Goods will become more expensive: the global consequences of Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea are named

Yemen’s Houthis are warning ships traveling through the Red Sea to avoid Israel or risk being attacked. Attacks on ships off the coast of Yemen have increased shipping costs amid fears that supply chains could be disrupted.

A senior Yemeni Houthi official warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid heading towards Israel and the Occupied Territories after a group linked to Iran said it attacked a commercial tanker earlier in the day.

According to The Guardian, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said that ships should avoid heading to Israel and that anyone passing by Yemen should keep their radios on and respond quickly to Houthi attempts to communicate.

Al-Houthi also warned cargo ships against “falsifying their identity” or flying flags other than the shipowner’s country.

In a show of solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza, the Houthis are using their control of Yemen’s west coast, including ports such as Hodeidah, to launch attacks on what they see as shipping associated with Israel. On Saturday, the Houthis said they would attack all ships bound for Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned international shipping companies against cooperating with Israeli ports.

The Houthis said Tuesday they had hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile in their latest protest against Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

As The Guardian notes, the Iran-linked group attacked the Strinda tanker because it was delivering crude oil to an Israeli terminal and after its crew ignored all warnings, Houthi military spokesman Yehia Sarei said in a statement.

But the tanker’s Norwegian company, Mowinckel Chemical Tankers, said the vessel was bound for Italy with a cargo of biofuels, not crude oil. But the company confirmed the vessel’s preliminary call at an Israeli port, scheduled for January.

“On the advice of our safety consultants, it has been decided to withhold this information until the vessel and its crew are in safe waters,” the company said in a statement.

The US Navy destroyer USS Mason responded to the Strind’s distress calls and assisted the crew as they battled the fire, the US military said. It said the Strinda was hit Monday evening by a ground-launched cruise missile fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen.

The attack caused damage but caused no casualties, the US military said.

Following the attack, the Israeli military said it had sent one of its most modern warships, the Saar-6 class corvette, to the Red Sea.

The US is rushing to organize a larger maritime guard force based in Bahrain to prevent the world’s busiest shipping lanes being blocked and thus damaging the global economy.

Industry sources have warned that the cost of shipping goods through the Red Sea is rising as the Houthis step up their attacks, and there are fears it could disrupt global supplies passing through the region.

The London insurance market has listed the southern Red Sea as a high-risk area and ships must notify their insurers when passing through such areas, as well as pay an additional premium, usually for a seven-day insurance period.

About 23,000 ships pass through the narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, said Duncan Potts, a former vice admiral in Britain’s Royal Navy and previous commander of maritime security in the Gulf.

“These attacks have the potential to be a much larger global strategic economic threat than just a regional geopolitical threat,” added Potts, who is now director of the consulting firm Universal Defense and Security Solutions.

Some shipping companies have already decided to reroute their ships through the Cape of Good Hope away from the Red Sea, which increases travel time and costs.

The US also warned the Houthi rebels that a peace plan for Yemen, which was agreed with Saudi Arabia and handed over to the UN peace envoy, would fail if attacks on shipping continued.