Yemen attacks cripple ‘israeli’ ports operations: Report
Attacks by Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement in protest at the Israeli regime's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, have reportedly crippled operations at the port of Eilat at the southern tip of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Eilat has suffered a whopping drop in activity since the movement began targeting the vessels that would use the key Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea to reach the port, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing the port’s chief executive.
The strait hosts 40 percent of the international trade transit.
Without Bab al-Mandab, “you close the main shipping artery to Eilat Port. And therefore we lost 85% of total activity,” CEO Gideon Golber told Reuters.
Several international shipping giants have been canceling sending their ships through Bab al-Mandab since Ansarullah and Yemen’s Armed Forces vowed to target the ships that could use the strait to reach the occupied territories.
“Some vessels [are now] re-routing to a much longer East-West route via the southern tip of Africa,” Reuters reported.
The Yemeni forces say they would stop targeting the vessels only if the Israel regime ended its ongoing war on Gaza and siege of the Palestinian coastal sliver.
More than 20,000 people, including at least 8,000 children, have been killed since the onset of the military campaign that the regime started to wage following an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements.
The Yemeni attacks have reportedly inflicted three billion dollars in damage on the Israeli economy by increasing the price of the goods that are imported to the occupied territories three times.
“Unfortunately, if it continues we will reach a situation of zero ships in Eilat Port,” Golber said.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced a military coalition of 10 countries, including the United States, Britain, and Spain, to counter the Yemeni attacks.
“If…the coalition countries and Israel lag in finding a solution” for Ansarullah’s attacks, “unfortunately, we will likely have to furlough workers,” Gobler concluded.
Ansarullah has dismissed US plans to build a coalition.
The leader of Ansarullah has said Yemen’s Armed Forces would not hesitate to target US warships in the Red Sea if Washington and its allies carried out military strikes against Yemen.
