Why attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on Red Sea shipping pose a clear and present danger to Israel

Attacks on Red Sea commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthi militia in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is likely to hit the Israeli economy as vessels bypass Port of Eilat. (Shutterstock)
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Updated 21 December 2023
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Why attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on Red Sea shipping pose a clear and present danger to Israel

  • Attacks on commercial vessels have spiked since mid-November in retaliation for Gaza bombardment
  • Experts say prolonged disruption could cause Israel to retaliate against the militia, widening conflict 

DUBAI: Two of the world’s biggest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, recently suspended the passage of container ships through the Red Sea’s Bab Al-Mandab Strait following a spate of attacks on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthi militia.

Disruption to the shipping route, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, has interrupted the flow of trade and raised geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. One economy in the region that is particularly exposed is Israel.

“Shipping coming from Asia will now have to divert and go through the Cape of Good Hope, all around Africa to reach (Israel),” Riad Kahwaji, a Dubai-based Middle East analyst and founder and director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, told Arab News.

“Definitely, economically, it will be impacted. It is not good for the economies of all countries that are on the Red Sea.”

And it is not just shipping routes close to home that are feeling the squeeze.

On Wednesday, Malaysia’s government announced it was imposing a ban on all Israeli owned and flagged ships, as well as any vessels headed to Israel, from docking at its ports, in response to Israel’s conduct in its conflict with Hamas.

Attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea have increased significantly since mid-November in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, prompting some vessels to halt operations in the region or to reroute via the southern tip of Africa.

Besides Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, oil firm BP and oil tanker group Frontline have also said they will be avoiding the Red Sea route and rerouting via Africa’s Cape of Good Hope — a detour that can take 10 days longer, adding some 3,500 nautical miles to the journey.

Oil and gas prices have surged and shipping premiums have almost doubled for some carriers in response to the disruption.

The Houthi militia, which is part of the same Axis of Resistance as the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has said that the attacks on commercial shipping are an act of retaliation for the “oppression of the Palestinian people.”




The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier refuels from the underway replenishment oiler USNS Laramie in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Oct. 11, 2023. (US Navy via AP)

In one high-profile incident on Nov. 19, Houthi gunmen filmed themselves rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of the cargo vessel Galaxy Leader, seizing control of the ship and its 25 international crew.

The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned vessel, operated by a Japanese firm but having links to an Israeli businessman, was headed from Turkiye to India when it was seized and re-routed to Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, where it has become a tourist attraction.

Experts warn that such attacks have raised the possibility of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, launched in response to the Palestinian militant group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, spilling over into the wider region.

On Dec. 15, Danish shipping company Maersk instructed all its vessels in the Red Sea to pause voyages through the Bab Al-Mandab Strait after a “near-miss incident” involving a Maersk Gibraltar vessel and “yet another attack on a container vessel.”

Friday’s attacks on the Maersk Gibraltar and Hapag-Lloyd’s Al-Jasrah occurred near the Bab Al-Mandab, through which around 20,000 ships pass annually, serving ports throughout the littoral states, including Israel’s Port of Eilat.

The Maersk Gibraltar vessel was targeted by a missile while traveling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Both the crew and the vessel were reported safe.




Palestinians salvage their belongings after an Israeli strike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, in December. (AP)

On Dec. 19, the US government announced “Operation Prosperity Guardian” — an international maritime coalition involving Western and Arab countries to protect shipping in the Red Sea.

Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, held a virtual meeting with ministers from more than 40 countries on Tuesday, and called on more nations to contribute to efforts to keep shipping safe in the region.

“Right now, we have a multinational force led by the US, so the Israelis have been asked to not regulate (the situation) but to allow an international response force to deal with it so as not to turn it into a confrontation between the Houthis and Iran with the Israelis,” said Kahwaji.

“The pretext (for this new force) is that it is an attack on international shipping, so it is a global response. Today we have a coalition of nine countries that will likely grow larger, and it will conduct operations to protect the sea lanes and will likely retaliate to the attacks on the ships.”

INNUMBERS

* 12% Proportion of annual global trade that passes through the Red Sea.

* $1tn Value of commercial goods passing through the Red Sea per year.

* 20,000 Number of ships that pass through the Bab Al-Mandab Strait annually.

* 3,500 nautical miles Added distance around the Cape of Good Hope.

In some cases, Houthi militiamen have boarded or attempted to board merchant vessels, while in other instances they have targeted cargo ships with missiles and drones. Although damage has been minimal, the situation remains tense.

According to Reuters, several container ships anchored in the Red Sea have turned off their tracking systems while they adjust course.

Many ships are continuing to use the waterway, with several that have armed guards on board, according to Reuters news agency, citing data from the London Stock Exchange Group.

