Israel pounds Gaza; Houthis vow more Red Sea attacks

US forms international mission to protect shipping amid threat by Iran-backed group

Israel kept pounding the shattered Gaza Strip on Dec 19 while Yemen's pro-Palestinian Houthi movement vowed to defy a United States-led naval mission and keep hitting Israeli targets in the Red Sea.

Israel says its campaign is aimed at eradicating Hamas militants behind an Oct 7 attack.

The Israeli action has left the Gaza enclave in ruins, brought widespread hunger as well as homelessness and killed nearly 20,000 Gazans, according to a Palestinian tally.

The country is under increasing international pressure to avoid killing innocents.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will not stop until the remaining 129 hostages are freed and Hamas is obliterated after its gunmen killed 1,200 Israelis.

The conflict has spread beyond Gaza into the Red Sea, where Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group has been attacking vessels with missiles and drones.

That has prompted the creation of a multinational naval operation to protect commerce in the area.

But the Houthis said they would carry on anyway, possibly with a sea operation every 12 hours.

"Our position will not change in the direction of the Palestinian issue, whether a naval alliance is established or not," Houthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters.

He said only Israeli ships or those going to Israel would be targeted.

"Our position in support of Palestine and the Gaza Strip will remain until the end of the siege, the entry of food and medicine and our support for the oppressed Palestinian people will remain continuous." Announcing the naval operation,

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Bahrain that joint patrols would be held in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, which encompass a major East-West global shipping route.

"This is an international challenge that demands collective action," he said.