Houthis Reboot Red Sea Crisis With "Blockade" on Port of Haifa
Resolving any ambiguity about whether Yemen's Houthi rebels may have agreed to a shipping ceasefire, the group announced Monday that it will begin targeting shipowners who serve the port of Haifa, effective immediately. The group said that its decision to re-escalate was motivated by Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The Houthi communications center for Red Sea traffic said that going forward, the group will impose a long-distance naval blockade on Haifa. All vessels are "prohibited" from loading or unloading at Israel's largest seaport, spokesman Ahmed Salah said in a statement. Israel's other two major ports, Ashdod and Eilat, do not appear to be included in the "blockade" at this time.
The Houthis do not have the naval might to enforce a direct blockade in the Eastern Mediterranean, but they can target the fleets belonging to shipowners who trade to Haifa. Shipping interests who use the Suez route have to run the gauntlet past Houthi territory in Yemen, and even after a weekslong campaign of round-the-clock U.S. bombardment in March and April, the Houthis still have a meaningful capability to launch attacks on vessels passing by in the Red Sea.
"The presence of any vessels heading to the Port of Haifa, or having any indirect connection thereto, will expose your company and its fleet to sanctions," Salah said. "In the event that your company is listed on the sanctions list, its fleet will be prohibited from transiting the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Moreover, it will be subject to targeting by the Yemeni Armed Forces wherever reachable."
The statement raises the risk level for all international shipping (with the possible exception of U.S.-flagged vessels, which were covered by the group's recent ceasefire agreement with the Trump administration). The Haifa "blockade" could easily result in collateral damage: while the Houthis have attacked vessels with documented links to Israel, they have also repeatedly attacked ships that have no clear Israeli ties - and they have even hit vessels linked to their own allies. Shipping interests have learned that almost any ship could become a targeted "Israeli-linked ship" in the southern Red Sea.