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On Thursday, the Ansar Allah Houthi group targeted, in three separate operations, a British commercial ship and battleships belonging to Western powers off the coast of Yemen, in addition to the city of Eilat in southern Israel. This comes after the group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, pledged to escalate their attacks in exchange for the Israeli escalation in Gaza.
A statement by the Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that the group's armed forces carried out 3 military operations.
He explained that the first was the launching of a number of ballistic missiles and drones "at targets of the Zionist enemy in the Umm al-Rashrash area (Eilat), south of occupied Palestine."
In the second operation, he said that the naval forces carried out a targeting operation against the British ship Islander in the Gulf of Aden with a number of naval missiles, and that they directly hit it, causing a fire to break out on it.
In a third operation, Saree reported that an American destroyer was targeted in the Red Sea with a number of drones, without further details.
The Israeli army announced - in a statement in Arabic via Telegram - that the air defenses had intercepted one target that was launched and was on its way to Eilat on the Red Sea, after the sirens of the warning in the city of Eilat.
The US Military Command (Centcom) also announced - in a statement - that US aircraft shot down 6 Houthi drones, adding that the marches were likely targeting US warships and coalition forces "and posed an imminent threat."
The Sentcom did not specify the identity of the coalition's warfare, but the French Staff announced that the French navy in the Red Sea was destroyed on Wednesday night, which started from Yemen.
Earlier on Thursday, Centcom said that the Houthis fired two ballistic missiles for ships from southern Yemen towards the Gulf of Aden.
She added that the two missiles hit the British ship, causing a slight injury and damage, noting that the ship continues its journey.
In the face of Houthi attacks, the United States established a multinational maritime coalition to protect navigation in the Red Sea last December.
The European Union also announced - on Monday - the official launch of a similar mission for a period of one year, renewable. However, the European mission is authorized to fire to defend commercial ships or defend itself, but it will not strike Houthi sites inside Yemen, according to diplomats.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies