most of which were ships heading to and from the Suez Canal on journeys between Europe and Asia. Traffic plunged by about 70 per cent after the Houthis began attacking vessels in the area and has remained low despite a lull in attacks in 2025.

 

Israel increased aid distribution to Gaza as it faces a growing international outcry over hunger in the shattered Palestinian enclave. The Israeli army on Sunday suspended some military operations to facilitate the movement of United Nations relief convoys and restored electricity to a desalination plant in Gaza for the first time since March. 

 

The Houthis have already been targeting ships that had ties to Israel. Earlier this month, the group carried out attacks that sank two cargo ships, killed three crew members and led to detention of 11 others. These were the first such assaults on merchant vessels since November. 

 

Israel has occasionally struck Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation.