Standing with Gaza: Yemeni army's Red Sea operations cause jitters in Tel Aviv

By Press TV Staff Writer

Yemeni military, in another statement on Friday, said it targeted two more container ships – MSC Alanya and MSC Palatium III – in the Red Sea that were headed to the occupied Palestinian territories.

A missile pounded MSC Palatium III, a Liberian-flagged container ship, near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, following a similar attack targeting Al Jasrah, owned by the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company.

“The Yemeni armed forces confirm they will continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli-occupied ports from navigating in the (Red Sea) until they bring in the food and medicine that our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip need,” Yemeni military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a statement.

The spate of attacks by the Yemeni military on vessels in the Rea Sea heading towards occupied territories in recent weeks has already forced many shipping companies to suspend their sailings.

Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping company, announced on Friday that it had informed all its vessels that planned to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to “pause their journey until further notice.”

Germany-based shipping company Hapag-Lloyd also announced its decision to it stop the traffic of all its container ships through the Red Sea until Monday.

As Yemen intensifies its operations in the strategic part of the Red Sea, the Zionist regime is feeling pain and anxiety as it threatens to hit the occupying regime’s already embattled economy.

A day before, on Thursday, the Yemeni military fired a ballistic missile at a container ship traveling through the strategic strait after it defied warnings issued earlier by the Yemeni military.

On Tuesday, the Yemeni Army struck a Norwegian-flagged commercial tanker with a missile as the vessel was in the Red Sea heading towards an Israeli-occupied port to offload its cargo.

The Yemeni operation on the tanker Strinda took place about 100 kilometers north of the Bab el-Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Back on December 4, the Yemeni army targeted two ships in the Red Sea as they were attempting to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and head toward the occupied territories.

Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, is critical for oil and trade as nearly 10 percent of all oil traded at sea passes through it as well as  $1 trillion in goods, according to reports.

Stern Yemeni warnings

In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, Brigadier General Saree said the naval forces of the Yemeni army carried out a military operation against two container ships “MSC Alanya” and "MSC PALATIUM III" while they were en route to the occupied territories.

“The two ships were targeted after their crews rejected to respond to calls from Yemeni naval forces as well as scorching warning signals,” he said, adding that Yemeni armed forces assure safety to all ships heading to all ports across the world, except for those heading to Israeli-occupied ports.

“The Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to target any ship that violates what was stated in its previous statements,” he wrote, in a clearly-worded warning.

He further said the Yemeni army has “vowed to continue to prevent the navigation of vessels” heading to the occupied territories “until enough food and medicine” is made available to people in Gaza.

In an earlier post on Friday, Brigadier General Saree said the naval forces of the Yemeni armed forces “carried out a military operation against the “Maersk Gebrelater” container ship with a drone.

Devil in deep sea: Bab-el-Mandeb Strait becomes too tight for Israeli vessels

Yemen

“The operation was launched when the ship's crew refused to respond to calls from Yemeni naval forces,” he noted, adding that during the last 48 hours, Yemeni armed forces were successful in preventing the passage of multiple ships heading to the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Tuesday, the military spokesman held a press conference after the Yemeni military officially claimed responsibility for an operation in the Red Sea, issuing new warnings.

"The naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a qualitative military operation against the Norwegian ship Strinda, which was loaded with oil and headed to the Israeli entity. It was targeted with a suitable naval missile," Brigadier General Saree said.

He explained that in recent days the Yemeni army had issued several warnings to ships traveling to or from the occupied Palestinian territories and that all of them heeded the warnings and turned back.

However, this was not the case with the Norwegian ship, whose crew, despite communication, ignored repeated warnings, which made it a legitimate target.

Saree described the strike as a victory for the oppressed Palestinians who are currently being subjected to massacre, destruction, and siege in the Gaza Strip, and in response to the calls from freedom-loving Yemenis and people from other Muslim nations

He further warned that the Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to target any ship that "violates the terms of our previous statements.

"Yemeni forces reiterate that they will continue to target all ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea bound for Zionist ports, regardless of their nationality unless our steadfast brethren in the Gaza Strip receive the food and medicines they need," he added.

Affected Israeli economy

Yemen's naval operations are already taking a toll on the economy of the Zionist entity, whose international trade is almost entirely devoid of land transport and dependent on sea routes.

The Bab-el-Mandeb strait near Yemen is of great strategic importance because maritime trade passes through it between the ports of the Indo-Pacific and the Atlantic, that is, between Asia and the Western world.

Ship throughput is the same as that of the Suez Canal, about 20,000 a year or more than 50 a day, and both account for about 12 percent of global trade and 30 percent of container trade, worth over $1 trillion.

For these reasons, African countries on the west coast of the strait host a large number of foreign military bases, belonging to China, Russia, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UAE, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

For the economy of the Israeli regime, it is of even greater importance, because Asia (excluding Turkey) accounts for a quarter of its exports and a third of its imports, and most of this trade takes place precisely through Bab-el-Mandeb, via the Port of Eilat.

