Houthis say they will resume targeting Israeli ships after Gaza aid deadline passes

# Houthis say they will resume targeting Israeli ships after Gaza aid deadline passes

Event date: 2025-03-12. Yemen’s Houthi movement says it will revive attacks on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and adjacent waters after an ultimatum over aid deliveries into Gaza expired.

The evidence packet says the Iran-aligned group announced late on Tuesday that it was resuming its ban on Israeli ships because Israel had failed to allow the resumption of aid deliveries into Gaza by the deadline it set on Friday. The Houthis said any Israeli vessel attempting to violate the ban would be targeted in the declared zone of operations.

The ban, according to the source, covers the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. That is a large stretch of water used heavily by commercial shipping between Asia, the Middle East and Europe, so the threat has implications beyond Israel itself.

The packet says the Houthis had halted their drone and missile attacks when the Gaza ceasefire was declared in January, but threatened to resume them after Israel blocked all aid into Gaza on March 2. The group said the attacks would continue until Israel allowed aid deliveries.

The source also places the announcement in the context of a campaign that has already disrupted global trade. Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping off Yemen’s coast, sinking two vessels, seizing another and killing at least four seafarers. The attacks forced some shipping to reroute around Africa instead of using the Suez Canal.

That history is important because it shows the Houthis are not making a new kind of threat; they are reviving one they have already used to shape the regional response to the war in Gaza. The packet says the US and the UK launched airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen and that the EU and US deployed naval missions to protect shipping.

The source also notes that the US recently designated the Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization. That label is part of the wider international pressure the group faces, but the packet makes clear it has not stopped the movement from threatening shipping when it believes the Gaza situation warrants it.

For shipping companies, the practical question is whether the declaration will translate into renewed attacks or serve mainly as political pressure. The evidence packet does not answer that. It does, however, confirm that the Houthis have linked their maritime campaign to the Gaza aid cutoff and are once again trying to use the threat of force to influence events far beyond Yemen’s borders.