Houthi leader threatened to attack Israel if Gaza ceasefire resumes

The Houthis from Yemen's Ansar Allah movement are ready to attack Israel if it does not honor the ceasefire and resumes the war in the Gaza Strip. The movement's leader, Abdel Malik al-Husi, said in a televised speech on February 11.

"We have our finger on the trigger and are ready to immediately attack the Israeli enemy if he returns to escalation in the Gaza Strip," the movement's Telegram channel quoted the leader as saying.

He also reiterated the movement's unchanged stance toward Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Lebanese people.

The day before, February 10, the Palestinian radical movement Hamas decided to postpone the release of Israeli hostages, scheduled for next Saturday, February 15, due to Israel's failure to comply with the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz later commented on the Hamas announcement, saying it was "a complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the hostage release deal."

Prior to that, on February 8, the IDF said that Hamas had released and handed over three hostages to Israel. The three freed men were handed over by the Red Cross to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

Russian Alexander Trufanov still remains among the movement's hostages. On February 4, Hamas deputy politburo chief Musa Abu Marzouk told Izvestia that Trufanov is fine and will be released soon.

On January 19, the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. During this phase of the deal, which will last 42 days, 33 Israeli hostages and about 1.9 thousand Palestinians are to be released. On the same day, the movement released three hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, and on January 26, four military girls were handed over to the Red Cross. They were subsequently flown back to their homeland.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.