The regional tensions heightened by the Israel-Hamas conflict were manifesting on a new maritime front when Yemen’s Houthi rebels captured an Israeli-linked cargo ship, headed for India on Sunday along a vital Red Sea shipping route.
The rebels took 25 crew members hostage. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels declared that they would keep attacking ships in international waters if they were associated with or owned by Israelis. The rage will continue until Israel stops fighting against Hamas, the terrorist ruling group in Gaza. Houthis claimed to have taken control of the ship due to its connection to Israel.
The Houthis declared that all ships that were owned by or involved with the Israeli government would be fair game for attack. The chief negotiator and spokesman for the Houthis, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, later stated in an online statement that the Israelis only speak a language of force.
The attack on the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier retained by an Israeli billionaire and flying the flag of the Bahamas, was attributed by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Yemen’s Houthis. It stated that there were no Israelis on board.
According to an NYK Line report of the ship’s Japanese driver, there was no weight on board when the kidnapping was enacted. Its crew members are from Mexico, the Philippines, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Ukraine. The boat was headed for India’s Pipavav, the report further noted.
The ship was headed for India’s Pipavav.
On Monday, Japan condemned the act. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the Japanese government was doing its utmost for an early release of the crew through accommodations with Houthi revolutionists, while also communicating with Israel and cooperating with the governments of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Iran.
The Houthis then replied with a shocking statement that they were treating the crew members according to their Islamic values, but didn’t unfold what that meant.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office condemned the seizure as an “Iranian act of terror”.
The Israeli service called the kidnapping a veritably grave incident of global consequence. Israeli officers claimed the boat was British-possessed and Japanese-operated.
Nonetheless, power details in public shipping databases associated the boat’s possessors with Ray Car Carriers, innovated by Abraham Rami Ungar, who’s known as one of the richest men in Israel.
Ungar told The Associated Press he was apprehensive of the incident but could not note it as he awaited details. A boat linked to him endured an explosion in 2021 in the Gulf of Oman. Israeli media criticised Iran at the time.
International shipping frequently involves a series of operating companies, flags, and possessors stretching across the globe on a single vessel. Two US defence officers verified that Yemen’s Houthi revolutionists seized the Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea on Sunday.
The officers anonymously spoke because they weren’t authorised to intimately bandy about the matter. The boat’s seizure resembles others preliminarily conducted by Iran, which has long armed the Houthis. In the last month, US warships have thwarted drones from Yemen that were believed to be headed toward Israel or posing trouble to American vessels.
The USS Carney, a Navy destroyer, intercepted three land attack voyages and several drones that were launched by Houthi forces towards the northern Red Sea last month. On November 15, the USS Thomas Hudner, another destroyer, was sailing towards the Bab-el-Mandeb strait when the crew saw a drone, reported to have begun in Yemen. The boat shot down the drone over the water.
Yemen’s Houthis are believed to be receiving training, technical assistance, and great weapons delivery that includes drives, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles from Iran.
Although Netanyahu’s office has been vocally condemning the seizure, claiming Iran planned it, the government of Iran has not yet commented on the incident.
