°®Âþµº

The US offered to recognise the Houthi government in Sanaa in a bid to stop the Yemeni rebel group's attacks, a senior Houthi official said on Monday, in remarks that a US official said were false.

The Houthi official's remarks came a day after a ballistic missile from the group reached central Israel for the first time, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on them.

"There is always communication after every operation we conduct," Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi movement's political bureau, told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV.

"These calls are based on either threats or presenting some temptations, but they have given up to achieve any accomplishment in that direction."

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the remarks "a total fabrication".

Separately, a US State Department official said: "Houthi propaganda is rarely true or newsworthy. Coverage like this puts a guise of credibility on their misinformation."

Al-Bukhaiti said the calls after attacks included some from the US and the United Kingdom indirectly through mediators and that the threats included direct US military intervention against countries that intervene militarily "in support of Gaza".

Beside attacks on Israel, the Yemeni group has been firing drones and missiles at ships, saying they are targeting vessels linked to Israel, the US, and Britain in solidarity with Palestinians over the war on Gaza.

The Houthis have damaged more than 80 ships in missile and drone attacks since November, sinking two vessels, seizing another, and killing at least three crew members.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 41,252 people and injured 95,497 others in the strip, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.

A Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel left 1,200 people killed and saw around 250 foreign and Israeli captives taken, according to Israeli tallies.

Yemen has been embroiled in years of civil war.

In 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and ousted the internationally recognised government.

In January, the United States put the Houthis back on its list of terrorist groups.

(Reuters, AFP)