Houthi leader says group will keep up attacks if Israel doesn’t abide by Gaza truce

Abdul Malik al-Houthi says Jerusalem ‘failed miserably’ in Gaza, needed hostage-ceasefire deal

Demonstrators in support of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen raise Palestinian flags and placards during a rally denouncing Israel, in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 10, 2025. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais / AFP)
Demonstrators in support of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen raise Palestinian flags and placards during a rally denouncing Israel, in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa on January 10, 2025. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais / AFP)

Israel has “failed miserably” in Gaza, the leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Thursday after Israel and the Hamas terror group finalized a hostage-ceasefire deal in the Strip.

He was speaking a day after Israeli and Hamas negotiators agreed to terms of a phased ceasefire, expected to begin at the start of next week, in which Hamas will release Israeli hostages taken captive during its October 7 attack, while Israel will release more than a thousand Palestinian security prisoners. The security cabinet and government are expected to vote to approve the deal in the coming days.

“The Israeli enemy failed to achieve its declared and clear goals, and failed miserably to recover its prisoners without an exchange deal,” Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised address, insisting that Israel and the US were “obliged” to accept the deal.

“We will watch the implementation of the agreement, and if there are any Israeli breaches, massacres or attacks, we will be ready to provide military support to the Palestinian people,” the rebel leader said.

The Houthis — whose slogans call for “death to Israel” and “a curse upon the Jews” — have launched more than 40 ballistic missiles and some 320 drones at Israel since they started attacking the country in 2023, in support of fellow terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip amid the war.

Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, cross-border onslaught, when some 3,000 terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

A part of a missile fired from Yemen is lodged on the roof of a house in the Israeli village of Mevo Beitar west of Jerusalem on January 14, 2025. (Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP)

In the vast majority of the Houthis’ attacks, the missiles have been intercepted by Israeli air defenses, or have fallen short before reaching the country. However, a few drones and missiles have hit sites, causing casualties and damage in several cases.

Israel and Western allies carried out several sorties against Houthi targets in Yemen, but they have failed to stem the attacks.

The Yemeni rebels have also been firing at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — destabilizing a vital shipping lane and prompting reprisal strikes by the United States and sometimes Britain against Houthi targets. They have pledged to continue the attacks until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.

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