Houthis claim to attack ships in the Israeli port of Haifa

The Yemeni Houthi group announced on Thursday that it had launched two joint military operations with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance Movement against ships in the Israeli port of Haifa.

“The first attack targeted two ships carrying military equipment in Haifa port, while the second targeted a ship that violated the decision banning entry into the port,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement.

The Houthis, who control the capital and most of Yemen’s populated areas, have been attacking international shipping in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas fighters, provoking retaliatory strikes from the US and Britain since February.

(Reuters – Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, Clauda Tanios and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Bernadette Baum)