Minerals, phosphates, potash and ores are exported from the Port of Eilat worldwide, and it also deals with imports of timber, construction material, foodstuff and automobiles.

Around 2,110,000 tons of dry cargo, more than 50,000 TEUs and 75,000 vehicles are handled at this facility annually, although records reached over 100,000 vehicles, or about 45 percent of the total car imports.

For decades, the Israeli regime offered the Port of Eilat to the world as a sea-rail-sea, pipeline or even new canal route to the Mediterranean Sea, an alternative to Egypt's Suez Canal, and in recent years had great ambitions for its development.

In 2013, the port was privatized, the coastal and accompanying transport infrastructure was expanded, and the enthusiasm for the project was noticeable even among then-US President Donald Trump.

Today, trying to take a share of the trillion in international trade seems like a pipe dream, because according to Port of Eilat CEO Gideon Golber, the Yemeni operations at Bab-el-Mandeb have reduced port traffic by 80-85 percent.

Head of the Israeli Shipping Bureau, Yoram Ziba, stressed that this would result in a shortage of products and a significant increase in prices by tens of percent for many products, in the world of cars, fashion, electricity, furniture, food, and so on.

The alternative route around Africa extends the time by three weeks and significantly increases the cost of transport, which makes imports more expensive and Israeli exports uncompetitive.

If the current trend continues in the long term, it is estimated that the economy of the Israeli regime may risk $50 billion annually, including $20 billion in exports and $30 billion in imports.

Yemeni maritime capabilities

The recent operations, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the resistance, has yet again demonstrated the world-class military prowess of the Yemeni armed forces.

This growing military strength was on full display at a spectacular military parade held in September at Al-Sabeen Square in the capital city of Sana'a.

In last year's military parade, a variety of naval missiles were unveiled, including Hatem, Falaq, Haider, Al-Bahr al-Ahmar, Meraj and Quds 3.

This year, however, new models in the Yemeni arsenal were unveiled, such as naval missiles Rubij, Faleh, Mandab 1, Mandab 2, Asef, Sayyad and Sejjil. A New Quds Z-0 long-range cruise missile was also shown.

The high-precision Sejjil cruise missile runs on solid fuel, carries a warhead weighing 100 kg, and has a 180 km range, therefore is capable of hitting any targets in the Red Sea.

A locally built Nazir boat with maneuvering capabilities and equipped with medium weapons and air defense systems was also unveiled.

These boats are a naval addition to the existing fleet of speedboats like Asif-1, Asif-2, Asif-3 and Mallah, as well as unmanned surface vehicles Tufan, already shown last year.

Several combat and reconnaissance drone models were also showcased, including Rajum, Rased, Qasef K2, Shehab, Mersad-2, Khatif-2, Raqib, Waeed-1, Waeed-2, Sammad-1, Sammad-2, and Sammad-3.

Among them, the Waeed-2 loitering munition is particularly noteworthy as it has a 2,000 km range and a highly explosive and fragmented warhead.

The possibilities of these drones, as well as ballistic missiles, have been seen in recent weeks when the Yemeni forces targeted the Israeli-occupied port of Eilat and its surroundings.

Anti-Yemen coalition threat

After the latest Yemeni operations against Israeli-affiliated ships in Bab-el-Mandeb and the successful implementation of the naval blockade, the Israeli regime and the United States are feeling increasingly jittery.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told US President Joe Biden that his regime would react if the US did not take appropriate steps to stop the Yemeni military.

Yemeni officials were unimpressed by his threats as the country’s information minister Dhaifullah al-Shami said Sana’a is fully prepared for any military scenario.

According to the latest reports on Wednesday, the Israeli regime's Sa'ar 6-class corvette has been dispatched to the Red Sea to counter the Yemeni naval forces, although it is questionable what effect it can have against the aforementioned Yemeni arsenal.

The American response to Netanyahu's demands did not take long, as US officials announced that they were negotiating with several countries to create the broadest naval coalition aimed at protecting freedom of navigation, in other words, Israeli ships.

Abdul Malik al-Ajri, a member of the political bureau of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement, responded strongly to the US announcement.

"If all of the world’s naval fleets sail to the Red Sea and gather there, they will provide security neither for Israel nor for the regime’s ships and the vessels destined for occupied Palestine," he said.

Al-Ajri added that the only way for peace to prevail in the Red Sea's strategic maritime route is a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the Israeli regime’s aggression.

Iran's defense minister, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, also downplayed US plans to establish a maritime task force in the Red Sea, describing it as "foolish."

In a stern warning to the United States issued on Friday, he said that there is no room in the region for outsiders to establish a presence and maneuver.

"They (Americans) would not definitely do such a thing. If they intend to do such a foolish act, they will face plenty of problems," the Iranian official warned.

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