
An image grab taken from a video shows Yemeni Shia Houthi movement s leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi delivering a televised statement. AFP
In a broadcast speech, Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said on Tuesday “Our eyes are open to constantly monitoring and searching for any Israeli ship” in the Red Sea, especially the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Israel is “afraid to the extent” that it does not raise its flags on ships passing through the Red Sea, he said, vowing that his group will search for any ships belonging to Israel and attack them.
"The Israeli enemy relies on camouflage in its movement in the Red Sea, especially in the Strait of Bab al-Mandab, and did not dare to raise the Israeli flags on its ships ... and turned off identification devices," he added.
The Bab al-Mandab Strait is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, which carries about a fifth of global oil consumption.
Houthis had already fired a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of armed aircraft towards Israel in separate operations since the Israeli war on Gaza began on 7 October.
In late October, Abdelaziz bin Habtour, the Houthi government’s prime minister, said we are "part of the axis of resistance" against Israel, which includes groups in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and were fighting with both "words and drones.”
Last Saturday, the Yemeni House of Representatives in Sanaa voted on a draft law “prohibiting and criminalizing recognition of the Israeli occupation entity and normalization ties with it.”
In his speech, Al-Houthi also said the Israeli occupation is committing war crimes against the Palestinian people, noting that Israel's shelling of residential neighbourhoods and hospitals reflects “the criminal tendency of the Zionist enemy.”
Israel has killed at least 11,320 Palestinians — including 4,630 children and 3,130 women — since the eruption of the war on Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
"Since the beginning of the barbaric Zionist aggression on Gaza, our position has been clear and honourable … we stand with the Palestinian people at all levels, including the military one,” Al-Houthi said.
"If our people have land access to Palestine, they would move by hundreds of thousands to support Gaza," he further noted.
The Houthi leader also expressed his dissatisfaction with the final statement of the Arab Islamic summit that took place in Riyadh on Saturday, saying it showed the Arab weakness.
He wondered how a gathering representing 57 Arab countries and more than one-and-a-half billion Muslims could come up with nothing more than a statement in response to the Israeli attacks on the Palestinian territory.
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