The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement says retaliatory operations carried out in solidarity with Gaza by Yemeni resistance have effectively halted the movement of Israeli and US vessels near Yemen’s waters.

“The Bab al-Mandab and the Arabian Sea are closed to Israeli and American ships. That’s a fact,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday night.

Yemenis, he said, targeted US vessels and naval carriers in nine operations over past week, adding both public demonstrations and military operations launched in response to the “US-Israeli genocide in Palestine” will continue.

Houthi also slammed Washington for escalating aggression against Yemen, stating that the US had launched 260 attacks on civilian infrastructure in Yemen in the past week.

“The US and the Israeli regime have realized that they have failed in their anti-Yemen campaign,” he said.

Houthi condemned Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, citing Israeli attacks on “hospitals, medical centers, and paramedics,” in Gaza, which he described as “barbaric crimes.”

Houthi also condemned Israel’s use of starvation and deprivation as a weapon of war against civilians in Gaza.

“Israeli regime prevents food and medical supplies from entering besieged Gaza Strip and impedes relief efforts in this area,” he said.

The ongoing Israeli blockade has left more than 3,500 children at risk of death due to hunger and malnutrition in the strip.

Addressing the Israeli military’s act of genocide in Gaza, al-Houthi said, “Occupation forces fear and avoid confrontations with resistance fighters in Gaza and they target defenseless civilians in the besieged Strip.”

He criticized the killing of innocent civilians, displaced persons, and the destruction of medical facilities in the strip, stating that they are “not achievements,” and reiterated that Israeli forces remain “incapable of achieving so-called objectives” in their onslaughts. 

The death toll from US-Israeli genocidal war on Gaza has risen to 51,266, with nearly 117,000 Palestinians reported injured as the Israeli assault on Gaza continues.

Houthi condemned the Israeli regime for aiming to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza and stated that in the occupied West Bank, settler “acts of terrorism” and aggression are intended to confiscate Palestinian homes and expand illegal settlements.

“Israeli regime seeks to destroy refugee camps in the occupied West Bank in line with its land grab policy,” al-Houthi stated, also slamming certain Arab governments and media outlets of enabling Tel Aviv’s genocidal campaign through their silence or alignment with Israeli interests.

Houthi also called for greater Palestinian unity in response to the crimes of the Israeli regime. “More Palestinians should come together and unite for the sake of Palestinian cause,” he urged.

Elsewhere in his speech, he criticized Israel’s repeated violations of a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which was reached last year.

“Israeli regime continues targeting villages in South Lebanon and continuously violating ceasefire and Lebanese sovereignty,” he said.

He called on the Lebanese government to apply “more pressure on Israeli regime to implement ceasefire agreement.”

Addressing Israeli acts of aggression in Syria, Houthi stated that Israeli violations of Syrian sovereignty are being carried out with US support as part of the “Zionist project” aimed at controlling Syrian territory and movement.

In closing, he condemned some Arab governments for criticizing Iran over its support for the Palestinian cause, suggesting such positions serve to deflect attention from Israeli aggression.