Responding to increased attacks on ships in the southern Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the U.S. announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis in Yemen. Treasury says that previously sanctioned Houthi and Iranian financial facilitator Sa'id al-Jamal uses a network of exchange houses and firms to help Iranian money reach the country's militant partners in Yemen. The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.
The Biden administration has urged Israel not to respond to recent attacks by Yemen's Houthis, including several missile and drone assaults, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The report cited unnamed officials from the U.S. and other governments as saying Washington is concerned that an Israeli response could ignite a wider conflict in a region that is already on edge amid the Israel-Hamas war. Rather, Washington wants Israel to let the U.S. military handle the response to the Houthis, who have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea.The Houthi group has fired several ballistic missiles and drones at Eilat since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in October, all of which were intercepted or missed their targets.
The Houthis have threatened again to launch missile and drone strikes against Israeli ships traversing the Red Sea. Houthi Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser Al-Atefi said on Wednesday that their forces would continue to block the Red Sea for ships owned or operated by Israel and would fire ballistic missiles and drones at Israel. "In support of our people in Gaza, the navy, missile, and drone forces are ready to conduct the toughest individual and collective attacks on fixed or moving targets in Israel," Al-Atefi said while addressing a group of military and security officers and media aboard the seized cargo ship Galaxy Leader. The group has fired drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's assault in Gaza.
Israeli armed battled Hamas fighters Wednesday in the center of the Gaza Strip's second-largest city, the military said, pressing a ground offensive that has sent tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing to the territory's southernmost edge and prevented aid groups from delivering food, water and other supplies. Two months into the war, Israel's offensive into southern Gaza was bringing to Khan Younis the same fierce urban fighting and intensified bombardment that obliterated much of Gaza City. The UN says some 1.87 million people — over 80 percent of the population of 2.3 million — have already fled their homes, many of them displaced multiple times. Almost the entire population is now crowded into southern and central Gaza, dependent on aid. International officials escalated warnings over the worsening humanitarian calamity.
