DUBAI, February 1. /TASS/. Members of Yemen’s rebel Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement have delivered a missile strike on a US commercial vessel en route to Israel, the movement’s military spokesman, Yahya Saria, said.

"The Yemeni navy carried out a high-quality operation by attacking with several anti-ship missiles the US merchant ship Koi, which was heading to a port in occupied Palestine," Saria said on Houthi-run Al Masirah television.

The spokesman added that Houthis registered a direct hit. In his words, the strike was delivered a few hours after the attack on the US Gravely destroyer in the Red Sea. The US Central Command of the Armed Forces (CENTCOM) reported on Wednesday that the US destroyer had shot down an anti-ship missile fired by the Houthis on January 30. According to a statement by CENTCOM, there were no casualties or damage.

After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Yemeni rebels (Houthis) warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory and would not allow ships associated with the Jewish state to pass through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv stopped its military operation in the embattled Palestinian enclave. Since mid-November 2023, they have attacked dozens of civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

On January 12, UK and US forces using aircraft, ships and submarines first struck Ansar Allah targets in a number of Yemeni cities, including Sana'a and Hodeidah. The targets included missile and drone sites and rebel radar stations. In the early morning hours of January 23, the United Kingdom and the United States carried out a second officially confirmed series of joint strikes, with the main targets being Houthi underground warehouses and facilities related to missile launches and air surveillance.