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On Sunday and Wednesday, the controlling authorities in Yemen—known as Ansar Allah, but called the Houthis after the surname of their leader—sank two Greek-owned shipping vessels that were en route to Israel.
It is the first attack by the organization on shipping in the Red Sea this year, which the group has maintained it does in protest of Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, and would resume if the US struck Iran.
It began on Sunday when the Liberia-flagged, Greek-owned ship Magic Seas was sunk by Houthi naval raiders. All hands were rescued before the ship went down.
It continued yesterday when raiders and missiles struck Eternity C, of the same flag and berth, killing 4 seamen while she was traveling to the Israeli port of Eilat. 7 others were rescued, and 14 are missing, though a spokesman for the Houthi forces Yahya Saree said some of the stranded crew were taken onboard by the Houthis themselves.
Though neither Eternity C nor Magic Seas were Israeli-owned, they had docked in Israel in the past, The Guardian reports. The vessels’ owners haven’t commented on the event. Of the 4 sailors that died, 3 were Filipino, and one was Russian. Saree said the vessels ignored warnings from Yemen to turn back, and were thus struck.
These were the first two occasions of attacks on merchant shipping this year by the Houthis. In 2024 WaL reported that Houthi attacks were once widespread, including on US and UK shipping regardless of whether or not they were en route to Israel, and even a Greek owned container ship simply because its owner was listed in a US stock index.
WaL reported in January of 2024 that the then-Biden Administration launched a “coalition of the willing” to come defend freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, but received no assistance to speak of from European or Gulf partners. The US Navy then got into the longest running sea battle since World War II, as the aircraft carrier battlegroup USS Dwight D. Eisenhower traded strikes with the Houthis over a 9-month extended deployment.
At the time, reporters asked President Biden if the attacks were working, and his response was “Well, when you say ‘working’ — are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes”.
Back to the drawing bomb
“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community”.
Necessary action, under Biden, and then much more under Trump, has meant bombing Yemen without request of a military force authorization or declaration of war from Congress.
Though the Houthis stopped their attacks on shipping, as they had long said they would, following a brief ceasefire in Gaza that began in January, they announced they planned to resume them in March after Israel blockaded Gaza and the ceasefire ended. The Trump administration then began a major bombing campaign which lasted until May 6th, one which killed over 250 civilians but didn’t degrade Houthi military capabilities.
The US and Houthis eventually came to a ceasefire agreement that would see an end to attacks on merchant shipping and US warships, but not Israeli territory. However, The Guardian reports that in late June the Houthis indicated they could resume attacks on Israeli ships in the Red Sea if the US struck Iran.
The US then dropped dozens of extremely large bombs on Iranian nuclear energy sites, violating the agreement, and perhaps dragging the US back into another fight on Israel’s behalf in exchange for entering another fight on Israel’s behalf. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: The bulker Magic Seas sinking in the Red Sea. PC: SABA News Agency
