Red Sea crisis
Houthi involvement in the Israel–Hamas war / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Red Sea crisis[46][47] began on 19 October 2023, when the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen launched missiles and armed drones at Israel, demanding an end to the invasion of the Gaza Strip.[48] The Houthis have since seized and launched aerial attacks against dozens of merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea, drawing hundreds of air strikes on missile sites and other targets by US and allied forces.[49] The crisis is linked to the Israel–Hamas war, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, the Iran–United States proxy conflict, and the Yemeni crisis.[50]
The Houthi movement's militants, which oppose Yemen's internationally recognized government, have since 2014 controlled a considerable swath of the country's territory along the Red Sea. Shortly after the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, the Hamas-allied group began to launch missiles and drones against Israel. Houthi militants have also fired on various countries' merchant vessels in the Red Sea, and particularly in the Bab-el-Mandeb—a chokepoint of the global economy as it serves as the southern maritime gateway to the Suez Canal of Egypt. The group has declared that they consider any Israel-linked ship as a target,[51][52][53] and that they will not stop until Israel ceases its war on Hamas.[48][54] Although the Houthis said that they were targeted ships linked to Israel, the US, or Britain, the Houthis have indiscriminately attacked the ships of many nations.[49][55] From October 2023 to March 2024, the Houthis attacked vessels in the Red Sea on more than sixty occasions.[55] To avoid Houthi attacks, hundreds of commercial vessels have been rerouted to sail around South Africa.[56]
The Houthis' Red Sea attacks have drawn a military response from a number of countries. In January 2024, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2722, condemning the Houthi attacks and affirming freedom of navigation.[55] The United States-led Operation Prosperity Guardian was launched to protect Red Sea shipping; the operation has included bombings of Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen and attacked Houthi vessels in the Red Sea. Since 12 January, the US and UK have led coalition missile strikes against the Houthis, while other countries are independently patrolling the waters near Yemen.[57] Undaunted, in May, Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced that "We will target any ships heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean Sea in any area we are able to reach".[58]