In the first breach of a fragile truce declared in May, a commercial vessel reportedly came under assault in the Red Sea on Sunday, prompting a series of Israeli airstrikes on Yemen.
The attack marked a sharp escalation in hostilities between Israel and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, threatening to reignite instability across the region’s vital shipping lanes.
The cargo ship Magic Seas, a Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier, was struck by small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades near the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, forcing its crew to abandon ship.
The assault was confirmed by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations and other maritime security groups monitoring regional traffic.
Houthi militants, who have aligned themselves with Hamas during the conflict in Gaza, claimed responsibility, citing the ship’s alleged links to Israeli ports.
The group said the vessel’s ownership had violated their declared blockade of “occupied Palestine.”
In response, the Israeli military launched a broad aerial campaign early Monday, its first such operation in Yemen since the brief conflict with Iran concluded in late June.
The military said it targeted infrastructure used by the Houthis to support their operations, including ports at Ras Isa and Salif, the Ras Kanatib power plant, and the port of Hodeidah, which Israel alleges are conduits for Iranian arms shipments.
Roughly 20 Israeli fighter jets dropped over 50 precision-guided munitions in the coordinated strikes.
The military also claimed to have hit the Galaxy Leader, a commercial ship reportedly seized by the Houthis last November and repurposed as a surveillance platform for monitoring maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
The Houthis responded by launching ballistic missiles and drones toward Israel. According to Israeli officials, two missiles entered Israeli airspace—one was intercepted, while the other landed in open terrain.
Eleven drones were reportedly aimed at Eilat, a Red Sea port city, while missiles targeted Ben Gurion Airport, Ashdod Port, and a power station in Ashkelon.
Local Yemeni residents described the Israeli airstrikes as the most intense since last summer, when fuel infrastructure in Hodeidah was bombed. Plumes of smoke were seen rising from several key sites.
Though President Trump brokered a truce in May to halt Houthi attacks on international shipping, Israel was not party to that agreement.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted more than 100 ships, sunk two, and killed at least four mariners, disrupting global trade and deepening tensions in a region still simmering from conflict.
[READ MORE: Pentagon Claims Iranian Nuclear Program Set Back by up to Two Years by Strike]
