A top Senate lawmaker indicated on Thursday that he’s open to resumed U.S. involvement in the campaign against the Houthis, amid a ramp-up of the group’s attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Israel that comes two months after the U.S. and the Houthis reached a ceasefire that ended the American bombing campaign against the group.

The Iran-backed Yemeni terrorist group has attacked and sunk two cargo ships passing through the Red Sea this week, killing several members of the ships’ crews and wounding and kidnapping others. The Houthis have also launched new strikes on Israel.

“The Houthis need to be totally eliminated,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Jewish Insider. “They have no purpose other than to kill free people.”

Asked if the U.S. should become involved directly against the Houthis again, Wicker said, “I wouldn’t rule that out.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told JI that if the Houthis continue to block Red Sea shipping, “we’ve got to figure out a path forward on how to respond. It can’t be a long-term thing for ships to go around the Horn of Africa.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said he wouldn’t, at this point, discuss possible American action, but emphasized that any Houthi activity has Iran’s hand behind it.

“The Houthis have decided the war against Israel is not over, and that doesn’t happen without Iranian support,” Lankford said, noting Iran’s assistance in providing intelligence, training and arms to the Yemeni terror group. “That would tell me Iran’s not done with their acts of terrorism in the region. … We have to decide, and Israel has to make a determination — as they have, of late — to be very, very clear. And Israel has carried out additional strikes on the Houthis to try to make that stop.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said, “I’m not sure what our interests are there right now, but most certainly, we have told them in the past that if they want to have a ceasefire, we’ll support a ceasefire. If they want to get back in the middle of it, I suspect that the administration may very well have a response to that.”

He said that he couldn’t discuss the possibility of a U.S. response without having been briefed on the situation.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) said he would need to think further about what circumstances would require American intervention.

“You’ve seen their main source, of Iran, be taken offline,” Budd told JI. “It remains to be seen what Iran is going to do in connection with the Houthis, but they’re a malevolent force that needs to be dealt with.”

Asked for comment on whether the Houthis’ strikes violated the group’s ceasefire with the U.S. or what might prompt further American action against the terrorist organization, the White House referred JI to a State Department press release condemning the attacks.

“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. “The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community.”