The Yemeni defense minister in the National Salvation Government says the country’s armed forces will intensify their strikes if Israel doesn’t end its military aggression and all-out blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“If the Zionist regime does not stop its assaults on Gaza or anywhere else across the Palestinian lands and doesn’t lift its siege, our forces will then exercise more options,” Major General Mohammad Nasser al-Atifi said on Friday night.
Yemeni forces have launched missile and drone attacks on Israeli targets in the occupied territories and intercepted vessels bound for Israeli ports.
The US is forming a coalition to support Israel but the lack of details and clarity over what countries will be doing has added to confusion, leading some shipping companies to reroute vessels.
Atifi said, “The recent decisions by foreign military forces and their regional mercenaries have put many tasks before us, the most daunting of which is the exercise of vigilance and watchfulness.”
The official touched on the unwavering public support for the Yemeni Armed Forces under the leadership of Ansarullah chief Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, saying they have created a new equation both at regional and international levels.
Atifi also criticized the international community for failing to adopt an appropriate stance vis-à-vis Israel’s relentless aggression against Palestinians, stressing that such a position requires strategic decisions.
The relentless Israeli strikes against Gaza have killed at least 20,057 people, most of them women and children, in Gaza. Another 53,320 individuals have been wounded as well.
The Yemeni people 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.
“Numerous plots have been hatched against the Palestinian cause, Muslim and Arab nations, and peoples of the region,” Atifi said.
“All sectors of the Yemeni society, together with state institutions and freedom-loving Muslims worldwide, have managed to thwart the vile conspiracies though,” he added.
On Thursday, Eilat’s CEO Gideon Golber said Yemeni operations have crippled operations at the Israeli port in the southern tip of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Eilat has suffered a whopping drop in activity since Ansarullah began targeting the vessels that would use the key Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea to reach the port, he told Reuters.
