The French newspaper Liberation has reported that the Houthi rebels, who have been threatening since the onset of the aggression on Gaza to attack any ship headed towards Israel or connected to it, have carried out increasingly bold operations following the capture of a cargo ship owned by an Israeli billionaire on November 19th. The paper, in a report by Luc Mathieu, clarified that the 189-meter-long and 32-meter-wide Galaxy Leader ship has turned into a tourist attraction, where Yemenis in fishing boats visit it at the Salif port near Hodeidah on the Red Sea, taking pictures and stomping on the Israeli and American flags.
According to the Houthis, who are hostile towards Israel and opposed to America, this operation is based on a “religious, humanitarian, and moral responsibility towards the Palestinian people, who are suffering from an unjust siege and horrific massacres committed by the Israeli enemy.” These developments followed a warning from Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi on November 14th, when he stated that “our eyes are open continuously for monitoring and inspecting any Israeli ship.”
Liberation points out that the kidnapping of the Galaxy Leader ship was not an isolated incident; the Houthis have made the Red Sea a new front. They have launched cruise missiles toward Israel and armed drones against commercial and military ships since mid-October, targeting a Norwegian-flagged oil tanker with a long-range missile. They also announced in a press statement that “all ships connected to Israel or transporting goods to it are legitimate targets” unless humanitarian aid to Gaza is increased.
Laurent Bonnefoy, a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, states, “The Houthis embody an extremist stance today, as they are the only ones in the region who have developed the ability to cause harm, positioning themselves as the sole defenders of Palestine, which allows them to legitimize themselves internally to the Yemeni people.”
The Houthi movement, which began opposing Yemen’s cooperation with the United States in the war on terror after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and adopted the slogan “Death to Israel, Death to America, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam” mirroring the 1979 Iranian Revolution slogan, relaunched under the leadership of Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the brother of slain leader Hussein Badr al-Din after the Yemeni Spring of 2011. The Houthis strengthened their hold on the country’s north after seizing the capital Sanaa in September 2014 and continued their march southward to Aden, before a Saudi-led coalition launched Operation Decisive Storm against them in March 2015.
The paper notes that the Houthis could not have endured without Iranian aid, alongside guides from the Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah. The Houthi Jihad Council has emerged as a distinguished partner to Iran, going beyond necessity to a strong and deep alliance supported by close ideological convergence and geopolitical alignment, as seen by the Counter-Terrorism Committee resembling the Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Iranian-Houthi closeness, according to Liberation, has led to the transfer of weapons and technology, with deliveries of Kalashnikovs, anti-tank missiles, and ammunition being well-documented by UN experts and research organizations. The Houthis have become capable of producing drones directly from Iranian models, as well as having ballistic and cruise missiles, which are slightly modified versions of Iran’s Qadr and Quds missiles. This arsenal has allowed them to frequently target oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and after over eight years of war, the conflict is now in a stalemate with no prospect for a political settlement through negotiations.
However, the newspaper adds, the suffering of the population continues, with nearly 25 million Yemenis or three-quarters of the population in need of humanitarian aid to survive. A woman dies every two hours during pregnancy or childbirth due to a lack of care, as per the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
