DUBAI, December 17. /TASS/. A senior Hamas official has called on the Yemeni rebel movement Ansar Allah (the Houthi) to continue attacking commercial ships sailing to Israel across the Red Sea.

"I hail our brothers from Ansar Allah in Yemen who have tilted the balance. We thank them," Khalil Al-Hayya said in an interview with the Al Jazeera television channel. "I am calling on our brothers <…> in Yemen: keep on following this path."

He also thanks groups in Iraq for the support for Palestinian resistance and the Hezbollah Lebanese Shiite movement "for distracting the enemy on the northern front."

Following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in early October, the Houthi said they would deliver strikes on Israel and attack Israel-related vessels in the Red Sea and the Bal al-Mandeb Strait until Israel spotted its operation in the Gaza Strip. Amid the frequent attacks on ships in the Red Sea, CMA CGM, a French transport group, and AP Moller-Maersk, a Danish shipping and logistics corporation, said they were suspending shipments across the Red Sea.