HODEIDAH, Yemen: The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen warned allies of Israel Wednesday that their shipping in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea is a “legitimate target.”
The warning comes after the Houthis on Sunday seized an Israel-linked cargo vessel, opening a new dimension in the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Helicopter-borne troops seized the Galaxy Leader and its 25 international crew days after the Houthis threatened to target Israeli shipping because of the war.
The ship had been chartered by a Japanese group, and was flying the flag of the Bahamas.
A photographer who collaborates with AFP said the Galaxy Leader was anchored at the rebel-controlled Hodeidah port in northwest Yemen and was closely guarded.
It was now flying the Yemeni and Palestinian flags.
The Houthis have declared themselves part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran’s allies and proxies, and have also launched a series of drones and missiles toward Israel.
A video posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Houthi military media showed the commander of the rebels’ naval forces, General Mohammad Fadl Abdelnabi, aboard the captured vessel.
“Allies of the Zionist enemy who ensure passage through Bab Al-Mandab are also considered to be a legitimate target,” he said of the choke-point at the foot of the commercially vital Red Sea.
“We say to the Zionist entity that Bab Al-Mandab is a red line... Every civilian or military (Israel-affiliated) ship is considered a legitimate target,” he added.
The vital seaway is a narrow strait between Yemen and Djibouti through which a significant portion of the world’s maritime traffic passes.
One of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, it carries about a fifth of global oil consumption.
Specialist website Marine Traffic said the Galaxy Leader, a car transporter, was off the Saudi port of Jeddah on Saturday when its radar signature disappeared.
Israel’s military on Sunday said the seizure was a “very grave incident of global consequence,” and a US military official said it was “a flagrant violation of international law.”
Israel said the ship had sailed from Turkiye bound for India, and that there no Israelis on board.
On Monday the Houthis released a video purporting to show Sunday’s seizure.
The footage showed masked armed men jumping onto the ship from a helicopter while the vessel was still moving, and holding crew members at gunpoint.
“We will undertake combat missions until the Zionist entity stops attacking Gaza,” the Houthi general said in the latest video footage on X.
Houthis warn they may seize more Red Sea ships
https://arab.news/z63yn
Houthis warn they may seize more Red Sea ships
- The Houthis have declared themselves part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran’s allies and proxies
Israeli fire kills 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two children, local hospital officials say
- The two boys were killed in separate incidents
- It wasn’t immediately clear whether the men had crossed into Israeli-controlled areas
CAIRO: Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two 13-year-old boys who were collecting firewood, three journalists and a woman, hospitals in the war-battered enclave said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on any of the incidents.
The two boys were killed in separate incidents. In one strike, the 13-year-old, his father and a 22-year old man were hit by Israeli drones on the eastern side of the central Bureij refugee camp, according to officials from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, which received the bodies.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the men had crossed into Israeli-controlled areas.
The other 13-year-old was shot and killed by troops while collecting firewood in the eastern town of Bani Suheila, the Nasser hospital said, after receiving the body. In a footage circulated online, the boy’s father is seen weeping over his son’s body on a hospital bed.
Later Wednesday, an Israeli strike on the central town of Zahraa hit a vehicle carrying three Palestinian journalists who were filming a newly established displacement camp managed by an Egyptian government committee, said Mohammed Mansour, the committee’s spokesman.
The bodies of two journalists were taken to the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, while the third body was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
Mansour said the journalists were documenting the committee’s work in the newly established camp in the Netzarim area in central Gaza. He said the strike occurred about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli-controlled area.
He said the vehicle was known to the Israeli military as belonging to the Egyptian committee.
Video footage circulating online showed the charred, bombed-out vehicle by the roadside, smoke still rising from the wreckage, with debris scattered about.
Nasser Hospital officials also said they received the body of a Palestinian woman shot and killed by Israeli troops in the Muwasi area of the southern city of Khan Younis, which is not controlled by the military.
In a separate attack, three brothers were killed in a tank shelling in the Bureij camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where the bodies were taken.
The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire that stopped the war between Hamas and Israel went into effect in October.
More than 470 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the strip’s health ministry. At least 77 have been killed by Israeli gunfire near a ceasefire line that splits the territory between Israeli-held areas and most of Gaza’s Palestinian population, the ministry says.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
The ceasefire paused two years of war between Israel and Hamas militants and allowed a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, mainly food.
But residents say shortages of blankets and warm clothes remain, and there is little wood for fires. There’s been no central electricity in Gaza since the first few days of the war in 2023, and fuel for generators is scarce.
More than 100 children who have died since the start of the ceasefire in October — a figure that includes a 27-day-old girl who died from hypothermia over the weekend.
