Yemen’s Houthi forces launched a drone strike against a “vital target” in Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Sharia said today.

“These operations will not stop until the aggression stops, the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted and the aggression in Lebanon is stopped,” Sarria said.

The Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, have since November 2023 launched missile and drone attacks against ships they say are linked to Israel or its allies, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in war with the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip since October 7 2023.

Their attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden have caused major disruption to shipping in this region, which is crucial for global trade, and led the US to form an international naval coalition and, since January, to begin targeting facilities and rebel weapons systems in Yemen, in some cases together with Britain. Since then, the Houthis say they are also targeting US and British ships.

Bombing against the Houthis on Yemeni soil did not end attacks on merchant ships off the country’s coast.