Yemen blockade crippled Israeli Red Sea Traffic in one year of Gaza War

The Houthi’s have been waging a campaign of drone and missile attacks targeting Israeli-tied commercial ships in the Red Sea, vowing to continue their operations so long as Tel Aviv continues to wage its brutal military campaign in Gaza.

They [Houthi fighters] are achieving their ends, all of them, and we’re achieving none of ours. We’re spending millions and millions of dollars on not winning. It’s a real problem, former Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe told the Iran International news outlet.

The Houthi’s hide their weapons in the mountains and villages, moving them around on mobile launchers, he said, adding that the Americans would need a tremendous amount of highly expensive airborne surveillance to achieve anything.

In a year of solidarity operations with Palestine and the implementation of the blockade of Bab-el-Mandeb for Israeli-affiliated and their allied ships, Yemen has caused colossal damage to Israeli sea traffic and at the same time resisted Anglo-American military intervention.

On October 19 last year, twelve days after the Hamas-led Operation Al Aqsa Flood against the Zionist entity and the start of the regime’s genocidal war on Gaza, Yemen, as a key member of the Axis of Resistance, joined the movement and launched drones and missiles at the Israeli military targets.

After its calls for an end to the Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza were snubbed, the Yemeni military also launched massive military operations against Israeli ships in regional waters, effectively setting up a blockade of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

With the continuation of Israeli genocidal crimes and the direct involvement of the United States and the United Kingdom in attempts to circumvent and nullify the blockade, Yemen gradually increased the intensity and scope of ​​its operations in solidarity with Gaza.

In the past year, as the genocidal war marked one year on Monday, Yemen has dealt a heavy blow to the Zionist entity and targeted almost 200 ships in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

Before the war on Gaza began 15% of the world’s international trade flowed through this maritime route, and today the traffic has been reduced to a third: from 80 ship passages last year to 29 last month, or from 4.89 million metric tonnes to 1.36 million metric tonnes.

An even more devastating effect has been on the maritime trade of the Israeli regime, which has been derailed by Yemeni determination and resilience, as well as the failure of Israel’s Western allies to confront the Yemeni armed forces in its waters.

On Monday, marking the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered in the capital Sana’a and other Yemeni cities, renewing their pledge of solidarity with the people of Gaza and Lebanon.

It came two days after the leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement said the Israeli regime would face destruction for its acts of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The enemies are trying to rebuild international alliances and strengthen the relations of the Israeli regime with the great powers of the world to give the enemy international strategic influence.

But with this amount of killing by the Israeli regime, there is no doubt that the regime will be destroyed, he said.

All Israeli ships, military and commercial, owned or operated by Israeli companies or under the Israeli flag were identified as potential targets, and Yemen had precise information about all such vessels.

The warning was not taken too seriously and the West underestimated the Yemeni military might, depicting them as tribal warriors with rudimentary weapons, so the Israeli-affiliated merchant fleet continued sailing through the Red Sea.

This proved disastrous as Yemen began targeting dozens of ships every month with drones, anti-ship and ballistic missiles, showing the world an impressive arsenal of weapons manufactured locally.

PressTV / ABC Flash Point News 2024.