A ceasefire deal between Yemen’s Houthis and the US does not include sparing Israel, the group said today, suggesting its shipping attacks that have disrupted global trade and challenged world powers will not come to a complete halt, Reuters reports.
President Donald Trump announced yesterday the US would stop bombing Yemen, saying that the Houthis had agreed to stop attacking US ships.
After Trump made the announcement, Oman said it had mediated the ceasefire deal to halt attacks on American vessels.
There have been no reports of Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea area since January.
“The agreement does not include Israel in any way, shape or form,” Mohammed Abdulsalam, the chief Houthi negotiator, told Reuters.
“As long as they announced the cessation [of US strikes] and they are actually committed to that, our position was self-defence so we will stop.”
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While tensions may have eased between the United States and the Houthis, a resilient force that withstood years of heavy Saudi-led bombing in Yemen’s civil war, the agreement does not rule out attacks on any other Israel-linked vessels or targets.
The US intensified strikes on Yemen this year, in support of Israel and to stop attacks on Red Sea shipping. Rights activists have raised concerns over civilian casualties.
“They said ‘please don’t bomb us any more and we’re not going to attack your ships’,” Trump said of the Houthis during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “And I will accept their word, and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately.”
The Houthis have been firing at Israel and at Israel linked vessels in the Red Sea since Israel began its military offensive on Gaza in October 2023.
The US military has said it has struck more than 1,000 targets since its current operation in Yemen, known as Operation Rough Rider, started on 15 March. The strikes, dozens of civilians have been killed in the strikes.
On 28 April, a US air strike hit a migrant centre in Yemen, and Houthi TV says 68 people were killed.
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