After Ansarallah sinks two Israel-bound ships over Gaza, global operators fall in line
Ships passing through the Red Sea began broadcasting messages declaring that they had no connection to Israel or the US.
Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, sank a second Israel-bound ship within two days after multiple attacks, which began on Monday (July 7) and continued for several hours. The ship finally sank on Wednesday morning.
The attack on the Greek‑owned, Liberia‑flagged cargo ship Eternity C occurred just a day after the Yemenis sank Magic Seas, following both ships’ attempts to reach Israeli ports in contravention of Yemen’s blockade of the Red Sea, intended as retaliation for Israel’s ongoing genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“In victory for the oppressed Palestinian people, and in support of their heroic fighters, the naval forces of the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted the ship Eternity C, which was heading to the port of Umm al-Rashrash [Eilat] in occupied Palestine,” the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced in a statement Wednesday evening. “This was carried out using with an unmanned boat and six winged and ballistic missiles. The operation resulted in the complete sinking of the ship, and the operation was documented with audio and video.”
The YAF statement added that they were forced into action as the ship and its operators violated their blockade and refused to heed the Yemeni Naval Forces’ calls and warnings: “The targeting of the aforementioned ship came after both the company and the ship resumed dealings with the port of Umm al‑Rashrash, in clear violation of the ban, and after the ship ignored calls and warnings from the Yemeni Naval Forces.”
Later in the day, Ansarallah published the audio recording of the Yemeni Naval Forces’ conversation with the captain of the ship. A Naval Forces operative informed the captain that a rescue boat had been dispatched to “help” and “rescue” the ship’s crew. “There’s no danger against you at all,” the naval forces tell the captain. “Abandon the ship.”
Drone footage following the missile strikes shows smoke billowing from the vessel, revealing significant damage before it begins taking on water and eventually sinks.
In their Wednesday statement, the YAF reiterated that ports in occupied Palestine remain off-limits to ships, and that any operator violating the ban endangers its ships and crew.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that they are continuing to prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas, and renew their warning to all companies dealing with the ports of occupied Palestine, that their ships and crews will be subject to targeting in any area reached by the Armed Forces, regardless of the destination of those ships,” the YAF said. “Out of our concern for the safety of ships and their crews, we reiterate our warning to companies and countries about the consequences of dealing with the Zionist entity and sending their ships to the ports of occupied Palestine.”
Although the YAF statement makes no mention of it, Western press has reported that of the 22 crew members and three guards aboard Eternity C, at least three crew members were killed in the Ansarallah attacks, while over a dozen are reported missing. Six sailors have been rescued.
The attacks had the intended effect: ships passing through the Red Sea began broadcasting messages declaring that they had no connection to Israel or the US:
The US, however, is not pleased.
“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran‑backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” said US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, who has vehemently defended Israeli‑American war crimes against civilians in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen since assuming the post in January. “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.”
Ansarallah began its operations against Israel in October 2023, just days into the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza that has killed upwards of half a million Palestinians, according to most credible estimates. The Yemenis have maintained their attacks on Israel and the blockade on its ports will cease when it ends the genocide and lifts the siege on Gaza. They did exactly that when Israel signed a truce deal with the Palestinian resistance in January. The Israelis violated the agreement in March, prompting Ansarallah to resume its attacks on Israeli interests.
To deter Yemen from its legal and humanitarian obligation to stop the genocide in Gaza, Israel’s arms suppliers, the US, the UK, and other European states, formed a coalition of the willing in the Red Sea to protect ships bound for the genocidal entity. The coalition, which is grotesquely named Operation Prosperity Guardian, has failed to live up to its objective. So too did Operation Aspides, an EU military operation aimed at stopping Ansarallah from doing the right thing.
Simultaneously, the US and the UK launched hundreds of missile and drone strikes on Yemen, killing dozens of civilians and damaging infrastructure in the Arab world’s poorest country, but it failed to subdue the Yemeni resistance. “The minute the Houthis say, ‘We’ll stop shooting at your ships [and] we’ll stop shooting at your drones,’ this campaign will end but, until then, it will be unrelenting,” the US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth crowed in March, when Trump renewed the barbaric assault on Yemen to protect the Israelis from any repercussion for their genocide.
However, after burning through billions in a nearly two-month campaign and without anything to show for its savagery against Yemeni civilians, the US agreed to a ceasefire with Yemen.
That ceasefire, however, didn’t include attacks on Israeli interests. Yemen has continued to exact a toll on the Israelis for their seemingly insatiable lust for Palestinian blood. The actions of the Yemeni Armed Forces have bankrupted the Eilat port and they have vowed to attack Haifa port as well. They have regularly fired missiles at Ben-Gurion Airport, prompting millions of Israelis to flee into bomb shelters on an almost daily basis.
The YAF have no intention of stopping until the ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza and the nearly two-decade long siege on the enclave is brought to an end. They again made it clear in their Wednesday statement announcing the attack on Eternity C: “This stance aims to compel the Zionist enemy and those who stand behind it to lift the siege on our brothers in Gaza, stop the aggression against them, and end the ongoing war of extermination against them, in full view and hearing of the entire world.
“We continue our military support operations for the oppressed Palestinian people and their proud resistance, which defends the entire nation, until the aggression on Gaza is stopped and the siege on it is lifted.”
If you find value in my work, please consider supporting it with a paid subscription here or on Ko-fi or Patreon. It’s the only way I can continue writing. Thank you!
Yemen is a truly honorable country, one of the very few in the world it seems. Nothing better than seeing the US, Israel and the collective West punched in the nose. They richly deserve it.
👍👌🫶sock it to em Yemeni