Houthis Threaten To Target US Ships In Red Sea As Israel-Iran Conflict Enters Day 9

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday issued a warning that they would target American vessels in the Red Sea if the United States joins Israel in launching attacks against Iran, according to a spokesperson for the group.

The statement came as the Israel-Iran conflict entered its ninth day, with no sign of de-escalation.

Photo Credit: AP/PTI

This warning is particularly significant given that the US and the Houthis had agreed to a ceasefire in May, under which both parties committed to refraining from targeting one another.

Previously, the Houthis had attacked ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea following the Israeli military's offensive against Hamas in Gaza, launched in retaliation to the Palestinian group's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

The prolonged air conflict between Israel and Iran showed no signs of abating, with reports of renewed strikes, including on an Iranian nuclear site, and claims by Israel of eliminating a senior Iranian commander.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force - the overseas arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - was killed in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in Qom. Katz hailed the operation as a "major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force", stating that Izadi had played a key role in financing and arming Hamas ahead of its October 7 attack.

Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that five Revolutionary Guard members were killed in fresh Israeli strikes on the city of Khorramabad, though they did not confirm Izadi's death. Izadi is currently listed under US and UK sanctions.

In the early hours of Saturday, air raid sirens sounded across central Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Explosions were heard, and Iranian missiles were intercepted over Tel Aviv. No casualties have been reported so far.

The conflict intensified on 13 June when Israel launched strikes under "Operation Rising Lion", asserting that Iran was nearing the development of nuclear weapons. Iran, however, maintains that its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful.

Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it neither confirms nor denies this.

According to Iranian state outlet Nour News, citing the health ministry, at least 430 people have died and 3,500 have been injured in Iran since Israeli airstrikes began. In Israel, local officials report that 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, marking the most severe confrontation between the two nations in decades.

US President Donald Trump, who has said he will take two weeks to decide whether to commit American military support to Israel, remarked that there was still time "to see whether or not people come to their senses".

Trump added that Iran could acquire a nuclear weapon "within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months," stating firmly, "We can't let that happen."

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at the Isfahan nuclear facility - one of Iran's largest - was hit by Israeli forces, though it clarified that the site did not contain any nuclear material.