According to the US military, the container ship was hit off the coast of Yemen but continued its journey.

Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked a US-operated container ship with an anti-ship missile off the coast of Yemen, the US Central Command said.

In a statement Monday, the U.S. military said no injuries or significant damage were reported and that the Marshall Islands-flagged Gibraltar Eagle was continuing its voyage following the incident in the Gulf of Aden.

The Yemeni rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack.

“All American and British ships and warships involved in aggression against our country are considered enemy targets,” military spokesman Yahya Saree said, adding that no future American or British attack on Yemen would go “unpunished.”

Previously, the British Maritime Trade Operations Agency (UKMTO) said a ship was hit from above by a missile 95 nautical miles southeast of Aden, without identifying the ship.

British maritime security firm Ambrey said three missiles were reportedly fired by the Houthis, two failed to reach the sea and the third hit the bulk carrier. The impact reportedly caused a fire in a hold, but the bulk carrier remained seaworthy and there were no injuries on board. It was determined that the ship was not connected to Israel.

The attack on the ship came less than a day after the Houthis fired an anti-ship cruise missile at a U.S. destroyer in the Red Sea, U.S. officials said.

The Houthis control western Yemen, including the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza, they have been attacking ships in the area that they say are affiliated with Israel or bound for Israeli ports.

They say they are attacking the ships to pressure Israel to stop its attack on Gaza and ease restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population. Israel has been at war with Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, for more than three months.

US and British forces replied They contributed to the Houthi attacks last week by carrying out dozens of air and sea strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi leader, has vowed revenge. On Thursday he has said that “any attack by the United States against the Houthis in Yemen will not go unanswered.”

In a report from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said US officials believe the Houthis retained about three-quarters of their missile-firing and drone-launching capacity after last week’s attacks.

“This latest attack on a U.S. freighter appears to have been launched from the city of Hodeidah, which has been the target of American and British attacks in recent days,” Hanna said.

“So, the challenge increases in terms of what’s happening… the situation is very dire and something that U.S. intelligence is watching very closely.”

Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said one-off attacks on Houthi facilities would not reduce the group’s capabilities or deter it from attacking ships in the Red Sea.

“What the USA and Great Britain are doing is strategically unacceptable. “This is only justified if you look at what the Houthis are doing in the Red Sea in isolation from what is happening in Gaza and the rest of the region,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The US and UK are ignoring the cause of the crisis, which is the genocide in Gaza, but they are also enabling it,” Rahman said. “They are trying to prevent a broader regional escalation by taking military action against the trouble spots that are emerging as a result of what is happening in Gaza.”