ADEN (Reuters) – The leader of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Thursday his group would monitor the implementation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza and continue its attacks on vessels or Israel if the deal is breached.
The Houthi militia, who had on an almost-weekly basis targeted ships using ballistic missiles and drones in waters near Yemen’s shores to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, had long said they would cease these operations if the conflict ended.
The ceasefire is expected to take hold on Sunday.
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“We will continue to monitor developments in Palestine during the three days prior to the entry into force of the Gaza agreement. If the Israeli massacres continue, we will continue our operations,” the Houthi leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said in a televised speech.
“At any stage in which the aggression retreats from the agreement, we will be ready to provide military support to our Palestinian brothers,” he said.
The Houthi attacks, which started in November 2023, have disrupted international commerce, forcing some ships to take the long route around southern Africa rather than the Suez Canal, leading to an increase in insurance rates, delivery costs and time that stoked fears of a new bout of global inflation.
The Houthis, who control most parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa since seizing power in late 2014, have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
The armed group has also launched missiles and drones towards Israel, hundreds of kilometres to the north. Israel has responded by striking Houthi areas on several occasions, including last week when Israeli warplanes bombed two ports and a power station.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month Israel was only at the beginning of its campaign against the Houthis.
The United States alongside Britain launched in December 2023 a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea, and have repeatedly conducted air strikes on Houthi strongholds targeting weapons storage facilities.
The EU later in February launched its own Red Sea mission, known as Aspides, to deter intensified Houthi attacks and help protect the key maritime trade route.
The Houthis appear to be the latest standing component of Iran’s anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias, known as the Axis of Resistance, which includes Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Shi’ite armed groups in Iraq.
Israel has dealt serious blows to Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, killing their top leaders and reducing their arsenals. In the aftermath, the decades-long regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was also toppled.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai, Yomna Ehab and Enas Alashray in Cairo, and Mohamed Ghobari in Aden, Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Nadine Awadalla, Michael Georgy and Bernadette Baum)
