The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement says the US is encouraging Israel in waging a genocidal war on Gaza and is an accomplice in the wholesale killing.  

In a televised speech on Thursday, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said as a result of the Zionist regime’s incessant attacks, which are being carried out with the full US support, most of the residents of the Gaza Strip have been displaced. 

“The US supports the forced displacement of the people of Gaza, and the Zionists have admitted that the US has given them complete liberty with regard to the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“The Zionist enemy, with the support of the US, continues its brutal aggression against Gaza, dropping American bombs on the refugees, and despite damaging the health sector, it continues to target medical centers, as happened at al-Ma’madani Hospital.”  

Al-Ma’madani or al-Ahli Arab was the last functioning hospital in Gaza, hit by two Israeli missiles which, according to the UN, dealt “a severe blow to an already devastated healthcare system in the Strip” on Sunday. 

Houthi said the US has lately stepped up delivering major shipments of munitions and military equipment to Israel.

“Nevertheless, we witness that the fighters of the Qassam and Quds Brigades and other Palestinian groups have stood firm despite the difficult conditions, with the hand-to-hand fighting of the resistance fighters with the Zionist enemy in Gaza demonstrating their bravery.”

Houthi said special attention should be given to arming the Palestinian people. “If the Arab regimes had armed the Palestinian people from the beginning, the situation would be different today.”

He cited the disarmament of the Palestinian people in 1967 by the then governments of Egypt and Jordan, after which the “Palestinian people became a defenseless prey against the Zionist enemy”.

Houthi touched on the Israeli military’s completion of the encirclement of Rafah and the establishment of the Morag Axis, warning that it constitutes a threat to Egypt’s national security in breach of their peace treaty.

He further pointed to Israel’s continuous attacks on Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement with the country, saying the violation also continues with American support.

Tel Aviv’s view of Lebanon is in line with its “Greater Israel” project, he said, adding Hezbollah has played the greatest role in saving Lebanon and achieved unprecedented accomplishments among Muslims and Arab countries in confronting the Zionist regime.

“Hezbollah has made great sacrifices to protect Lebanon, so we should support Hezbollah, not plot against it,” he said, referring to a push by certain groups to disarm the movement.

Houthi said any proposal to disarm Hezbollah is illogical. “We should not surrender to the enemy’s demands that is disarming the resistance.”

“The Lebanese should be aware that resistance is a necessary option and cannot be abandoned. If the option of resistance is abandoned in Lebanon, we will witness a very great danger,” he warned. 

Houthi also touched on nine bases established by Israel in southern Syria, saying “the Zionist enemy’s aggression against Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria is sufficient proof that Muslim nations need deterrence”.

“The Islamic ummah needs weapons to defend itself more than ever. The Zionist regime, not the resistance, must be disarmed,” he said.

He then pointed to the US and British aggression against Yemen, saying they have carried out 900 air and naval attacks on the country, but the Yemeni armed forces have shot down 19 American MQ-9 drones so far.

Yemeni forces, he said, have had 33 engagements with the American warships in the Red Sea, adding the successive dispatch of US aircraft carriers to the region shows their missions are ineffective. 

Yemeni armed forces, meanwhile, have carried out more than 122 drone and missile operations against Israel since the regime launched its aggression on Gaza in October 2023.

Israel is perpetrating all forms of genocidal crimes in the Gaza Strip, Houthi said, citing starvation which the regime is using as a weapon of war against Gazans amid its blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid.

“Despite the United Nations’ acknowledgement of the sufferings caused by the aid blockade, the Zionist regime has been using starvation of civilians for more than a month and a half.” 

Houthi said the demands by the Hamas resistance movement calling for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid are exactly those of Gazans.

He mentioned the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day which is marked every year on April 17. Houthi said thousands of Palestinian prisoners are languishing in Israeli detention centers, and the issue of prisoner exchange is an inalienable right of Palestinians.

“The issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, their pains and sufferings, cannot be overlooked. Israeli authorities are trying to get rid of the prisoner issue without any exchange, and practically skip the matter.”

Houthi stated that the Zionist enemy attempts to kidnap Palestinians every day, and has so far abducted and imprisoned a large number of Palestinians.

He also condemned the desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East al-Quds by Israeli settlers.

“Real criminals and Zionist settlers storm al-Aqsa Mosque every day. Among their primary goals is to construct a so-called Jewish temple in place of al-Aqsa Mosque,” he added.

Houthi criticized Muslim governments for their silence and inaction in the face of the desecration of sacred sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“The Muslim Ummah has reached the point where they do not react to anything, no matter how revered it could be,” the Ansarullah chief said.