Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, said on Thursday that the US failed to stop Yemen’s support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
“The Americans launched another round of aggression against our country, hoping to achieve what they previously failed to. But they failed again and suffered greater losses,” al-Houthi said, according to Yemen’s SABA news agency.
The Yemeni leader denied President Trump’s claim that the Houthis had capitulated. “The Yemeni position was never, as claimed by the criminal infidel Trump, one of pleading or surrender. That is farther from reality than the sun itself,” he said.
The US-Houthi ceasefire deal doesn’t apply to Israel, and Yemeni attacks on Israel have continued.
“Our position has not wavered or weakened; rather, it remains strong and integrated. At no point in this struggle have we ever considered speaking to a criminal enemy in the language of surrender, pleading, or weakness,” al-Houthi said.
The Houthis have maintained they will continue attacks on Israel and the blockade on Israeli shipping until the siege on Gaza is lifted. “Our clear and declared priority is to support Palestine against the Israeli enemy,” al-Houthi said.
The US military said it launched over 1,000 airstrikes on Yemen, and the US bombing campaign took a significant toll on civilians, killing at least 206 and wounding 366 from March 15 to April 31, according to the Yemen Data Project.
Throughout the bombing campaign, the Houthis were targeting Israel, and eventually directly struck the Ben Gurion Airport with a missile.
The Houthis are known for their resilience, having survived a US-backed Saudi/UAE war against them from 2015 to 2022, which involved a heavy bombing campaign, a blockade, and a ground campaign.
The Houthis began targeting Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2023. In January 2024, President Biden launched a bombing campaign in Yemen, which lasted until January 2025.
The Houthis ceased attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping when the short-lived Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19. After Israel violated the deal by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, the Houthis announced they would re-impose the blockade on Israeli shipping.
It was in response to that announcement that the Trump administration launched its bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15. It wasn’t until the US airstrikes started again that the Houthis restarted attacks on US warships.