Although the Houthi attacks and resulting disruption to commercial shipping will likely have an impact on Israel’s economy, experts believe the country is unlikely to experience shortages or significant price inflation as a result.




Members of the Houthi militia during the capture of an Israel-linked cargo vessel at an undefined location in the Red Sea. (AP)

“Israel has outlets on both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean,” said Kahwaji, predicting that Israeli authorities will divert all shipping to the Port of Haifa, the largest of Israel’s three major international seaports.

“Yes, the Israeli economy will be affected, but does it mean that Israel will not be able to get anything? No,” he added.

As one of the world’s busiest shipping channels, the Red Sea is positioned south of the Suez Canal and constitutes the most significant waterway connecting Europe to Asia and East Africa.

Any ship passing through the Suez Canal to or from the Indian Ocean has to come via the strait of Bab Al-Mandab and the Red Sea.

The Suez Canal is the quickest sea route between Asia and Europe and is particularly important in the transportation of oil and liquefied natural gas.




Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, held a virtual meeting with ministers from more than 40 countries on Tuesday, and called on more nations to contribute to efforts to keep shipping safe in the region. (AFP/File Photo)

About 12 percent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, including 30 percent of global container traffic and $1 trillion worth of goods each year.

Billions of dollars worth of commercial goods and supplies pass through the Red Sea every year. This means that delays or disruption can impact petrol prices, the availability of electronics and other aspects of global trade.

The Bab Al-Mandab Strait is a particularly vulnerable choke point along the shipping route, making it a target for piracy and terrorism. Located at its southern end of the Red Sea between Djibouti and Yemen, the strait is 18 miles wide at its narrowest point.

If the US-led naval operation in the Red Sea fails to deter further Houthi attacks on commercial shipping, leading to prolonged disruption, Israel may feel compelled to act against the Yemeni militia, marking a potentially dangerous regional escalation.

Indeed, given that the US is eager to avoid direct involvement in a potential conflict or an escalation involving Iran and its many proxy militias throughout the region, few expect the joint naval force to do more beyond patrols.

“It all depends on the rules of engagement to be adopted by this new naval joint force,” said Kahwaji.

“Will they adopt limited rules of engagement that confine them to protecting just the ships and providing defense against drones or missiles? Or will they take proactive measurements, carrying out pre-emptive strikes, retaliating against the attacks by going after the missile launchers, targeting the bases from where they are launching the drones?”

As of now, the attacks on commercial shipping pose a threat to regional economies, many of which are still adjusting their supply chains following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

If Houthi attacks in the Red Sea continue or become more severe, resulting in casualties among crew, the sinking of vessels, or attacks on military targets, then the conflict has every possibility of spreading beyond Gaza and engulfing the region.

 


Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir

Updated 2 sec ago
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Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir

DUKAN: Water levels at Iraq’s vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing.
Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s.
Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of a possible seven billion.
That is “about 24 percent” of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years.
Satellite imagery analyzed by AFP shows the lake’s surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025.
Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a “shortage of rainfall” explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular.
Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimeters.


Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained.
Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves.
Baghdad has criticized these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighboring Turkiye, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification.
At the end of May, the country’s total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years.
On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land.
The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest — cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans — would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought.
In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat.
“The harvest failed because of the lack of rain,” he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield.
“I can’t make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river,” he added.


The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighboring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water.
For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim.
In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently.
The latest shortages are forcing even “stricter rationing” and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said.
In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water network.
In the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimize the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk.
“If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share,” Karim said.

Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon

Updated 6 min 41 sec ago
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Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon

  • The military said the site was used by Hezbollah “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Saturday its navy hit a Hezbollah “infrastructure site” near the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, a day after Israel’s foreign minister warned the Lebanese armed group against entering the Iran-Israel war.
“Overnight, an Israeli Navy vessel struck a Hezbollah ‘Radwan Force’ terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
The military said the site was used by Hezbollah “to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
In a separate statement on Saturday, the military said it had “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon the previous day, despite an ongoing ceasefire between both sides.
In a statement carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon’s health ministry said late on Friday that one person was killed in a “strike carried out by an Israeli enemy drone on a motorcycle” in the same south Lebanon village.
The November ceasefire aimed to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Lebanon’s army, which has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure as part of the truce, said earlier in June that the Israeli military’s ongoing violations and “refusal to cooperate” with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism “could prompt the (Lebanese) military to freeze cooperation” on site inspections.


Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

Updated 16 min 21 sec ago
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Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

  • Veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force
  • The Quds Force built up a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom.

The veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, Katz said in a statement.

There was no confirmation from the IRGC.

