The Prime Minister’s Office responded today (Sunday) to the seizure of a ship in the Red Sea by the Houthi Army, accusing Iran of complicity.
A statement tweeted in Hebrew by the Prime Minister’s Office on X/Twitter read: “We strongly condemn the Iranian attack against an international ship,” and that “the ship, owned by a British company operated by a Japanese company, was hijacked at Iranian direction by the Houthi militia in Yemen.”
Escalation in Iranian Aggression
The statement went on to say that “the ship’s deck had 25 crew members from different nations, including: Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Filipinos, and Mexicans. Israelis were not present on the ship. This is an additional Iranian terrorist act which marks an escalation in Iran’s aggression towards the citizens of the free world, and creates international significance regarding the security of global shipping lanes.”
The Saudi network al-Arabiya network reported earlier that Houthi rebels from Yemen took over an Israeli ship with 22 crew members aboard. This hijacking occurred north of Yemen in the Red Sea area, slightly to the south of the Egypt-Sudan border. The ship appears to be partially Israeli owned but contains no Israeli crew members. According to Israeli sources, there are indeed no Israelis among the crew.
The IDF Spokesperson stated that the hijacking of the cargo ship near Yemen in the southern Red Sea by the Houthis is a globally serious event. This is a ship which set out from Turkey on its way to India with a civilian, international crew, without Israelis and was not an Israeli ship.
The Houthi Army has threatened over the course of the last week that all Israeli ships are a target for Yemen’s Shiite militia – including both Israeli ships waving an Israeli flag, ships owned by Israeli companies, and ships coming to or from Israel.