Houthis To Halt Red Sea Ship Attacks If Gaza Truce Holds

For the first time since attacks in the Red Sea began in 2023 in response to the Israeli military onslaught in Gaza due to Oct.7, Yemen’s Houthis have signaled they will stop their attacks if the new Gaza truce and hostage exchange deal holds.

Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi in his first announcement since the impending truce, which is expected to take effect Sunday, said that his group plans to respect the agreement but that attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping could continue.

“We will continue to follow the stages of implementing the agreement,” Al-Houthi said in a speech Thursday. On Friday the deal was still moving past the final bureaucratic hurdles in Israel with an expected full cabinet vote.

“Any Israeli breach, massacre, or siege — we will be immediately ready to provide military support to Palestinians,” he continued, strongly suggesting that if the ceasefire collapses then Houthi attacks would be back on. 

He said his movement, formally known as Ansar Allah, will “confront any aggression, whether by the Israelis, the Americans, or their allies, or any attempts to divert our country from its liberated jihadist path.”

The Houthis have indeed been seeking to target American, British, and coalition warships – though it’s unclear if there have been any direct strikes or damage to military vessels of late.

A Wednesday statement claimed that missiles and drones were launched against the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier and other US warships patrolling the Red Sea. It’s unknown whether if all projectiles were intercepted.

“This targeting of the carrier is the sixth since its arrival in the Red Sea,” the Houthis stated. The Iran-backed group has clearly remained committed and defiant as it blocks Red Sea shipping, despite several rounds of US-UK-Israeli bombing campaigns, though it seems the only thing that may halt this is a lasting Gaza truce.

Bloomberg has meanwhile reviewed that “Most Western-linked container ships have over the past year chosen to take the much longer route around southern Africa when sailing between Asia and Europe, and kept clear of the Red Sea. That’s squeezed global shipping capacity, lifting freight rates and boosted the earnings of carriers like Mitsui OSK.”

“Container-shipping giants A.P. Moller Maersk A/S and Hapag-Lloyd AG last year announced a vessel-sharing partnership for the alternative route,” the report continues.

Egypt has said its taken a $7 billion hit in revenue decline from the Suez Canal for 2024, which marks about a 60% drop from prior years.

Very important for oil, LNG and container-shipped commodities (like coffee)

The Yemen-based Houthis signaled a pause in their months-long attacks on commercial ships following a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas https://t.co/H3ZfndcgzO

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) January 17, 2025

The Houthis have consistently demanded that for it to halt its Red Sea attacks there must be full Israeli military withdrawal from the Strip. It’s anything but certain whether that will actually happen should the ceasefire reach phase two or phase three implementation.

If the Yemeni operations do persist in face of the truce, it would complicate or damage efforts to keep the peace in the Gaza Strip, as it’s already sure to be an extremely delicate and fragile truce.