The Quds Force built up a network of Arab allies known as the Axis of Resistance, establishing Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982 and supporting the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But Iran-aligned network has suffered major blows over the last two years, as Israeli offensives since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel have weakened both the Palestinian group and Hezbollah.

Katz said Izadi financed and armed Hamas during the initial attacks, describing the commander’s killing as a “major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force.”

Izadi was sanctioned by the US and Britain over what they said were his ties to Hamas and Palestinian militant faction Islamic Jihad, which also took part in the October 7 attacks.


Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting

Updated 21 June 2025
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Iran’s FM arrives in Istanbul for Arab League meeting

  • Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

ISTANBUL: Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, Tasnim news agency reported, for a meeting with Arab League diplomats to discuss Tehran’s escalating conflict with Israel.

Around 40 diplomats are slated to join the weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as Israel and Iran continue to exchange missile strikes.

“The Foreign Minister arrived in Istanbul this morning to participate in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Foreign Ministers’ meeting,” Tasnim reported.

It comes after Araghchi met with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany in Geneva on Friday.

“At this meeting, at the suggestion of Iran, the issue of the Zionist regime’s attack on our country will be specifically addressed,” said Iranian foreign Abbas Araghchi, according to the news agency.

Israel began its assault in the early hours of June 13, saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, triggering an immediate retaliation from Tehran in the worst-ever confrontation between the two arch-rivals.

Earlier on Friday, Araghchi said Tehran was ready to “consider diplomacy” again only if Israel’s “aggression is stopped.”

The Arab League ministers are expected to release a statement following their meeting, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu said.


Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks

Updated 6 min 16 sec ago
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Iran, Israel launch new attacks after Tehran rules out nuclear talks

  • Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: Iran and Israel exchanged fresh attacks early on Saturday, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear program while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.

Shortly after 2:30 a.m. in Israel (2330 GMT on Friday), the Israeli military warned of an incoming missile barrage from Iran, triggering air raid sirens across parts of central Israel, including Tel Aviv, as well as in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Interceptions were visible in the sky over Tel Aviv, with explosions echoing across the metropolitan area as Israel’s air defense systems responded.

Israeli military kill head of Palestine corps in IRGC’s overseas arm – defense minister

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that the military had killed a veteran commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, in a strike in an apartment in Iran’s Qom.

The veteran commander, Saeed Izadi, led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, Katz said in a statement.

22 arrested for links to Israeli spy services since start of conflict

Police in Iran’s Qom province said Saturday that 22 people “linked to Israeli spy services” had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported.

“22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime’s spy services, disturbing public opinion, and supporting the criminal regime,” the agency stated, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran’s Qom province.

Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site targeted by Israel

Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was targeted by Israel, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Saturday, adding that there was no leakage of hazardous materials.

At the same time, Israel launched a new wave of attacks against missile storage and launch infrastructure sites in Iran, the Israeli military said.

Sirens also sounded in southern Israel, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service. An Israeli military official said Iran had fired five ballistic missiles and that there were no immediate indications of any missile impacts.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Interceptions visible in skies over Tel Aviv

• Israel says it targeted Iranian missile storage, infrastructure

• Iran says no talks with US under 'Israeli aggression'

There were no initial reports of casualties.

The emergency service released images showing a fire on the roof of a multi-storey residential building in central Israel. Local media reported that the fire was caused by debris from an intercepted missile.

Israel began attacking Iran last Friday, saying its longtime enemy was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel.

Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.

Its air attacks have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based human rights organization that tracks Iran. The dead include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists.

In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, according to authorities.

Reuters could not independently verify casualty figures for either side.

Talks show little progress

Iran has repeatedly targeted Tel Aviv, a metropolitan area of around 4 million people and the country’s business and economic hub, where some critical military assets are also located.

Israel said it had struck dozens of military targets on Friday, including missile production sites, a research body it said was involved in nuclear weapons development in Tehran and military facilities in western and central Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there was no room for negotiations with the US “until Israeli aggression stops”.

But he arrived in Geneva on Friday for talks with European foreign ministers at which Europe hopes to establish a path back to diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated that he would take as long as two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses”, he said.

Trump said he was unlikely to press Israel to scale back its airstrikes to allow negotiations to continue.

“I think it’s very hard to make that request right now. If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

The Geneva talks produced little signs of progress, and Trump said he doubted negotiators would be able to secure a ceasefire.

“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this one,” Trump said.

Hundreds of US citizens have fled Iran since the air war began, according to a US State Department cable seen by Reuters.

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Friday his country would not stop its attacks “until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled”.

Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani called for Security Council action and said Tehran was alarmed by reports that the US might join the war.

Russia and China demanded immediate de-escalation.

A senior Iranian official said that Iran was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that it would reject any proposal that barred it from enriching uranium completely, “especially now under Israel’s strikes”.