Yemen’s Houthis seize Israeli cargo ship in Red Sea

Yemen’s Houthis seized a cargo ship owned by an Israeli businessman in the southern Red Sea. Israel confirmed the seizure of the cargo ship on Sunday.

Last week, Yemen’s Houthi leader had threatened to carry out attacks on Israel and target Israeli ships in the Red Rea and the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait.

The Houthi rebels had also asked Egypt, Saudi and Jordan to open a land border to allow its fighters into Gaza to fight Israeli forces.

According to foreign media reports, Houthis seized a British-owned and Japanese-operated cargo vessel, Galaxy Leader, travelling from Turkey to India. The Israeli military confirmed the ship seizure.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a ship — which it did not name — had been seized, and stressed that Israel was not involved in its ownership, operation or the make-up of its international crew.

“There were no Israelis on the ship,” it said.

“This is another Iranian act of terrorism that represents an escalation in Iran’s belligerence against the citizens of the free world, with concomitant international ramifications vis-a-vis the security of global shipping routes.”

The statement added that the vessel had a crew of 25 members from Ukraine, Bulgaria, the Philippines, and Mexico, with no Israelis among them.

However, there has been no comment from the Houthis so far.

The Iran-backed Houthis had claimed to fire drones and ballistic missiles in three separate operations earlier in the month.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces… confirm they will continue to carry out qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops,” said a Houthi military statement aired on the rebels’ Al-Masirah TV.

It said Houthi rebels “launched a large batch of ballistic missiles… and a large number of armed aircraft” towards Israel on October 31, in the third such operation since the Gaza assault began on October 7 after Hamas fighters staged the worst attack in Israel’s history.