Houthis Mourn Yahya Sinwar, Claim Nearly 200 Shipping Attacks Since Declaring War on Israel

Ansarullah, the Iran-backed jihadist movement in Yemen commonly known as the Houthis, issued a statement mourning Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar on Friday, who Israeli forces eliminated on the battlefield in Gaza a day before.

Sinwar was reportedly attempting to flee Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, on Thursday when his terrorist contingent encountered Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ground troops. The troops fired at the attacking terrorists and eliminated Sinwar without initially realizing they were engaging the head of the jihadist group.

Sinwar is widely believed to have planned and executed the barbaric attack on Israeli civilians committed on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1,200 people, the abduction of another 250, and widespread acts of infanticide, rape, torture, and other atrocities. He took over as the leader of Hamas in August after an explosion in Tehran killed his predecessor, the head of the Hamas “political” office Ismail Haniyeh. Neither Israel nor any other entity has taken responsibility at press time for the reported explosion that killed Haniyeh.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to Sinwar’s death as the “beginning of the end” of the war that began on October 7 in remarks on Thursday, urging Hamas terrorists to hand over the estimated 101 hostages still in terrorist captivity in exchange for their lives.

While Hamas was the Iran-backed terrorist entity that triggered the war, several other arms of the Iranian state-funded terrorist ecosystem have joined in committing acts of terror against Israel, most notably the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah and the Houthis in Lebanon. The Houthis have mostly participated in the war against Israel by launching a campaign against global commercial shipping that leverages Yemen’s geographic position at the mouth of the Red Sea, attacking ships carrying goods seemingly at random to severely disrupt global economic activity. The Houthis insist that they have only targeted ships associated with Israel and its allies America and Britain, but in reality have attacked ships with no clear ties to any of those countries – and some ships with ties to Houthi allies such as Russia, China, and Iran.

The Houthis issued a statement celebrating Sinwar on Friday and asserting their belief that the united jihadist front would eventually destroy Israel.

“Martyr Sinwar realized heroic epics in the fight against the criminal Israeli regime,” Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said in a message, “and we are certain that Gaza and the Palestinian cause will have no fate other than victory, no matter the weight of the sacrifices that have to be made in this path.”

During his regular weekly address on Thursday, the head of Ansarullah, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, affirmed that Yemen would continue bomb commercial ships to support jihadists seeking the destruction of Israel indefinitely, regardless of the continuation of targeted American airstrikes on Yemeni territory his group controls. He insisted such moves were necessary because of America’s support for Israel and the United Nations’ inability to stop the war.

“The US is a partner in every sense of the word with the Zionist regime in its crimes, brutalities as well as acts of acts of aggression and tyranny,” al-Houthi declared, according to the Iranian propaganda outlet PressTV. “Without American partnership and support, the Israeli enemy would not have been able to continue the Gaza war and Lebanon conflict this long, with such high intensity of cruelty and criminality.”

Reports of his remarks on Thursday did not note any direct discussion of Sinwar’s fate, though al-Houthi made the accusation that Israel is committing human rights crimes in Gaza.

“The scenes of atrocities in Gaza provide sufficient evidence for the level of Zionists’ viciousness,” al-Houthi claimed. “Lack of awareness about the danger being posed by the Zionists will reinforce their belief that Arabs and Muslims are ignorant and uninterested in the unfolding developments.”

Al-Houthi also claimed that his terrorist had targeted 196 ships in and around the Red Sea in the past year – alleging they were all American, Israeli, or British, a verifiable falsehood.

“Support continues with rockets and drones to occupied Palestine, and operations this week were carried out using 25 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones,” al-Houthi promised.

Al-Houthi is one of the few leaders of the major Iranian proxy terrorist groups attacking Israel remaining after a relentless campaign that most recently eliminated Sinwar. Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese terrorist arm, lost its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah to an Israeli airstrike in September. In appealing for an end to the war on Thursday, Netanyahu noted the fall of these leaders, leaving their terrorist groups with decimated executive leaderships.

“The axis of terror that was built by Iran is collapsing before our eyes. Nasrallah is gone. His deputy Mohsen is gone. Haniyeh is gone. Deif is gone. Sinwar is gone,” Netanyahu listed. “The reign of terror that the Iranian regime has imposed on its own people and on the peoples of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen – this too will come to an end.”

“All those who seek a future of prosperity and peace in the Middle East should unite to build a better future. Together, we can push back the forces of darkness and create a future of light and hope for all of us,” he encouraged.

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.