Yemen’s Ansar Allah leader issued an ultimatum on Friday for the Zionist regime and international mediators negotiating the Gaza “ceasefire” deal: Allow humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip in the next four days, or Yemen will restart their maritime attacks and blockade against the occupation regime. Ansar Allah had halted these operations following the signing of the agreement between Hamas and the Zionist entity on January 19.
In a Friday evening televised address, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the movement, said the regime must open the land crossing into Gaza by Tuesday or face consequences. “If the enemy continues, after four days, to prevent the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and continues the complete closure of the crossings, preventing the entry of food and medicine into the region, we will resume our naval operations against the enemy,” said al-Houthi. “This matter cannot be tolerated under any circumstances…Our words are clear, and we will counter the blockade with a blockade. We cannot stand by and watch the aggressive actions of the entity in starving the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
The Houthi leader charged that the regime has procrastinated in fulfilling its obligations under the Gaza deal, especially those related to the delivery of humanitarian aid. Under Phase 1 of the deal, the Zionist entity agreed to allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza per day, along with a total of 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes in a 42-day period. The number of aid trucks actually allowed into Gaza fell far short of the quota, as did the tents, mobile homes, and construction equipment to remove bodies buried under the rubble. Last week the occupation halted all aid deliveries into the Strip.
Al-Houthi charged that using the denial of food as a tactical weapon constituted “a war crime, and a crime against humanity. It bears all descriptions of the greatest crimes and is considered a full-scale aggression.” He described the occupation’s actions since the ceasefire deal took effect as “genocide through starvation,” saying, “this step cannot be ignored, overlooked, or dismissed, as it is a very dangerous step and a major escalation by the Zionist enemy. The general direction of the enemy, under American sponsorship, encouragement, and support, is to escalate the situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
He outlined a few instances where, he said, the regime has taken aggressive steps in the West Bank, including demolishing houses and mosques, forcibly displacing over 40,000 residents, kidnapping Palestinians, and restricting entry into the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan.
Al-Houthi emphasized that Yemen would take a clear stance in the face of escalation and U.S. encouragement of aggressive Zionist actions. Last week, President Donald Trump announced an additional $12 billion in arms sales to the regime. “The responsibility is great for all of our nation, and it cannot be absolved by ignoring, renouncing responsibility, or attempting to evade the true duty,” Al-Houthi declared. “This is evident through the Arab summit, which issued a statement containing [merely] some wishes, calls, demands, and appeals.”
In a statement on Friday, Hamas praised Yemen as the “real” partner in siding with Palestine. “[Hamas] appreciates the decision of the brothers in Ansar Allah, led by Sayyed Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, to give the Zionist enemy four days before resuming naval operations aimed at imposing a blockade on the ports of the occupation,” Hamas said in its statement. “We also call on our peoples and Arab and Islamic countries to take effective steps to break the blockade on their brothers in the Gaza Strip, and to work by all means to thwart the fascist occupation’s plan to starve them and deprive them of their right to life.”
As a result of the Houthi naval blockade and strikes against the occupation since October 2023, Yemen has faced a multinational military campaign, led by the U.S., UK, and European allies in an effort to thwart the attacks on the occupation and maritime shipping, but these attacks have, to date, proven ineffective. The Trump administration recently designated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization despite warnings from the international aid community about the devastating consequences for Yemeni civilians and the overall humanitarian situation in Yemen.