Planning for painful response reason for delay: Houthi

“The Axis of Resistance will surely carry out the retaliatory operation, which will be stinging and effective. Careful planning is among the reasons behind the delay in its implementation,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech broadcast from the Yemeni capital Sana’a on Thursday afternoon.

Israel, he said, is in a state of extreme fear and anguish amid anticipation of Iran’s retaliatory response to Haniyeh’s targeted assassination on July 31, while operations continue to be carried out elsewhere across West Asia.

“The operations are in full swing in southern Lebanon and Israel awaits an inevitable response from Hezbollah resistance fighters,” the Ansarullah chief noted.

The retaliatory response will absolutely come, Houthi said. This week, Yemeni forces used 21 winged ballistic missiles, and kamikaze drones as well as unmanned underwater vehicles in various operations against Israeli targets, he added.

So far, Houthi said, Yemeni naval units have targeted 182 merchant vessels affiliated with Israel and its Western sponsors during their maritime operations in the Red Sea in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Ansarullah leader hit out at the Israeli regime, saying it has been committing the crime of the century against Gazans for the past 321 days with the help and support of the US and some other Western countries.

“The Zionist enemy is waging a genocidal campaign of extermination against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through bombardment, starvation, epidemics, torture and other crimes,” he said.

Houthi said religious scholars and thinkers have a great responsibility to raise awareness among Muslims and world nations about the danger of failing to support Palestinians and their cause.

He also strongly criticized certain Arab regimes for repressive measures like imprisonment, financial penalties, torture and even enforced exile against those  sympathizing with the Palestinians and their resistance groups.

“Whilst some Arab regimes continue to trade with the occupying Tel Aviv regime, the Colombian government has banned coal export to Israel. Defense of Gaza and the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a primary duty for all Muslims. This is while some are negligent and others are accomplices.

“Negligence and failure to assist Palestine is a danger for the entire Muslim world,” Houthi said.

The Ansarullah chief finally called upon all walks of the Yemeni society to take to the streets on Friday in a strong show of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza amid the relentless Israeli ground and aerial offensives.