SANAA, Yemen

US and British forces have targeted Yemen with 403 airstrikes since January, Yemen’s Houthi group said Wednesday.

Houthi spokesperson Dhaifallah Al-Shami issued the statement, the Saba news agency affiliated with the group reported, which coincided with an escalation of airstrikes in Yemen’s western province of Hodeidah.

“The total number of American and British airstrikes, both aerial and reconnaissance, and from warships since the beginning of the aggression on Yemen amounted to 403 airstrikes," Al-Shami said.

“Among them are 203 aerial strikes, including 86 strikes during the past week,” he added.

Al-Shami accused the US and Britain of “using intimidation tactics against national forces to bend Yemen from its firm and clear stance on the Palestinian issue.”

He affirmed that “Yemen's stance with Palestine has not been limited to condemnation, but it has led the Arab and international scene through practical positions.”

He said these positions “included participating in million-man marches in the capital Sanaa and various provinces, participating in the military open battle, targeting the sites of the Zionist enemy in the occupied territories and preventing Israeli ships as well as ships heading to the occupied ports from crossing the Arabian and Red Seas.”

Al-Shami's statements come in conjunction with an escalation of American and British airstrikes on areas in Yemen. The group announced earlier in the day that Hodeidah province was targeted with eight airstrikes at different times.

There was no immediate comment from the US or UK on the Houthi spokesman's statements.

Since the beginning of this year, a coalition led by the US has been launching airstrikes which it says target Houthi sites in various areas of Yemen in response to the group’s attacks in the Red Sea, which have been met with responses from the group.

In solidarity with Gaza, which faces a destructive Israeli offensive with American support, the Houthis have targeted Israeli cargo ships or those affiliated with Israel in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, confirming their determination to continue their operations until the end of the war on the besieged enclave.

With Washington and London's intervention and tensions escalating significantly in January, the Houthis announced that they now consider all American and British ships military targets.

Since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, the Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed more than 28,000 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel’s war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala