Houthis claim to have carried out two attacks on ships in Haifa port | Houthis News

The Yemeni group claims to have carried out the military operations jointly with Iraqi groups, but Israel denies attacks.

The Yemeni Houthis have launched two joint military operations with the Islamic Resistance Movement in Iraq against ships in the Israeli port of Haifa, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised address.

“The first target was two ships carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa, while the second target was a ship that violated the decision banning entry into the port,” Saree said on Thursday.

“The two operations were carried out with a number of (drones) and the attacks … were precise.”

The Israeli military immediately denied this claim and called it “untrue.”

Both the Houthis and the Iran-backed Iraqi groups operating under the name “Islamic Resistance” have independently claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli interests in the region.

The results of Thursday’s operations are still unclear, but the announcement shows a growing level of coordination between different groups in the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Houthis said the latest attack was a response to the “massacre of the Israeli enemy in Rafah” in the southern Gaza Strip.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said the group’s operations alongside the Islamic Resistance in Iraq against Israel were intensifying.

The Houthis, who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa and pose as the country’s official armed forces, have been attacking international shipping in the Red Sea since November, saying it is a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinians and against the Israeli attack on Gaza.

Further “joint operations”

The alleged attack came amid growing fears of escalation in the region as Israel’s war on Gaza, in which over 36,500 Palestinians have been killed, continues.

Hezbollah recently declared that it was “ready for all-out war” with Israel if the conflict was forced upon it. The group and Israel have been exchanging fire almost daily for eight months.

Last month, days before the Israeli army launched an offensive on the crowded city of Rafah, the Houthis warned they would attack ships heading to Israeli ports in any area within their reach.

Due to the attacks, shipping companies were forced to divert their cargo to longer and more expensive voyages around southern Africa.

Saree said the Israeli army should expect “more targeted joint operations” until its “brutal and criminal aggression stops and the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”

A US-led military coalition has been bombing Houthi targets since January, but the Yemeni group continues its attacks.

Since October 7, Israeli forces have destroyed large parts of the Gaza Strip, displacing some 1.7 million people from their homes and bringing the besieged enclave to the brink of famine.