According to the "Times of Israel" reported that on May 3 local time, Yemen's Houthi armed spokesman Yahya Sarrea said that it would expand the scope of the attack on Israeli ships to the Mediterranean region.

Sareya said it would strike any ship sailing to Israeli ports in any area within its range in the Mediterranean and that the escalation would be "effective immediately." He also stressed that if Israel launches an attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, the Houthis will continue to expand the scope of the attack, regardless of the nationality of the ships and the port to which they are bound.

However, Salam Asbahi, a former senior general of the Yemeni government forces, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on this matter that the closest distance between the Mediterranean and Yemen is about 1,800 kilometers, and the missiles and drones of the Houthi armed forces to enter the Mediterranean Sea need to pass Egyptian or Israeli air defense systems, so he believes that It is difficult for the group to pose a real threat to ships in the Mediterranean.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in October 2023, the Houthis began attacking ships "linked to Israel" in the waters of the Red Sea in a show of "support for Palestine."

In March 2024, the Houthis announced an expansion of their attacks, targeting not only Israeli-related ships passing through the Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, but also ships passing through the Indian Ocean en route to the Cape of Good Hope.

This article is excerpted from the public account of China Shipping Weekly "Expanding the scope of attacks to the Mediterranean"