News - Yemen: Ansarallah’s maritime operations against Israeli-linked shipping just expanded into the Mediterranean Sea, the Eurasian waterway NATO has long considered its own domain, home to Israel’s oil and gas platforms, and the site of Washington’s new ‘aid pier’ ploy.

In support of Gaza, Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces executed their first direct operation against Israel on 18 October 2023. That operation involved cruise missiles and drones targeting the port of Eilat in southern occupied Palestine and came less than two weeks after the Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood flipped the script in West Asia.

Similar attacks ensued in rapid fire, with further warnings from the Yemeni military that it would “continue to carry out qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops.” One month later, amidst Tel Aviv’s worsening carnage in Gaza, Sana'a commenced its targeting of Israeli-linked and destined shipping vessels in the Red Sea, effectively blocking their passage through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. 

This marked Yemen’s first phase of a meticulously planned series of naval operations. The second phase saw a broader prohibition, blocking ships from any country from approaching Israeli ports a waterway siege, just as Yemen has endured for eight long years. Sana'a's ’s scope of operations then broadened in the third phase to include the Indian Ocean, targeting Israeli vessels navigating the much longer Cape of Good Hope route around the African continent to deliver goods to the occupation state.

As tensions escalated, and to protect Israel, US and British naval forces cobbled together a ramshackle coalition of non-Arab states, Operation Prosperity Guardian, to strike Yemen – a country already ravaged by almost a decade of US-backed Saudi–UAE bombardment and siege. 

This provoked a forceful and immediate response from Yemeni forces, who extended their target range to include US and British naval assets and, later, to expand their operational theater to the vast Indian Ocean.

But as Israel’s threats to invade and bombard Rafah intensified in recent days, Sanaa announced the start of a fourth phase of escalation, a significant ramp-up in their military response. 

This phase will target Israeli ships or those heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea and impose comprehensive sanctions on all vessels linked to companies that frequent the occupied state’s ports. Furthermore, the measures will be applied to all shipping vessels and companies that deliver goods to Israel, regardless of their final destinations. This effectively bars them from all Yemeni operational waterways.

The declaration of this fourth phase is a clear signal of widening the conflict zone to include the Mediterranean and tightening the siege on Israel, which economically depends on sea trade. It poses a renewed challenge to Tel Aviv and its allies, increasing pressure, particularly on Washington and its European partners.

Sana'a's ’s strategic move is timed with ongoing ceasefire negotiations involving Hamas, which faces intense pressure to accept terms favorable to Israel, and is part of a broader strategy to influence political outcomes far beyond Yemen’s borders.

The Yemeni “circle of fire” – its maritime reach – now encompasses the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. On land, Sanaa’s focus is on impacting Israel’s geographic depth, particularly its southern regions which abut the Red Sea.

In multiple speeches, Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi has emphasized Yemen’s staggering advances in military capabilities, both quantitatively and qualitatively. These advancements are made possible by various factors, most notably the real-world testing of their arsenal.Recent broadcasts showcased a distant suicide drone targeting a ship in the Red Sea, equipped with a camera on its nose. Additionally, there has been significant Yemeni progress in the use of winged and ballistic missiles: according to military analysts, for the first time in history, anti-ship ballistic missiles were deployed against seaborne vessels, a qualitative advancement in Ansarallah’s military bag of tricks.