Yemen Monitor / Marib / Agencies:
The American website Al-Monitor said on Monday that the US military is avoiding a new escalation between Israel and the Houthi group in Yemen.
The Pentagon did not provide any intelligence or other support for the Israeli strikes near a power generation facility south of Sana’a on Sunday, according to US officials to “Al-Monitor”. Israeli media reported that the strikes were carried out with the participation of the Israeli navy.
This comes despite Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz’s warning on Sunday in a post on X that the Iranian-backed Houthi militants will “pay compound interest” for every attempted attack.
Katz said: “We are imposing an air and naval blockade on them that is causing them severe damage, and this morning we struck infrastructure and energy targets. This is just the beginning.”
Katz’s latest warning came after the Israel Defense Forces announced the interception of another ballistic missile launched in response to the Israeli raids on Sana’a. Israeli media reported that Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was temporarily closed on Sunday during the attempted attack.
The Houthis continued to launch several ballistic missiles towards Israel every week, even as they refrained from exploiting opportunities to launch new attacks on commercial shipping since their deadly attack that sank the Liberian-flagged cargo ship “Eternity C” operated by a Greek company last month.
A senior American official told “Al-Monitor” that US warships in the region helped intercept the projectiles launched by the Houthis towards Israel in recent months, but they did not provide intelligence or logistical support for the Israeli retaliatory strikes in Yemen.
The source added, “We do not want to give them a pretext to renege on the ceasefire.”
The US official was referring to an agreement between the US and the Houthis, brokered by Oman in May, which ended the US and British air strikes in Yemen and stopped attacks on US ships, although it did not restrict Houthi attacks on Israel or other targets in the Red Sea. Since then, US air and naval forces have largely distanced themselves from the conflict.
The failure of the US to stop the Houthi attacks continued to negatively affect commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Last month, Houthi officials expanded the scope of their threat to include all ships belonging to any company that deals with Israeli ports.
