A day after Israel pounded Houthi targets including reports of paralyzing all three Red Sea seaports in Yemen, the militants claimed to have responded with attacks on a containership and Israel’s international airport. Spokesperson Yahya Sare'e claimed direct hits which were quickly refuted by both Maersk and Israel.
According to the statement, the containership Santa Ursula (93,400 dwt) a Danish-flagged vessel was targeted while it was sailing near Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean south of Yemen. The vessel, which was built in 2012 and operated for Hamburg Sud until the consolidation into Maersk, is showing on its AIS signal that it was inbound to Salalah, Oman. The ship which has a capacity of 7,090 TEU was coming from Algeciras.
The Houthis claimed to have launched a drone attack on the vessel. If the attack did take place, it would be the first in weeks against a foreign flag vessel in the region. Maersk quickly denied an attack and monitoring services including the UK Maritime Trade Operation did not report the incident.
In the same statement, the Houthis claimed to have launched another hypersonic rocket targeting Ben Gurion Airport and another at the region around Tel Aviv. They claimed that “the missile succeeded in reaching its target despite the enemy’s censorship, and the operation resulted in casualties and the cessation of navigation at the airport.”
The Israel Defense Forces later confirmed that as a precaution flights have been halted from the international airport for approximately 30 minutes. It said however that the missile was successfully intercepted without injuries.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday said that the Houthis would continue to be a target. The military cited the repeated attacks with missiles and drones while the Prime Minister said Israel would be using the same level of force to stop the threats.
