Yemen resumes shipping attacks over Gaza aid cutoff by Israel
The Yemeni Armed Forces in a statement on Wednesday announced that they will resume attacks on Israeli-bound ships after their deadline for Israel to allow the resumption of aid deliveries into Gaza passed.
The Armed Forces said late on Tuesday that it was “resuming the ban on the passage of all Israeli ships” in the Red Sea because Israel had failed to honor the deadline it announced on Friday.
Yemen said the ban would take effect immediately, adding that, “Any Israeli ship attempting to violate this ban shall be targeted in the declared zone of operations.”
The “ban” also covers the Arabian Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, Yemen said.
“This prohibition will remain until the crossings into the Gaza Strip are reopened and humanitarian aid, including essential food and medicine, is permitted entry,” the statement read.
Israel has shut down Gaza’s border crossings as a means of trying to force the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas into releasing the rest of the Israeli captives that it holds in the coastal sliver.
The shutdown is also meant to mount immense pressure on the Palestinians in Gaza, who have already been suffering under a 15-month-plus war of genocide by Tel Aviv.
“With mediators failing to achieve these objectives (having the regime reopen the terminals and let in aid supplies), Yemen has escalated its stance in support of the Palestinian people,” the Armed Forces’ statement noted.
The Yemeni military began taking Israeli ships and the vessels carrying supplies to the occupied Palestinian territories via the waters off the Arab Peninsula country under missile and drone strikes after October 7, 2023, when the regime launched the war on Gaza.
The operations took serious toll on the Israeli economy, contributing to meaningful price increases across commodities consumed by the regime’s illegal settlers.
Yemen halted its drone and missile attacks when the Gaza cease-fire was declared in January.