The Iran-backed Houthi militant group is threatening the wider global community and the people of Yemen, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told Al Arabiya.

The Houthis, launching attacks from Yemen, say that disrupting shipping routes in the Red Sea is in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israel launched a military campaign on the besieged Gaza Strip in response to the October 7 Hamas attack.

Over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, which Gaza health authorities say are mostly civilians. A ceasefire, which was highly anticipated before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is still being pursued by Egypt and Qatar.

Along with regional partners, the two countries have been trying to sort out the differences between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas on the next steps to reach a ceasefire as the humanitarian crisis deepens in the Strip.

Leaf, however, said that the claim of attacking to advance peace in Gaza is not credible.

“I don’t see in any way that the Houthis can credibly claim that this [the attacks] is advancing the calls for peace or advancing the cause of the Palestinians’ quest for statehood,” Leaf said.

Meanwhile, the Red Sea is being “despoiled” and “destroyed” while endangering the lives of “innocent ships and innocent mariners,” Leaf explained, adding that “tons of chemicals and other dangerous fertilizers have been spilled into the Red Sea.”

The Houthi militia has repeatedly launched drones and missiles on various targets and conducted acts of piracy since November 2023.

Earlier in March, three sailors were killed in a Houthi missile attack. A few days before that, a UK-owned vessel carrying fertilizers, the Rubymar, became the first ship to sink as a result of a Houthi attack.

Analysts and government officials have told Al Arabiya English that the sunken ship could be behind the damaged undersea internet cables.

In response to the attacks, the US, UK and a coalition of allies are aiding in safe passage through the area while also conducting retaliatory strikes in Yemen.

A Thursday report from Russian state media said that the Houthis have a new, hypersonic missile, potentially raising the stakes in their ongoing attacks.

“It’s injuring the very people in Yemen and in the Horn of Africa who are already food insecure. Ships have been turned around that were destined to bring critical grains, corn, etc., to the people of Yemen. But these attacks have stymied them,” Leaf, previously the Senior Director for the MENA region at the White House’s National Security Council, said.

“We have a large coalition that’s growing because it is not about the US and the Houthi; it’s about the Houthi and what they are doing to injure the economies and the peoples of that region,” Leaf, who is also a former US ambassador to the UAE, added.

Yemen, which made significant progress in bringing peace through ceasefire talks in 2022, is once again a cause of concern for regional and international powers who are trying to stop the country from slipping back into civil war.

The ceasefire process “has been interrupted,” Leaf said. “And the peace process has been, in a sense, pushed aside by the Houthis’ determination to attack ships. We want the Houthis to cease their attacks and also to get back to the peace table,” she added.