Houthis say group would continue to target Israeli ships

SANAA

The Houthis said on Friday they will continue to target Israeli ships or those heading to occupied Palestine, despite the US-UK airstrikes on the group, Yemen's Saba news agency reported.

Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the group's Supreme Political Council, said “the American-Zionist and British aggression against Yemen is a brutal and unjustified criminal aggression, a blatant violation of all laws, and they will pay a heavy price.”

He emphasized the group's commitment to “preventing Israeli ships or those heading to occupied Palestine, regardless of the American Zionist and British aggression against the Yemeni people.”

“Yemeni blood is precious and our revenge does not abate," Mashat said, adding that the US and UK's action "will not dissuade Yemen from its position of support Palestine.”

The US and UK militaries launched strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen late Thursday.

According to the White House, the action was “in response to continued illegal, dangerous, and destabilizing Houthi attacks against vessels, including commercial shipping, transiting the Red Sea, the armed forces of the United States and United Kingdom, with support from the Netherlands, Canada, Bahrain, and Australia, conducted joint strikes in accordance with the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense, consistent with the UN Charter, against a number of targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.”

The Houthis say they attack Israel-linked commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians, after Tel Aviv launched an unrelenting military campaign on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala