CENTCOM confirmed striking “three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch”. The same day, a Houthi spokesperson asserted that “we do not want the escalation to expand. This is not our demand. We imposed rules of engagement in which not a single drop of blood was shed or major material losses”. "What the Yemeni people did in the beginning”, he added, “was to target Israeli ships heading to Israel without causing any human or even significant material losses, just preventing ships from passing as a natural right… Now, when America joined in and escalated the situation further, there is no doubt that Yemen will respond”.