Yemeni militants have banned bulk carriers and tankers from entering Israel
Yemen's Houthis are warning ships traveling through the Red Sea to avoid Israel or risk being attacked. Attacks on ships off the coast of Yemen have led to increased shipping costs due to fears that supply chains could be disrupted.
Yemen's senior Houthi official warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid heading towards Israel and the occupied territories after as a group linked to Iran claimed to have attacked a commercial tanker earlier in the day.
According to The Guardian, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said that ships should avoid heading to Israel and that anyone passing by Yemen should keep their radios on and respond quickly to Houthi attempts to communicate.
Al-Houthi also warned cargo ships against “falsifying their identity” or raising flags other than those of the shipowner's country.
In a show of solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza, the Houthis are using their control of Yemen's west coast, including ports such as Hodeidah, to launch attacks on what they see as shipping associated with Israel. On Saturday, the Houthis said they would attack all ships heading to Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.
On Tuesday, the Houthis said they had hit a Norwegian commercial ship with a missile. tanker as a sign of its latest protest against the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
As The Guardian notes, the Iran-linked group attacked the Strinda tanker because it was delivering crude oil to an Israeli terminal and after its crew ignored all warnings, Houthi military spokesman Yehia Sarei said in a statement.
< p>But the Norwegian company Mowinckel Chemical Tankers, which owns the tanker, said that the ship was heading to Italy with a cargo of biofuels, not crude oil. However, the company confirmed the vessel's preliminary call at an Israeli port, scheduled for January.
“On the advice of our safety consultants, it has been decided to withhold this information until the vessel and its crew are in safe waters”, – the company said in a statement.
US Navy destroyer USS Mason responded to distress signals from «Strindy» and assisted the crew as they fought the fire, U.S. military officials said. It said that "Strinda" was hit Monday evening by a ground-launched cruise missile fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen.
The attack caused damage but no casualties, the U.S. military said.
After the attack, the Israeli military said that they sent one of their most modern warships, the Saar-6 class corvette, to the Red Sea.
The US is rushing to organize a larger maritime guard force based in Bahrain to prevent the world's busiest shipping lanes being blocked and thus damaging the global economy.
Industry sources have warned that the cost of shipping goods through Krasnoye The sea is rising as the Houthis step up their attacks, and there are fears it could disrupt global supplies passing through the region.
The London insurance market has listed the southern Red Sea as a high-risk area and ships are required to notify their insurers when passing through such areas, as well as pay an additional premium, usually for a seven-day insurance period.
Around 23,000 ships pass through the narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, said Duncan Potts, a former vice admiral in the British Royal Navy and the previous commander of maritime security in the Persian Gulf.
“ These attacks have the potential to become a much larger global strategic economic threat than just a regional geopolitical one”, – added Potts, who is currently director of the consultancy Universal Defense and Security Solutions.
Some shipping companies have already decided to reroute their ships through the Cape of Good Hope away from the Red Sea, which increases travel time and additional spending.
The United States also warned the Houthi rebels that the peace plan for Yemen, which was agreed with Saudi Arabia and handed over to the UN peace envoy, will fail if attacks on shipping continue.