TEHRAN- The recent joint military operations carried out by regional resistance groups against Israeli ships have demonstrated a growing sense of solidarity and sent a powerful message of unity amid the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which is an umbrella group of anti-terror fighters in the Arab country, have conducted the operations. 

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq confirmed on Sunday that it had hit four ships in the Israeli port of Haifa and one ship in the Mediterranean through joint drone attacks with Ansarullah. 

The Iraqi resistance group said the vessel that was hit in the Mediterranean was sailing to Haifa Port.

It said the military operations were launched "in solidarity with the people of Gaza" and vowed to continue attacks against "the enemy's strongholds", which is a reference to Israeli interests. 

Successful strikes 

The Ansarullah movement also confirmed the joint attacks. 

“The two operations successfully achieved their goals, and the strikes were precise and direct," the spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces said. 

Yahya Saree also said on Saturday that the Yemeni army targeted the US aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the Red Sea with missiles. 

He said the move was in line with efforts to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Saree noted that the attacks were also a response to American and British strikes against Yemen. 

The Yemeni and Iraqi resistance forces have been hitting Israeli targets since the regime declared war on Gaza on October 7. 

The Yemeni army has launched several drone and missile attacks against Israeli ships and vessels affiliated to the regime in the Red Sea since November.

The Ansarullah said it would stop the attacks if Israel ended its relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza. 

Nonetheless, the US and the UK chose to escalate the situation after they began strikes against Yemen in early January in response to the targeting of Israeli vessels. 

This prompted the Ansarullah movement to order the army to target American and British warships in the Red Sea over the complicity of London and Washington with the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against Palestinians. 

Manifestation of unity 

The US and UK attacks against Yemen have not only failed to deter the country from targeting Israeli interests, but they have also led to greater unity among the axis of regional resistance. Growing unity among resistance groups was thrust into the spotlight after the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Ansarullah movement teamed up to target the Israeli ships. 

Resistance has the upper hand

Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out a surprise military operation in southern Israel. 

More than 260 days have passed since Israel began the onslaught, which has claimed the lives of about 37,600 Palestinians. But the regime has failed to eliminate Hamas which has been its main military goal since the war erupted. 

According to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, “This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it’s simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public…. Hamas is an idea; Hamas is a party. It’s rooted in the hearts of the people — anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong”. 

Israel has suffered crushing blows at the hands of Hamas fighters in the Gaza battlefield. Israel’s warmongering against Lebanon’s Hezbollah has also brought the regime nothing more than humiliation.  
 

Pipe dreams 

Both Israel and its Western allies, in particular the United States, have been under the illusion that they are able to eliminate regional resistance groups through military means. 

The US has repeatedly targeted resistance groups in West Asia that are opposed to Israel’s war on Gaza and Washington’s support for the regime. These American strikes have been aimed at deterring the groups from conducting military operations against the US and its protégé, Israel. 

However, growing resistance against the US hegemony and Israel’s occupation and savagery has clearly shown that Israelis and their Western masters are just building castles in the air.