DUBAI, June 9. /TASS/. The Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement have attacked the British HMS Diamond destroyer in the Red Sea and two commercial ship in the Arabian Sea, the movement’s military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said.

"The Yemeni missile forces conducted an operation in the Red Sea against the British HMS Diamond destroyer with the use of several ballistic missiles," he told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah television channel. "The Yemeni naval forces, unmanned aircraft and missile troops conducted two joint operations in the Red Sea against the Norderney and MSC Tavvishi ships belonging to companies, which violated the ban on the passage to the ports in occupied Palestine." The strike on the Norderney ship was followed by a fire.

According to Sarea, the attacks came as a response to Israel’s actions in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, the press service of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Israeli troops staged an operation near Nuseirat and successfully released four Israeli hostages, captured on October 7, 2023, in a military operation near a Palestinian refugee camp in Nuseirat. The names of the people are Noa Agramani (25), Almog Meir (21), Shlomi Ziv (40) and Andrey Kozlov (27), who also has a Russian passport. In response, Palestine’s Hamas movement pledged to capture more Israeli soldiers hostage during the hostilities in Gaza.

Gaza's Government Media Office says 210 Palestinians were killed and over 400 wounded by Israeli forces at the Nuseirat refugee camp. The enclave’s health ministry has not yet commented on the information.

Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since mid-November, dozens of civilian ships have been attacked by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In response to Ansar Allah's actions, the US authorities announced the creation of an international coalition and preparations for an operation codenamed Prosperity Guardian, expected to ensure freedom of navigation and protection of ships in the Red Sea. Since then, the United States and the United Kingdom have been regularly delivering strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.