102 Israeli, US, and British Vessels Attacked by Missiles, Drones From Yemen
Yemen's Houthi group said Thursday that it had targeted 102 Israeli, US and British vessels since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict last October. "Some 102 Israel, US and British ships were attacked during 202 days of Israeli aggression on Gaza," Houthi movement chief Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a speech today. He indicated that around two Israel-linked ships are targeted daily by his group. He added, "The navigation of US ships in the Red Sea has dropped by 80%." The Houthis have been targeting ships that are Israeli-owned, flagged, operated, or heading to Israeli ports in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed over 34000 people since October last year.
A warship intercepted an anti-ship ballistic missile fired over the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday, the American military said, marking a new attack by Yemen's Houthis after a recent lull. The Houthis claimed the assault, which comes after a period of relatively few rebel attacks on shipping in the region over Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The explosion happened some 80 miles southeast of Djibouti in the Gulf of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in a statement. Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen has targeted the group. American officials have speculated that the Houthis may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them.
The death toll from a migrant boat disaster off Djibouti this week has risen to 24, the UN's migration agency said, highlighting a sharp increase in the number of people returning from Yemen to the Horn of Africa nation this year. The capsize on Monday was the second fatal maritime accident in two weeks off Djibouti. At least 24 people died and 20 remain missing after the boat carrying at least 77 migrants, including children, capsized near the town of Obock, the International Organization for Migration said late Wednesday.
Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight after saying it would evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city and launch an all-out assault despite allies' warnings this could cause mass casualties. Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people, including a local journalist. "We are afraid of what will happen in Rafah. The level of alert is very high," Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday.
