(image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Houthis’ hijacking of the Galaxy Leader. On Nov. 19, 2023, military personnel from the Yemeni group descended from a helicopter onto the Israeli-owned, Japanese-operated, India-bound commercial ship, before boarding and swiftly assuming control of the vessel. With Palestinian and Yemeni flags raised, they escorted the ship back to the Houthi-held port-town of Hudaydah, and its 25 crew members — mainly Filipino, but also Ukrainian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Mexican — were taken hostage.
Cinematic footage of the operation was widely shared on social media platforms, serving as a trailer for what was to come from the group, which is also known as Ansar Allah: belligerence both abroad and at home in response to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, and further entrenchment as a regional threat.
The past summer witnessed a drastic increase in Houthi maritime attacks on commercial vessels, despite the presence in the Red Sea of the costly multinational defense operations EUNAVFOR Aspides and Prosperity Guardian. This escalation was facilitated by new smuggling routes through the Horn of Africa, which supply the Houthis with a steady stream of weapons that Western forces have been unable to intercept.
According to Yemeni security sources, these routes connect Bandar Abbas in Iran to Yemen’s western coastline through ports in Sudan, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Between July and September, the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, where I work, recorded 19 instances of suspected smuggling along the coast of Hudaydah.
Alongside these maritime attacks, which have strangled trade in the Red Sea, the Houthis have launched direct drone and missile strikes against Israel — ostensibly to force a ceasefire in Gaza. On July 19, an explosive-laden Houthi drone hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv, killing one and wounding at least eight others. Retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on the port of Hudaydah and the Ras Al-Khatib electricity station killed six and wounded more than 80 Yemenis.
Read here the full analysis by +972 Magazine
