A week after extending their assault on commercial vessels hundreds of miles southeast of the Red Sea and neighboring Gulf of Aden, Yemen’s Houthis are threatening to expand their attacks on shipping into the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
At a televised rally Friday, Houthi armed forces spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Yemeni-based militant group will target all Israeli-affiliated vessels “in any reachable area within our ample zone” that are headed to Israeli ports.
“Implementation of this comes into effect immediately,” said Saree.
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Container ships have largely avoided the Red Sea and the Suez Canal since December in the weeks after the Houthis started their missile and drone attacks, forcing those traveling between Asia and Europe to instead reroute around the southern part of Africa.
Such a diversion has added a week or two to most transit times for ships, resulting in some product delays for retailers and brands and an escalation in freight rates since the attacks began in November.
While 21 cargo ships traveled through the Suez Canal on April 30, that number is a far cry from the 55 that did so on Nov. 30, according to data from IMF Portwatch.
For the most part, the container shipping industry believes the Red Sea will remain too dangerous for its vessels to cross for much of 2024. Ocean carriers and new Gemini alliance members Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd say the rerouting of ships is likely to linger throughout most of the year, although the latter is more confident that the conflict will conclude by the end of 2024.
Nevertheless, many of these major carriers, which also include Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping and Israel-based ZIM among others have a new concern on their hands, especially if they are dropping off and picking up cargo at Israeli ports.
The Iran-funded Houthis have shown little evidence that they can reach beyond their home waters bordering Yemen, but made their first foray outside the area when they successfully hit an MSC ship that was roughly 350 to 450 miles off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.
Israel’s Mediterranean ports are roughly 1,240 miles from northern Yemen. The known Houthi arsenal includes ballistic missiles with a range of 1,000 to 1,200 miles, and drones that can travel slightly longer than 1,200 miles, according to a report from The Times of Israel.
Joint U.S.-U.K. airstrikes have degraded the Houthis’ capabilities, but they’re still able to target ships.
According to a threat update from global maritime risk management firm Ambrey, the Houthis and other Iranian-backed groups based in the eastern Mediterranean may attempt to target shipping offshore.
Ambrey advised all vessels considering calling Israeli ports to undertake a voyage risk assessment, including an affiliation check, prior to making any final route decision.
“Vessels destined for Israeli ports are advised to engage intelligence and security services to assist with voyage planning, the selection and application of best management practices, digital watchkeeping and crisis management,” said the Ambrey advisory. “All shipping headed to Israel with Israel or an Israeli port as their AIS (automatic identification system) destination should withhold this information immediately.”
The maritime risk management company also advised ships to report their positions hourly to their companies and intelligence and security providers.
Saree posed the threat as Israel weighs another offensive in its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas, who were responsible for a terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people. On Friday, Israel gave Hamas one week to agree to a ceasefire deal or it will go ahead with its military operation in Rafah, a city located in southern Gaza.
“If the Israeli enemy intends to launch an aggressive military operation against Rafah, the Yemeni armed forces will impose comprehensive sanctions on all ships and companies that are related to supplying and entering the occupied Palestinian ports of any nationality and will prevent all ships of these companies from passing through the armed forces’ operation zone, regardless of their destination,” Saree said.
The drama throughout the waterways surrounding the Middle East at least yielded one positive Thursday. Nearly three weeks after seizing the MSC Aries container ship and brought it into Iranian territorial waters, Iran released the crew of the Portuguese flagged vessel.
The 24 remaining seafarers are safe and accounted for, but Iran has since kept the ship on the grounds that the crew violated international maritime law.
