Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
29-12-2024
DAMASCUS/ SANA’A: A Houthi political official says the group will continue attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians despite the escalating Israeli air strikes in Yemen.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told media that the Houthis would “escalate our military targeting of Israel” until it stopped what he described as “the genocide in Gaza”.
On Thursday, Israeli warplanes struck the international airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and ports and power stations on the Red Sea coast, killing at least four people.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that its response to more than a year of missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed group was “just getting started”.
Overnight, the Houthis launched another ballistic missile at Israel, which the Israeli military said was intercepted before it reached Israeli territory.
The UN’s secretary general said he was “gravely concerned” by the intensified escalation.
He also called the strikes on the airport and ports were “especially alarming” and warned that they posed “grave risks to humanitarian operations” in the war-torn country. The Houthis, who control north-western Yemen, began attacking Israel and international shipping shortly after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.
Israel has carried out four rounds of air strikes against the Houthis since July in retaliation for the 400 missiles and drones that the Israeli military says have been launched at the country from Yemen, most of which have been shot down.
The US and UK have also carried out air strikes in Yemen in response to the group’s attacks on dozens of merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, toldmedia that Yemenis were now “moving to a direct confrontation” with the US, UK and Israel after fighting what he called their “tools” during Yemen’s decade-long civil war. He appeared to be referring to the 
Saudi-led coalition that intervened in support of the Yemeni government when the Houthis seized control of Sanaa in 2015.
“We are committed to continuing our military operation in support of Gaza and we will not stop until the genocide crimes and the siege on Gaza stop. We are going to escalate our military targeting of Israel,” he said. Israel has vehemently denied that its forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Bukhaiti said the Houthis did not need the support of Iran, which has seen its allies Hamas and Hezbollah devastated by wars with Israel over the past 14 months.
“We have enough capabilities militarily, economically, and even in popular support to go through this battle, even if we are on our own,” he insisted.
He also said the Houthis expected an escalation by the US after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month, but he warned that it would “backfire”.
Israel’s prime minister said on Thursday evening that his country had “attacked targets of the Houthi terrorist organization” as part of what he called a “war of redemption”. “We are determined to cut off this terrorist arm of Iran’s axis of evil. We will persist until we get the job done,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Defence Minister Israel Katz meanwhile warned that Israel would “hunt down all the Houthi leaders”, as it had done with the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.
UN spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay said Secretary General Antonio Guterres remained “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region and reiterates his call for all parties concerned to cease all military actions and exercise utmost restraint”. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
