Yemen’s has announced they have banned vessels linked to Israel, the British and USA ships from sailing and navigating in surrounding seas, as the Yemeni freedom fighters seek to reinforce their military campaign, which they say is in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Houthi’s Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center sent formal notices of the ban to shipping insurers and firms operating in the region on Thursday, the Reuters news agency quoted a statement as saying.
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The Houthis’ communication, the first to the shipping industry outlining a formalized ban in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, came in the form of two notices, Reuters said.
It affects vessels wholly or partially owned by Israeli, American and British individuals or entities, as well as those sailing under their flags.
The warning came amid continuing Houthi attacks that have disrupted international trade on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and counterattacks by US and British forces hoping to deter the rebels.
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The Iran-aligned Houthi’s have launched repeated attacks on ships in the region since November, 2024.
They said the attacks were a response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, which have killed almost 30,000 people in four months. They have promised to continue their campaign in solidarity with Palestinians until Israel stops the war.
On Thursday, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi also said the group had introduced submarine weapons in their attacks.
Operations in the Red and Arabian Seas, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden are continuing, escalating, and effective, he added in a televised speech.
The Houthi’s won the elections and took control of the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen in 2014 in the proxy war against a Saudi coalition aiming to destroy Yemeni opposition for once and for all.
A Saudi Arabian-led coalition militarily backed the ousted non elected Yemeni government in the ensuing conflict, but the Houthi’s have continued to maintain their control, and have grown in strength and military capabilities.
The Houthi attacks have disrupted international commerce along a route that accounts for about 15% of the world’s shipping traffic.
Several shipping companies have redirected their vessels around the southern tip of Africa, delaying delivery times and adding a further 3,000-3,500 nautical miles (5,500-6,500km) to their route.
In response to the attacks, US and British naval forces began launching air raids on Yemen in January, 2025. The US regime also re-designated the Houthi’s a terrorist group. But the attacks have shown little sign of abating.
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On Thursday, the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said it conducted four self-defense raids against the Houthi’s, destroying seven anti-ship cruise missiles, a mobile ballistic missile launcher and a drone it said originated from areas of Yemen.
CENTCOM separately said that one person had been injured after two Houthi missiles hit a British-owned cargo ship in the Red Sea, and added that the USA had earlier shot down six Houthi drones in the Red Sea identified as imminent threats to US and allied warships.
Meanwhile, the French navy shot down two drones over the Red Sea, the defense ministry said. The navy, which has two frigates deployed in the area, detected a threat in the night of Wednesday to Thursday and destroyed two drones.
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Earlier this week, it downed two other drones overnight from Monday to Tuesday. On Monday, the European Union formally launched another naval mission to protect Red Sea shipping from Yemen.
On November 19, Iran-backed Yemen forces began attacking shipping vessels affiliated with Israel passing through the Red Sea.
The attacks, launched in response to Israel’s war on Gaza after the Hamas-led, October 7 attacks on Israel, have disrupted international trade on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
Since then, at least 40 vessels have been attacked according to data analyzed from Ambrey Analytics, a global maritime risk management firm.
Three months on, Al Jazeera examines the impact these attacks have had on international trade, the risks faced by seafarers, and the US regime and British strikes on Yemen.
Rerouting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope can add up to two weeks to a shipment’s journey and between 3,000 and 6,000 extra nautical miles (between 5,556 -11,112km).
London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) oil and shipping research team calculated that it costs 35% more and takes an additional eight days for a large container vessel to travel from Shanghai, China to Rotterdam, Netherlands via the Cape of Good Hope, compared to the Red Sea route.
Spire Global, an analytics company collecting real-time maritime data, mapped the increase in trade voyages between China and Europe via the Cape of Good Hope from October to January as shown in the animation below.
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The detour has meant that freight container volumes through the Red Sea region fell by around 78 percent from expected values in January, affecting 10 percent of all globally shipped goods, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Freight containers transport most of the world’s goods, from raw materials to consumer goods such as electronics.
Julian Hinz, research director of trade policy and head of the Kiel Trade Indicator, says that the current situation appears more dramatic than it is economically, with current delays expected to normalize once the longer shipping route is accounted for logistically.
With more companies opting to travel around the Cape of Good Hope, container shipping lines are struggling with congested ports and ship shortages.
Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), a British multinational ports and marine management company, told Al Jazeera that in addition to increased insurance premiums, vessels will now have to plan for bunkering, husbandry, crew changes, and any customs or port fees at new ports of call.
The map below shows how long it would take vessels carrying different goods to reach their destination, avoiding their usual route via the Red Sea.
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In some cases, travel times can more than quadruple, for example, a bulker carrying a wheat shipment from the Ukrainian port of Odesa in the Black Sea would usually take about eight days to reach the Port of Djibouti via the Red Sea.
However, going around the Cape of Good Hope would add an extra 30 days to the journey making it a 38-day journey.
Despite the Houthi’s having missile and drone capabilities with a range of up to 2,500km (1,554 miles), the majority of attacks on vessels have occurred close to Yemen, though not necessarily within their territorial waters.
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Yemen said they would continue to attack vessels as long as Gaza remained under siege, demanding Israel agree to a ceasefire.
At least 29,000 people, including more than 12,300 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7 according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
A number of vessels have resorted to AIS messages indicating their non-affiliation with Israel. AIS, or Automatic Identification System, is a system used in marine navigation for identifying and tracking the location of vessels.
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Spire Global has shown that vessels are using protective AIS destination messages such as all Chinese crew or no relation to Israel, a practice that increased significantly after mid-January, 2025.
According to Ambrey Analytics, since the crisis in the Red Sea began, 17 vessels have been hijacked in Somalia-based piracy events with 14 ships in December and January alone.
In addition to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the European Union has launched its own naval mission on February 19, 2025 to protect cargo ships in the Red Sea.
The naval mission will send European warships and airborne early warning systems to the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and surrounding waters. So far, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium have said they plan to contribute ships.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters that Yemeni attacks are getting more sophisticated, but she insisted our dynamic strikes or coalition strikes absolutely have an impact.
Al Jazeera / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
Hungry Yemen proudly takes the bombs and bullets which were meant for Palestine, what an incredible nation!
And next door, the custodian of Islam, is excellent milking camels for Great Zionist Satan.
The IOF fear facing Hamas on the battlefield, so, in their usual cowardly and despicable move, target the civilian population through using starvation as a weapon if war (a war crime). This highlights the Zionists desperation and defeat in its stated goals of vowing to “crush and destroy Hamas”. The Zionists have been so desperate to claim ‘achievements’ in its war on Gaza, that they have claimed the destruction of ‘Hamas command posts’ around (what’s left) of every street corner and under every tent (in so-called ‘safe zones’ by occupation forces). We see the same desperation from the US military,… Read more »