SANAA (Dispatches) --
Yemen’s armed forces have seized an Israeli ship and detained dozens of its crew members in the Red Sea, Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television reported on Sunday.
The Yemeni naval forces “succeeded in detaining an Israeli ship in the depths of the Red Sea”, it said. Fifty-two people who were on board the ship were arrested, the report said.
The detention came after Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement warned that it will target any Israeli ship crossing the country’s territorial waters.
Al-Mayadeen said the ship’s crew and those on board are currently under investigation and their nationalities are being verified by the relevant Yemeni agencies.
Israeli media confirmed the regime’s ownership of the confiscated ship. The vessel goes by the name of ‘Galaxy Leader.’ The media said its entire crew members had been detained by Yemen’s naval forces in the south of the Red Sea.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, announced earlier in the day that the military units would target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or carrying the Israeli flag. Yemen’s move, he said, is in support of Palestinians amid Israel’s savage onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Saree also called on all countries to withdraw their citizens working as crews on any such vessels.
In a televised speech broadcast live on November 14, the leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement called on Arab countries and the Muslim world to adopt a clear stance in the face of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said the Yemeni forces are keeping a watchful eye on any Israeli ship in the Red Sea, and in the Bab el-Mandab Strait in particular, as well as Yemeni territorial waters.
Houthi said the Israeli occupation “did not dare raise Israeli flags on its ships in the Red Sea.”
“They camouflage, which indicates their fear and the effectiveness of our position.”
On November 9, Yemeni armed forces launched a batch of ballistic missiles at various sensitive targets lying across the southern part of the occupied territories.
Yemen’s Al-Masirah television network reported at the time that the projectiles had hit military targets in the Umm al-Rashrash area in the city of Eilat.
Saree reiterated then that the Yemeni forces would continue to carry out their military operations “until the Israeli aggression against our brothers in Gaza stops.”
Days earlier, Yemeni forces had launched a large-scale drone strike against “sensitive” targets in the occupied territories in a show of support for Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.