Yemen’s New Phase of Escalation: A Strategic Response to the Ongoing Genocide in Gaza

The leader of the revolution, Sayyid Abdul Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi, revealed on Thursday the initiation of operations targeting ships heading to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Mediterranean Sea. He confirmed the commencement of a ban on ships of all companies transporting goods to the Zionist enemy. This is part of the sanctions included in the declaration of the fourth phase of escalation, in response to the invasion of Rafah. This means that the new phase has fully come into effect, moving the Yemeni front to a higher and more sensitive level of impact. This puts the world in a position where it must intensify pressure on the enemy to stop the genocide, as its continuation is the cause of the escalation and its repercussions.

Towards the Mediterranean… To Establish the Widest Possible Range of Operations:

The leader of the revolution confirmed in his last weekly speech that two operations were carried out “towards the Mediterranean Sea”, marking the operations of the fourth phase of escalation. This clearly answers questions raised about this phase. The armed forces’ statement confirmed that ships heading to the ports of occupied Palestine located on the Mediterranean Sea will be targeted anywhere within the reach of Yemeni fire. This means that it is not necessary to reach the Mediterranean Sea in all operations; the important thing is to prevent ships from reaching those areas. However, the leader’s announcement here confirms that reaching the Mediterranean Sea itself is an essential part of the escalation phase to establish the widest possible range of Yemeni operations, ensuring the achievement of the greatest impact in terms of preventing navigation towards the enemy’s ports.

This is also confirmed by the leader’s reference to the enemy “trying to form multiple defensive belts to protect its ships in the Mediterranean Sea and the long-range scope”. It is clear from this reference that the Yemeni leadership was keen to include in the new phase a study of ways to reach the Mediterranean Sea directly and bypass enemy defenses along this long distance. This is, of course, parallel to targeting ships heading to the Mediterranean in any other place that can be reached by fire. This sends a clear message that Yemen is pushing with great force and with all interest in the new phase to cover all possible probabilities and means to achieve the goal of banning Zionist navigation and also to open the field for other paths of action; because the ships heading to the enemy will not be the only Zionist targets exposed to danger if defensive obstacles are bypassed towards the Mediterranean.

The leader reinforced this message by inviting the free people of the Iraqi resistance to participate in the fourth phase of escalation. Although he did not clarify the nature of this participation, the context clearly includes carrying out operations targeting Zionist navigation (ports or ships) towards the Mediterranean Sea, given the proximity of the distance to Iraq compared to Yemen. This reveals the Yemeni leadership’s keenness to practice the highest degrees of maritime ban on the enemy from the direction of the Mediterranean, to be at the same level as the ban imposed in the Red Sea, and thus to reach a comprehensive siege that exerts enormous economic pressure on the enemy.

This high level of commitment and keenness to achieve the goal of the maritime ban and establish wide-ranging and long-range work paths puts the enemy once again in front of an annoying fact that the Yemeni front is not random and that its impact is not containable or even predictable. Rather, it is a front that sets deadly and professional strategic goals, and works in a studied manner and with exceptional dedication and on multiple paths without being affected by any pressures, to reach the full achievement of those goals. This proves once again that attempts to separate this front from the conflict have not only become impossible, but they express a wrong reading that entails a high price.

Companies Supporting the Enemy in the Circle of Yemeni Sanctions… And the World Must Understand:

The leader also confirmed in his last speech that “the companies that transport goods to the Israeli enemy will have their ships targeted anywhere within the capabilities of the Yemeni army”. This is a clear announcement of the start of the implementation of the second part of the fourth phase of escalation, in which the armed forces had said that in the event of the enemy’s invasion of Rafah, it would apply “comprehensive sanctions” on the companies involved in supplying the enemy by sea, including banning the passage of all ships belonging to these companies in the area of Yemeni operations regardless of their direction.

The official spokesman for Ansar Allah, Mohammed Abdul Salam, was keen to confirm this, where he wrote in a post on the “X” platform that “according to what Sayyid Abdul Malik Badr Al-Din Al-Houthi announced in his weekly speech today about the Israeli aggression on Gaza and in response to the enemy’s escalation of its military operations in Rafah, any ship entering the ports of occupied Palestine becomes a legitimate target for the Yemeni armed forces and all ships of the company to which it belongs, whether located in the Red Sea or the Arabian Sea or the Mediterranean Sea or the Indian Ocean or any place within the reach of Yemeni military capabilities”.

The first message that this announcement sends is that Yemen does not issue empty threats. Despite the fact that this step will shake a large earthquake, as it will put many shipping companies in the circle of sanctions and targeting, the Yemeni leadership did not hesitate to start implementing this step, in response to the invasion of Rafah. It expressed a prior understanding of the repercussions that the enemy might try to exploit to portray the issue as if it were a Yemeni escalation on global shipping, and therefore the leader sent another important message to the countries that understood the nature of the Yemeni operations in the previous stages, including Russia and China, to understand the nature of the new escalation and remember its connection with the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

This message confirms several things: – First: Yemen will not back down in the face of any attempt by the enemy to misinterpret the Yemeni escalation and try to incite the world; because the escalation is based on a clear legitimacy which is the relationship of the targeted companies with the enemy who continues to exterminate the Palestinians, and therefore the countries and companies are concerned to change their position and stop dealing with the enemy entity for their benefit; because the size of the escalation is proportional to the size of the crime that these companies support by continuing to supply the enemy entity, and the matter is not just a random escalation against navigation itself.