A French frigate shot down two ships in the Red Sea that were heading towards it from the coast of Yemen, in conjunction with the Houthis threatening any ships heading to Israel in support of Gaza, and while Tel Aviv vowed to respond, Washington is consulting with its allies regarding possible military action against it.
The French Armed Forces Chief of Staff said on Sunday in a statement that the multi-mission frigate “Languedoc” operating in the Red Sea “intercepted and destroyed these two specific threats” on Sunday night.
Washington previously announced that a US destroyer shot down 3 drones while last Sunday providing support to commercial ships in the Red Sea that were targeted by attacks from Yemen, denouncing a “direct threat” to maritime security.
Yesterday, Saturday, the military spokesman for the Houthi Ansar Allah movement, Yahya Saree, threatened to prevent the crossing of ships heading to Israel if food and medicine did not enter the Gaza Strip, and said that any ship heading to Israel is a legitimate target.
This decision was welcomed by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which within the Palestinian resistance has been waging fierce battles with the occupation forces in Gaza for 65 days now.
She said, “Hamas considers this decision to be brave and bold, as it stands for the blood of our people in the Gaza Strip, and stands against the Zionist-American aggression that is continuing the genocidal war.”
Recently, the Houthis targeted ships they say are linked to Israel, but their threat on Saturday expands the scope of their operations to include all ships heading to Israel.
Israeli threat
The head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, denounced what he described as a “naval blockade” and warned, “If the world does not care about this matter, because it is an international problem, we will move to put an end to this naval blockade.”
He said during an interview with local media that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz that his government would move militarily against the Houthis if no one confronted them.
The Wall Street Journal quoted American officials as saying that the United States asked Israel to allow the American army to respond to the Houthis, rather than risk expanding the conflict.
The newspaper revealed divisions between the United States and Israel regarding how to respond to the Houthis.
The US State Department reported that Secretary Anthony Blinken condemned the Houthi attacks on commercial ships in international waters south of the Red Sea.
The US State Department added that Blinken stressed during his meeting with his Saudi counterpart the need for all partners to cooperate to support maritime security.
Bloomberg newspaper revealed that the United States is consulting with allies in the region regarding possible military action against the Houthis, in response to their increasing attacks on ships in the Red Sea, noting that the talks are in a preliminary stage and the United States and its partners still prefer diplomacy over direct confrontation.
However, the fact that discussions are taking place at all underscores how seriously the United States takes the threat.
In this context, Bloomberg quoted US Deputy National Security Advisor John Finner as saying that Washington will not rule out the possibility of launching strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, while it is now focusing on sanctions and security at sea.
In a report on “The Houthis in Yemen,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz described the Houthis as a threat to Israeli trade in the Red Sea, and that the sea corridor is of utmost importance to Israel due to the lack of alternative trade routes.
The newspaper reported official figures about a 40% decrease in ship traffic in the port of Ashdod since the beginning of the war in Gaza on October 7th.
Haaretz newspaper pointed out that the shares of Israeli shipping companies were damaged due to the rise in insurance premiums on ships carrying goods to Israel.