Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a TV link ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, at a mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, March 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said on Thursday the terrorist group’s operations against Israel, carried out with the group Islamic Resistance in Iraq, would intensify.

Earlier, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched two joint military operations with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance against ships at Israel’s Haifa port — though the Israeli military denied the report.

“The first targeted two ships carrying military equipments in the port of Haifa, while the second targeted a ship that violated the decision to ban entry to the port,” Saree said in a televised statement.

Islamic Resistance in Iraq similarly said it carried out two operations with the Houthis on Haifa port, according to a statement on its Telegram channel.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital and most populous areas, have attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists, drawing US and British retaliatory strikes since February.

The US and other countries have designated the Houthi rebel movement — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — as a terrorist organization.