Ansar Allah Houthis carried out a landing on the ship "Galaxy Leader" to seize it (Reuters - Archive)
A leader in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), told Al Jazeera that the Ansar Allah Houthi group informed them that its recent escalation in the Red Sea was due to the Israeli occupation’s intentions to attack Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and the continuation of the starvation policy.
The leader stated, on Thursday, that Ansar Allah sent a letter to Al-Qassam to ask for its opinion regarding mediations to release the crew of a ship they are holding, and that the group confirmed that any decision regarding the ship and its crew is “exclusively with Al-Qassam.”
He added that Ansar Allah informed Al-Qassam that its strategic decision was to continue the Red Sea battle until the aggression stopped and the siege on the Gaza Strip was lifted.
The leader, who preferred not to reveal his name, also said that communication and coordination between Al-Qassam and the fighting fronts in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq has been continuing since the first hours of the start of the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on the seventh of last October.
The same source stated that the United States tried directly and through mediators to stop the fighting on each front separately.
But her attempts were rejected.
He stressed that the decision of all fronts is not to stop the fighting until the aggression against Gaza stops.
On the other hand, Nasr al-Din Amer, Vice President of the Media Authority of Ansar Allah al-Houthis, confirmed that there is complete coordination with the Qassam Brigades regarding the crew of the ship held by the group.
He added in a call with Al Jazeera that the group informed the countries that contacted about the detained ship and its crew that it was “at the disposal of the Qassam Brigades.”
On the other hand, the leader of the group, Abdul Malik Al Houthi, said - in a televised speech today - that the support operations carried out during this week in response to the Israeli war on Gaza amounted to 8 operations, during which 7 ships were targeted with 19 missiles and drones.
Al-Houthi threatened further escalation if Israel did not stop its war on Gaza.
On November 19, the Houthis seized the ship "Galaxy Leader", owned by an Israeli businessman, and took it to the port of Hodeidah in western Yemen.
In support of the Palestinian resistance, the Houthis target ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or individuals or that transport goods to and from Israel, and they expanded their attacks to include American and British ships after the start of the raids on Yemen last January.
Source: Al Jazeera