Houthis claim responsibility for drone attack on Israeli port city of Eilat, merchant ship in Red Sea.

Yemen’s Houthi rebel group has said it has carried out drone strikes on the Israeli port city of Eilat as well as on a merchant ship in the Red Sea, as the Iran-backed group steps up attacks that it says are a way to pressure Israel end its war in Gaza.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said on Tuesday the group had carried out drone strikes on Eilat and “other areas in occupied Palestine.” Sarea said the group also fired missiles at an MSC United ship in the Red Sea after it rejected three warning calls.

MSC Mediterranean confirmed that the MSC United VIII, which was en route from King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia to Karachi, Pakistan, was attacked on Tuesday but that the crew was safe. The shipping company said it conducted an assessment and reported the incident to the US-led naval coalition in the Red Sea.

The statement comes several hours after a British shipping group said it had received reports of an incident involving a ship off the coast of Britain YemenDrones were spotted and an explosion was heard.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Tuesday that the incident occurred about 60 nautical miles (111 km) outside the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

“A merchant ship was attacked by two suicide drones,” Al Jazeera correspondent Resul Serdar reported from Djibouti, located in East Africa across the sea from Yemen.

“It [UKMTO] says the drones caused no damage to the ship. The ship is now safe and continuing its voyage, and they are in constant communication with the naval coalition formed by the United States.”

The incidents come amid high tensions in the Red Sea, where the Houthis have been attacking merchant ships for weeks in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The UKMTO report followed two other explosions that struck a ship off Hodeidah earlier on Tuesday.

The U.S. has said the Houthis, who control swathes of northern Yemen, have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks targeting 10 commercial vessels with ties to dozens of countries.

The group has also fired rockets and drones into Israel, triggering an attack devastating attack in the besieged Gaza enclave, where it is fighting the Palestinian armed group Hamas after a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Israel’s attack on Gaza has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians and raised concerns about the possibility of a wider regional escalation.

The Houthi raids in the Red Sea have ensured this significant disruptions along the vital shipping route, prompting some companies to reroute their ships at considerable cost.

The US recently announced a Security Coalition To protect merchant shipping from such raids, they conduct patrols to deter further attacks.

“To protect this vital sea route, the United States is increasing its naval presence in the region,” Serdar said, noting that a U.S. destroyer refueled in Djibouti on Tuesday.