DUBAI (Reuters) – Yemen’s Houthis will target ships heading to Israeli ports in any area that is within their range, military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech on Friday.

“We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach,” he said.

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.

This has forced shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and has stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilise the Middle East.

(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Editing by Michael Georgy and Kevin Liffey)