Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement said they would pause their attacks against Israel and maritime shipping in the Red Sea but warned they will resume combat if the fragile Gaza ceasefire collapses.
After punishing Israeli blows to Iran and its armed affiliates in the region, the Houthis stood out as the most resilient ally of Tehran even as its attacks on Israel and maritime commerce caused relatively little damage.
The message came in a letter from the Houthis’ new military chief, Major General Yusuf Hassan al-Madani, to Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.
Al-Madani, who replaced Major General Mohammed Abdul Karim al-Ghamari after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, used the letter to signal that the group has lifted its naval blockade on Israel.
The Israeli military accused al-Ghamari of having close ties to the Islamic Republic, saying in a statement at the time of his death in August, that he was "trained by Hezbollah and IRGC," referencing Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp.
“Your words of loyalty and sincerity are a great source of pride for us… Our unity in confronting the Zionist-American enemy and its criminal projects is rooted in faith and in our shared stance against tyranny and aggression,” wrote al-Madani.
While much of the message focused on shared ideology, its closing section delivered a clear policy signal.
“We are closely monitoring developments,” al-Madani wrote, “and declare that if the enemy resumes its aggression against Gaza, we will return to our military operations deep inside the Zionist entity, and we will reinstate the ban on Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas.”
That warning comes after two years Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red and Arabian Seas, which they described as an effort to pressure Israel to stop the war in Gaza.
The campaign disrupted one of the world’s busiest trade routes, killed at least nine mariners, and forced global shipping companies to reroute cargo.
The International Monetary Fund estimates Egypt lost about $6 billion in Suez Canal revenue in 2024 as a result.
Frequent Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel for much of the last two years were mostly fended off by air defense systems.
Notable lapses came in the form of a Houthi drone attack which killed an Israeli man in Tel Aviv last year and a missile attack which struck outside Israel's busiest airport in May.
Since the Gaza ceasefire began on October 10, Houthi attacks have largely stopped. Israeli officials have yet to comment on the new statement, though Defense Minister Israel Katz warned earlier this year that any renewed strikes would draw a “sevenfold” response.
The apparent halt by the Houthis, who have long cast themselves as part of the Islamic Republic’s so-called Axis of Resistance, speaks volumes about Iran’s influence, the shifting calculus of its regional proxies, and the fragility of the current peace truce.
