Yemen: Just 24 hours after the announcement by the leader of the revolution, Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi, regarding the direction towards a fourth phase of escalation in the battle to support the Palestinian people, in response to the obstinacy of the Zionist enemy and its insistence on continuing the genocide in Gaza, the Armed Forces officially announced on Friday their entry into the new phase.

These new strategic equations place the entirety of the Zionist camp face to face with the reality of Yemen's military and practical rise to the level of historical confrontation, creating a new reality that poses significant fears and threats to the enemy, and raises the cost of continuing the genocide to existential levels for the entity and its supporters in the entire region.

The announcement by the Armed Forces, delivered by its official spokesperson, Brigadier Yahya Saree, in front of a large crowd of millions in Sabeen Square, initially mentioned the background of the decision to enter the new escalation phase. This includes "developments in the battle in the Gaza Strip, the continuation of Israeli and American aggression, and preparations for an aggressive military operation targeting the Rafah area." 

This is paralleled with "the offer presented to the resistance, in which the enemy seeks to extract the prisoners' card without a permanent ceasefire," renewing the emphasis on the close connection between the Yemeni front and the course of the battle in Gaza, making it a responsive and immediate front. 

This puts the enemy forcibly and openly in front of the reality that it has been trying to evade, namely that Yemen is not just a sympathetic party whose role can be limited, but a fixed and influential part in the conflict in all its details, including negotiations, which the enemy tries to turn into a trick to circumvent the realities.

The details of the fourth phase of escalation revealed by the spokesperson for the armed forces also conveyed this message, including significant surprises. Among them: "Targeting all ships violating the Israeli navigation ban and heading to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Mediterranean Sea in any area reached by Yemen”. And "beginning the implementation of this step from the moment of the announcement." 

This shocking development for the enemy (for reasons that will be mentioned) puts it in front of the reality that Gaza is not alone, neither at the negotiating table nor on the battlefield, and that the Yemeni front is capable of escalating its danger and impact to unexpected limits, in a way that forces the enemy to consider and contemplate it when making subsequent decisions regarding Gaza.

Reaching Haifa

This impact, characterized by shock and surprise, is primarily defined by the imposition of a naval blockade on the Zionist entity. After closing off the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea to Zionist navigation from the east entirely and disabling the port of Umm Al-Rashrash, the sole southern maritime outlet for the enemy, targeting navigation heading to the western ports of occupied Palestine is a decisive blow to all Zionist maritime supplies. 

This is a path that the Yemeni Armed Forces began when they expanded the scope of targeting ships associated with "Israel" to the Indian Ocean, where these ships were sailing from the east to reach the port of "Haifa" in the Mediterranean Sea, which has become the last direct maritime route to "Israel".

However, now the matter has become much larger; even ships coming from the west and Europe to the enemy's ports are now within the targeting circle.

Here, the remarkable professionalism of the Yemeni leadership in managing the battle is highlighted. The announcement of the new step came within a graduated trajectory that ensures the accumulation of equations in a way that deprives the enemy even of the option of deceptive propaganda. 

Closing the Mediterranean Sea route to the enemy's supplies comes after the Armed Forces have proven, exceptionally and acknowledged even by their enemies, a great success in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean. 

This success has also been witnessed in reports on Zionist economic losses and has resulted in the withdrawal of about 18 American and European warships that had come to the region with the aim of reducing Yemeni maritime operations. Therefore, the capability of the Yemeni Armed Forces to implement the contents of the fourth phase of escalation is beyond doubt.

A quick look at what the enemy has allowed to be disseminated in its media over the past months about the impact of Yemeni maritime operations on the Zionist economy suffices to clarify that the fourth phase of Yemeni escalation is a major catastrophe that will soon strike "Israel". 

It will manifest as a sharp, gradual depletion in many essential supplies, terrifying price jumps, and an unprecedented collapse of occupied ports' activity (which is already down by over 51%, according to the Hebrew newspaper The Marker). The enemy knows that this will be a complete blockade, making the choice to persist in the genocide a reckless and losing adventure from which there will be no recovery.

This announcement also means that strikes at that time will even target ships not heading to occupied Palestine but associated with companies involved in any maritime supply operations to the Zionist enemy. This step will complement the maritime blockade in terms of depriving the enemy of any external "support" by entities that will surely seek to circumvent the Yemeni blockade on its ports.

This part of the Yemeni escalation plan also reveals a smart and realistic proactive view of events, and a professional ability to employ pressure tactics and escalate them appropriately, surrounding the enemy with a long list of extremely costly and dangerous "consequences" for any aggressive decision on its agenda. Thus, depriving it of maneuvering space to avoid the repercussions of its crimes.

It goes without saying that what the Armed Forces announced regarding the details of the fourth phase of escalation clearly demonstrates their capabilities surpassing expectations and estimations regarding the ability to accurately monitor and track international maritime movement. As well as the ability to execute precise operations over very long distances and possibly in multiple directions simultaneously. This also implies significant breakthroughs in the development of missile and aerial weaponry.