Houthis vow to resume attacks on Israeli ships over Gaza aid

GAZA CITY:The Houthi militant group in Yemen said it would resume attacks on Israeli ships for the first time in about two months after demanding the country ended a ban on aid entering Gaza.

The decision, which the Houthis said would take effect immediately, will likely further deter container ships and tankers — including non-Israeli ones — from sailing through the Suez Canal and southern Red Sea.

The militants began maritime attacks in late 2023, ostensibly in solidarity with Hamas following the outbreak of its war with Israel in Gaza. The assaults led to most Western shippers avoiding the area and going around southern Africa instead — a much longer route for vessels traveling between Asia and Europe. Global freight rates rose.

“Any Israeli ship that tries to defy the ban in the announced operation areas will be targeted,” Yahya Saree, a Houthi spokesman said late on Tuesday. Israeli vessels will be targets until aid, including food and medicine, is allowed into the Palestinian territory, he added.

The Houthis are, like Hamas, backed by Iran and designated as terrorists by the US.

“The Houthi threat to resume attacks on Israel is credible,” said Jack Kennedy, an analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “A resumption of Houthi maritime attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden would represent a severe risk to all vessels in transit, regardless of affiliation with Israel, due to uncertainties around targeting selection.”

Late last week, the group gave a four-day ultimatum to Israel to allow aid into Gaza. That announcement led to a rise in the shares of shippers such as A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S and Hapag-Lloyd on Monday, with traders anticipating an increase in freight rates. The stocks pared most of their gains on Tuesday.

After a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict started in January, the Houthis suggested they would pause attacks on Israeli as well as US- and UK-linked vessels. All three countries have carried out airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen since early 2024 in an effort to stop their assaults on ships and on Israel. Those strikes have been halted since the truce in Gaza began.

Despite the pause in maritime attacks, most major Western shipping companies said they would need more reassurance before sailing through the region again. Traffic through the Suez Canal has changed little since January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The latest Houthi announcement will also be a setback for Egypt. Revenue collected from traffic through the Suez Canal is a key source of hard currency for the government. The waterway’s receipts have dropped by about 60% as a result of the assaults. Egypt says losses will be around $7 billion for the current financial year ending in June.

Israel said its stopped aid and power supplies to Gaza to put pressure on Hamas to disarm and release the roughly 65 Israeli hostages it’s still holding. The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people. Israel’s air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

If the Houthis do attack Israeli or other ships again, that’s likely to lead to a resumption of US-lead strikes on the group in Yemen, according to Kennedy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Hamas praised Houthis after they announced they would resume attacks on Israeli-linked shipping, calling it a demonstration of “true commitment” to the Palestinian cause.

“It is a true commitment of support for our Palestinian people and their resistance, and it exerts real pressure to break the unjust siege on Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas welcomed the statement, saying it “reflects the genuine stance of the Yemeni people”.

“We call on the nations of the Arab and Muslim world, as well as all free people around the globe, to intensify their effective actions to pressure the Zionist occupation and its supporters until the aggression ends, the siege on Gaza is lifted and humanitarian aid reaches our besieged people,” Hamas said.