Israel is prepared to act against efforts by Houthi rebels in Yemen to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea if the international community does not do so, Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with US President Joe Biden and European leaders about the Houthis targeting merchant ships with alleged Israeli links, Hanegbi told Israel’s Channel 12.
“Israel is giving the world some time to organize itself in order to avoid this, but if there is no global agreement, because it is a global issue, we will act to remove this naval siege,” Hanegbi said.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are a Shiite political and military organization that has been waging a civil war against a Saudi-backed coalition since 2014.
There has been an increase in its maritime activities since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
US warships already protect shipping in the region. Last week, a US warship shot down several unmanned aerial vehicles coming from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the southern Red Sea, according to US military officials. One of the incidents occurred during a series of attacks on three commercial ships.
US military officials said they are considering beefing up protections for commercial ships around a vital Red Sea shipping route, amid a series of recent missile attacks by Houthi militants operating from Yemen.
The U.S. has discussed ways to increase security in the area with members of the Combined Maritime Forces, a multinational naval task force charged with protecting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
American officials have said publicly that discussions have centered on the possibility of escorting ships operating in the Red Sea and through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to the Gulf of Aden — the narrow waterway separating Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
There is no US deadline for operations in Gaza, says Israeli official
Hanegbi also discussed developments in Gaza, saying the US had not given Israel any deadline to complete military operations in the enclave. “They understand that they are not in a position to tell the IDF how much time is needed to achieve objectives,” he said.
“The good thing is that they share the same objectives… It is correct to assume that we cannot measure this in weeks and I am not sure that it can be measured in months.”
A CNN previously reported that US officials expect Israel’s operation targeting the southern end of the strip to last several weeks before transitioning, possibly in January, to a lower-intensity, hyper-localized strategy that closely targets specific Hamas militants and leaders, according to several senior administration officials.
The White House is deeply concerned about how Israel’s operations unfold in the coming weeks, a senior US administration official said.
The US has firmly warned Israel in “tough” and “direct” talks, the official said, that the Israel Defense Forces cannot replicate the kind of devastating tactics they used in the north and must do more to limit civilian casualties.
See also: images of the conflict between Israel and Hamas
Source: CNN Brasil
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