A senior Hamas member says Yemeni strikes against ships heading to the Israeli-occupied territories in retaliation for the onslaught against the Gaza Strip send a message to the West that they should stop the ongoing carnage in the territory or expect the crisis to expand across the region.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas political bureau, praised Yemeni strikes against Israeli-owned vessels or ships sailing towards the Israeli ports, saying the assaults reflect strong support for Palestinians in Gaza and convey a clear message to the West.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces’ attacks indicate that the West must either stop the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, or expect the Gaza war to spiral out of control and spill over the region,” Abu Marzouk pointed out.
The remarks came a day after the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces said a cruise missile fired by the country’s military had slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea as the vessel was heading towards an Israeli port to offload its cargo.
Speaking at a press briefing broadcast live from the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on Tuesday morning, Brigadier General Yahya Saree described the strike on the oil tanker Strinda as “a victory for the oppressed Palestinian people, who are currently being subjected to massacre, destruction and siege in the Gaza Strip, and in response to the calls from freedom-loving Yemenis and … other Muslim nations.”
He added that Yemeni naval units carried out the military operation against the Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen as it was sailing towards the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories.
Saree highlighted that Yemeni forces targeted the ship near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait with “an appropriate naval cruise missile.”
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has killed at least 18,608 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza since. Another 50,594 individuals have been wounded as well.
On December 4, the Yemeni army targeted two Israeli ships in the Red Sea as they were attempting to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Reports have shown that Israeli shipping companies have already decided to reroute their vessels in fear of attacks by Yemeni forces.
Yemeni forces have also launched missile and drone attacks on targets in the Israeli-occupied territories of Palestine after the occupying regime’s aggression on Gaza.
