STORY: At a protest in support of Palestinians in Yemen on Friday, Houthi military spokesman Yehia Sareea said the Iran-aligned group had attacked two more commercial ships heading for Israel.

“The marine forces of the Yemeni armed forces carried out a military operation against two ships, MSC Alanya and MSC Pallatium, that were heading to the Israeli entity. They were targeted by two marine rockets. The targeting operation came after the refusal of their crews to respond to the calls of Yemeni marine forces, as well as the fiery warning messages.”

A U.S. defense official confirmed there were two attacks which he said caused fires on board though one was not on a ship cited by the Houthis.

Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking vessels in Red Sea shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel, saying they aim to support the Palestinians as Hamas and Israel wage war.

The Houthis who rule much of Yemen, have vowed they will continue with their attacks until Israel stops its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Germany’s foreign minister said one of the ships attacked on Friday was German-owned and called for the immediate end to such actions by the Houthis.

She also emphasized that the security threat to Israel comes not only from Hamas in Gaza, but also from the Houthis.

Meanwhile, Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk told Reuters Friday it will pause all container shipments through the Red Sea until further notice.

This comes after a missile on Thursday missed its Maersk Gibraltar ship, seen in this file photo, and a separate container vessel suffered another attack on Friday.

When asked about the Houthi actions, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Friday expressed concern about their impact.

“of course we are concerned about the potential for escalation. Our region is very complex and we do not need any other conflicts to erupt and therefore we hope that we will be able to avoid any further escalations in our region.”

Later on Friday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby highlighted the danger for commercial ships in the Red Sea and said he would have more information about a maritime task force soon.