YEMEN’S HOUTHIS HAVE said that they will resume attacks on Israeli shipping after their deadline for the resumption of aid deliveries into Gaza expired.

The Houthis said they were “resuming the ban on the passage of all Israeli ships” in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Baba al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden.

The leader of the Iran-backed Houthis had said on Friday that the group would resume its naval operations against Israel if Israel did not lift the block on aid into Gaza within four days.

The Houthis had been launching attacks against ships they said had links to Israel throughout the Gaza war, but placed a halt on their operations when Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement.

The rebel group said in a statement today that attacks will continue until Israel reopens border crossings with Gaza, to allow the flow of aid, food and medicine.

The Houthis explained that the ban on Israeli shipping would “take effect from the time this statement is issued” and that “any Israeli ship attempting to violate this ban shall be targeted in the declared zone of operations”.

Israel blocked all aid into the war-battered territory just over a week ago in an effort to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages it took in its 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

An increasingly fragile truce was then further hit on Sunday when Israel announced it would cut off the electricity supply to a water desalination plant in Gaza, although Hamas announced on Tuesday that a fresh round of ceasefire talks had begun in Qatar.

The Houthis, who control much of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, fired scores of drones and missiles at Israeli-linked and other shipping in the Red Sea during the Gaza war, until calling a halt when a ceasefire started in January.