Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, has urged the international community to provide military assistance to his government in order to free the country’s Red Sea coast from the Houthis, warning that US and UK “defensive” strikes will not end threats to the international shipping lane.

“Defensive operations are not the solution. The solution is to eliminate the Houthi military capabilities and also partner with the legitimate government to control these areas,” Al-Alimi said during a press conference in Riyadh on Saturday.

Al-Alimi added that his government’s military actions would weaken the Houthis and force them to embrace peace attempts to end the conflict.

He said that the Houthis reject UN-brokered peace proposals and have targeted ships in the Red Sea because they feel they are powerful.

“We seek support for the legitimate government, not for conflict, and we do not call for war, but rather to push the Houthis to enter discussions,” Al-Alimi said.

The Houthis have conducted dozens of drone and missile attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab, and the Gulf of Aden as part of their ban on all ships going toward Israel.

The Houthis claim that their acts are in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to press Israel to end its campaign in Gaza.

Separately, dozens of Yemeni human rights activists, attorneys, and journalists appealed to the Iran-backed Houthis, as well as local and international rights organizations, on Sunday to save a well-known judge who is facing death due to “appalling circumstances” in a notorious Houthi prison facility in Sanaa.

In a joint online petition, more than 50 Yemenis, including famous activists, said that Judge Abdul Wahab Qatran informed his family in a short call with his son that he was “dead” and that the Houthis held him in solitary confinement.

“This is an appeal to all forces of conscience and humanity inside and outside Yemen for serious and influential solidarity with Judge Abdul Wahab Qatran, who says, ‘I am dead,’ from his solitary cell in the Political Security Prison in Sana’a, according to a 20-second phone call with his son,” the activists said in their appeal.

Earlier this month, armed Houthis raided Qatran’s home in Sanaa, momentarily detaining and abusing his family before kidnapping him, hours after he condemned the Houthis for assaulting a local journalist who sought his salary and the reopening of his closed radio station.

Qatran has long been renowned for fiercely criticizing the Houthis for neglecting to pay thousands of public workers and for failing to restore basic facilities in regions under their control.

In Sanaa, hundreds of Hada tribesmen from the province of Dhamar staged a rare demonstration on Saturday, demanding that the Houthis release the leader of the Teachers Club Union, Abu Zaid Al-Kumaim.

The tribesmen gathered in Sanaa’s Al-Sabeen to persuade the Houthis to free Al-Kumaim, a member of their tribe.

Mohammed Al-Kumaim, a Yemeni military expert and a member of the tribe, told Arab News that his tribe gathered in Sanaa after the Houthis broke a promise to free Abu Zaid Al-Kumaim months ago, and that the Houthis agreed to release him again on Saturday.

In October, the Houthis kidnapped the Union leader in Sanaa after urging hundreds of teachers to go on strike to urge the Houthis to pay their wages.

In contrast to their violent repression of peaceful rallies by ordinary Yemenis, the Houthis seldom crush protests by strong tribesmen to prevent revolt, experts say.