SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Thousands of supporters of Yemen’s powerful Shiite rebel group escalated their standoff with the government on Friday, setting up tents near three ministries to press for the replacement of a prime minister they depict as “manipulated” by their rival Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

In their fifth day of street rallies in the capital and across the country, tens of thousands of supporters of the Hawthi group —who adhere to a Shiite branch of Islam — marched and waved banners carrying a mix of religious, political and economic themes. One painted in red read “death to America, death to Israel,” while others denounced the recent lifting of fuel subsidies, which the president has defended as a badly needed economic reform.