Ansarallah resumes attacks on Israeli ships in response to the Gaza siege
Will the re-entry of Ansarallah changes the trajectory of the ceasefire talks?
As Israel continues its illegal siege of Gaza for a tenth straight day in gross violation of humanitarian considerations, Yemen’s Ansarallah on late Tuesday announced the resumption of its blockade of Israeli ships. Ansarallah chief Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi on March 7 had given the Israelis a four-day deadline to resume aid convoys into Gaza, failing which, “we will resume our naval operations against the Israeli enemy,” he had said. “Our message is absolutely clear: we respond to the siege with siege.”
Soon after the end of the deadline, the Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Yahya Saree in a video statement on Tuesday night announced the immediate resumption of naval operations against Israeli ships “in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, Bab al-Mandab, and the Gulf of Aden.” Saree added that the ban on Israeli ships will remain in effect until aid is allowed into Gaza.
Here is the relevant part of the Yemeni Armed Forces announcement:
In support of and victory for the oppressed Palestinian people and its dear fighters, and after the expiration of the deadline granted by Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, may Allah protect him, to the mediators to pressure the Israeli enemy into reopening the crossings and allowing aid into the Gaza Strip, and due to the mediators not being able to achieve this, the Yemeni Armed Forces confirm the following:
Firstly: The resumption of the ban on the passage of all Israeli ships in the designated area of operations, which includes the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, Bab al-Mandab, and the Gulf of Aden.
Secondly: This ban takes effect immediately from the moment of this statement’s announcement.
Thirdly: Any Israeli ship that attempts to break this ban will be targeted within the declared area of operations.
Fourthly: This ban will remain in place until the crossings into the Gaza Strip are reopened and humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, is allowed to enter.
The Yemeni Armed Forces salute the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and affirm that, with Allah’s help, they stand alongside the valiant Palestinian resistance.
Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs, the best guardian, and the best helper.
Israel allowed some aid into Gaza for about six weeks after the ceasefire between the Palestinian resistance and Israel came into effect on January 19. However, it reinstated the blockade of the enclave on March 2, depriving its nearly 2 million inhabitants of food, water, electricity, and other necessities. Israel has insisted upon extending the first phase of the three-phase ceasefire deal without guaranteeing a permanent end to its genocidal war and complete troop withdrawal while Hamas wants the Zionist state to abide by the terms it agreed to.
The second of the three-phase deal was to begin on March 2. It would have seen further prisoner exchanges and Israeli troop withdrawal, but the Israelis have shown no inclination to play by the rules and have resorted to collective punishment via the punishing siege. Not just the blockade, the Israelis have been killing the Palestinians with direct gunfire. Since the start of the ceasefire, over 100 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel. The Zionists killed four Palestinians, including three brothers, yesterday and five others in a strike on a car today as it continues to accelerate its killing machine in gross violations of the deal.
With international institutions showing their trademark impotency in holding Israel to account and ensuring the Palestinians have access to food and water, Ansarallah has again taken the matters into its own hands in punishing the Zionist aggressors.
Ansarallah was among the first resistance groups to come to the aid of Gaza when it started attacking Israel on October 19, 2023. Subsequently, it blockaded the waters around the Zionist entity and attacked any ships attempting to skirt its decree. It seized a cargo ship and sunk a few more before its relentless attacks ultimately bankrupted the Eilat port in Israel. In response, the US, the UK, and Israel attacked Yemen dozens of times, but their barbarism didn’t deter the Yemeni resistance from carrying out its humanitarian duty.
At the beginning of the ceasefire, Ansarallah eased its Israeli blockade and released the 25 sailors it took hostage from the ship it seized back in November 2023.
Now with the siege tightening on Gaza again, the Yemenis are back in action.
Trump, who designated Ansarallah (also known as the Houthis) as a “foreign terrorist organisation” in his first term in the Oval Office, recently reinstated the designation on the Yemeni resistance. Trump has also rolled back “constraints on American commanders to authorize airstrikes and special operation raids outside conventional battlefields,” a decision specifically aimed at Ansarallah. It is likely that the Yemenis will come under renewed attacks for daring to oppose a genocide, barring significant movement in the resumption of talks for the second phase of the Gaza deal.
Hamas has repeatedly declared its intent to talk to the US and Israel to continue with the previously agreed terms, but it hasn’t received a positive response. The United States for the first time began direct talks with Hamas for the release of Israeli-American prisoners of war.
In an act of rare candour from an American official towards the Palestinians, Adam Boehler, the US Envoy for Hostages, conceded that Hamas “don’t have horns growing out of their heads. They’re actually pretty nice guys; guys like us.”
But these overtures have angered the Zionists.
Boehler soon changed tune about Hamas and tweeted in a quintessential Trumpian tone, “They are BY DEFINITION BAD people.”
Hamas, meanwhile, has continued to push for the resumption of the deal.
Hamas leader Abdul Rahman Shadid on Tuesday said that a fresh round of negotiations have begun in Doha. “A new round of ceasefire negotiations began today, and Hamas is engaging with full responsibility and positivity in these talks, including negotiations with the U.S. envoy for hostage affairs,” Shahid said. “We hope this round will lead to tangible progress toward launching the second phase of negotiations, paving the way for halting the aggression, withdrawing the occupation from Gaza, and completing a prisoner exchange deal.”
Going by the genocidal rhetoric in Israel and the United States, the chances of the resumption of the ceasefire through talks appear bleak. It remains to be seen if the re-entry of Ansarallah changes the trajectory of the negotiations. The struggling Israeli economy certainly can’t take more hits from the Yemeni blockade.
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Good on Yemen/Ansarallah! Shame on the rest for wringing their hands but standing by.
Sink the rat bastards who transport weapons of GENOCIDE INTO THE DEMONIC FRAUDULENT israelí Rockefeller and Rothschild demonic mass murderers of babies, toddlers, children, women and crippled old men!