In continued support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are enduring a genocidal Israeli war, Yemen's Armed Forces say they have targeted a British merchant vessel in the Red Seat that heading towards the occupied Palestinian territories.

"The naval forces in the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted a British commercial ship in the Red Sea that was headed to the ports of occupied Palestine with appropriate naval missiles," the Yemeni forces announced on Thursday, Press TV reported.

Earlier on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said that an explosion was reported at a distance off a vessel's starboard side west of Yemen's Hodeidah, Reuters reported.

The forces have been conducting many such operations against Israeli vessels or those heading towards the ports in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel has been relentlessly pounding Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas, creating a hell in the blockaded Gaza Strip.  So far, nearly 27,000 Palestinians, mostly women, children, and adolescents, have died in the war.

The Gaza conflict has spilled over into other parts of the Middle East. Lebanon's Hezbollah movement has also traded fire with Israeli troops along the border, and Iraqi-armed groups have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq.

The United States and the UK have also conducted several missile attacks against Yemeni targets in response to the Yemeni operations.

The Yemeni forces said the strike targeting the British ship was also carried out "as part of the response to the American-British aggression against our country."

The forces said they would keep up their operations "until the cessation of [the Israeli war of] aggression and the lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip."

Also on Thursday, Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, who is a member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, refuted allegations by the American and British officials, who have claimed that the Yemeni operations had "endangered" marital navigation.

"Passage of 4,874 ships through the Red Sea without any objection confirms that American and British claims are false," he said.

"The US problems stem from its desire to maintain hegemony over the region," he added, noting that Washington was rather seeking "to contain any reaction against the genocidal crimes they (the Israelis) are committing in Gaza."