Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim responsibility for attack on Haifa port

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they have launched their most ambitious maritime attack yet: a long-range attack on the port of Haifa, hundreds of kilometers from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.

On Sunday, spokesman Yahya Saree claimed in a televised address that the group had attacked four merchant ships in Haifa port for violating “the ban on entering ports in occupied Palestine.” The group opposes Israel’s ongoing operation in Gaza and has vowed to attack any ships that call at Israeli seaports or are associated with Israeli property.

Saree also claimed that the group attacked the cattle ship Shorthorn Express in the Mediterranean as it approached Haifa.

The Eastern Mediterranean is far from the Houthis’ focus area so far. The group has concentrated its efforts in the Red Sea, near the Houthis’ occupied coast, and in the Gulf of Aden. Its operations are widely supported by Iranian intelligence vessels that operate in these areas and provide the surveillance and targeting data needed to conduct long-range naval strikes.

The Israeli military has not commented on the claims of an attack on Haifa, but a local television station in the port city reported the launch of a single anti-aircraft missile on Sunday morning.

Over the weekend, the US Central Command condemned the Houthi movement’s ongoing aggression in the region, but did not confirm any of the group’s claims. “This ongoing malign and reckless behavior by the Iran-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and puts the lives of sailors in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden at risk,” a CENTCOM statement said.

The Houthi movement’s increasing attacks on ships suggest that Western efforts to bring the group under control face serious challenges. US forces have been trying for months to weaken the group’s capabilities by both intercepting Houthi attacks and attacking its Iranian-supplied weapons systems on the ground before they are launched. The counterattacks do not appear to have deterred Houthi fighters from their mission; some Middle East analysts even say that direct military confrontation with the United States has increased the group’s popularity and prestige in the region.

“They can replace anything we destroy, and our ability to stop the import of war materials is negligible,” Gerald Feierstein, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, told the Washington Post last week. “So as long as they have an incentive to continue these attacks, they have shown they can do it.”