Houthi leader threatens 'more surprises' for Israel, US

“We have a firm belief in our leadership and its decisions, which motivates us to continue these operations in support of our brothers in Gaza,” senior Houthi terrorist Abdul Sattar Al-Nehemi told The Media Line on Thursday.

Al-Nehemi further threatened Israel and the United States by stating they could expect “more surprises,” without elaborating.

The leader of the Iranian-backed terror militia, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, proudly boasted that his group had carried out 96 drone missile attacks in the past five months. The vast majority of these terror attacks focused on international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf regions.

Following the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacres of over 1,200 Israelis, the Houthi terrorist group began attacking shipping vessels, claiming that these strikes were conducted in solidarity with Hamas and the Gaza Strip.

Like its Iranian patron, the Houthis demand that the Jewish state end its military operations against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists in the Strip. They also demand an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, ignoring the fact that their terrorist ally, Hamas, has deliberately undermined the massive inflow of international aid.

In January, the U.S.-led international coalition launched military strikes against Houthi targets in response to the group’s repeated terror attacks against international shipping in the strategically important Red Sea region.

U.S. President Joe Biden stressed at the time that neither Washington nor its allies would tolerate the blatant Houthi aggression.

“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes,” he said.

However, Samah Lutf, a freelance journalist based in Egypt and Yemen, emphasized that the Houthis are being emboldened by the Iranian support and the relative passivity of the international community.

“Due to regional and local support, generous Iranian backing, and the absence of economic and political accountability towards the world, the Houthis are becoming bolder in their military operations, considering it the only way to improve their image and recreate the popular support they lost due to the economic and political crises they are facing in Yemen,” Lutf assessed.

“The Houthis initially only targeted ships to warn them before gradually starting their direct attack, which caused partial damage to a group of those cargo ships until the attacks reached the point of sinking ships and killing their crews,” he added.

Three sailors were killed last week, in a Houthi attack on the Barbados-flagged ship, MV True Confidence, in the Gulf of Aden.

“One Vietnamese and two Filipino crew members have lost their lives,” stated the owners of the vessel. “A further two Filipino crew members have suffered serious injuries. All crew members were taken to Djibouti.”

While previous Houthi attacks have caused material damage to ships and personal injuries, this was reportedly the first Houthi maritime attack resulting in civilian fatalities.