Houthi rebels from Yemen have hijacked a cargo ship with up to 22 crew members in the Red Sea – a “serious incident on a global scale”.
The Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader was boarded by gunmen as it traveled south past the Arabian Peninsula en route to India.
The ship is reportedly registered to a British company partly owned by Israeli tycoon Abraham Ungar and is currently leased to a Japanese company.
It came hours after the Iran-backed Houthi militia – which has waged a bloody civil war against the Yemeni government since the 1990s – vowed to attack Israel-linked ships in retaliation for the Jewish state’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks Attack the Red Sea.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed that there are no Israeli citizens on board and denied that the ship was Israeli, but called it a “serious incident.”
The ship Galaxy Leader was hijacked in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
According to the latest publicly available tracking data, the ship was last seen east of Port Sudan on Saturday
A statement posted on social media said: “The hijacking of a cargo ship by the Houthis near Yemen in the southern Red Sea is a very serious incident of global concern.”
“The ship left Turkey en route to India and was crewed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis. “It is not an Israeli ship.”
It is reported that there are Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Filipinos and Mexicans nationalities on board the ship.
According to publicly available tracking data, the ship’s last known location was east of Port Sudan in the Red Sea on Saturday.
Last week, the leader of the Houthis, an Islamist movement that has fired several rockets into Israel in recent weeks, warned that they would carry out more attacks on the Jewish state.
Abdulmalik al-Houthi said: “Our eyes are open to the constant surveillance and search for Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, especially in Bab al-Mandab and near Yemeni regional waters.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for the hijacking, but provided no evidence that the plane was seized on Iranian orders.
In a statement released this afternoon, he said: “We strongly condemn the Iranian attack on an international vessel,” apparently referring to Iranian support for the Houthis.
Israel Defense Forces said the ship’s hijacking was a “very serious incident of global concern.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident an “act of Iranian terrorism” and apparently linked the country to the Houthi rebels who hijacked the ship
“The ship, owned by a British company and operated by a Japanese company, was hijacked by the Houthi militia in Yemen at Iranian whim.
“On board the ship there are 25 crew members of various nationalities, including: Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Filipinos and Mexicans.”
“There were no Israelis present on the ship.”
“This is another act of Iranian terrorism that represents a step forward in Iran’s aggression against the citizens of the free world and has international implications for the security of global shipping lanes,” the statement concluded.
In Yemen, Iran supports and supplies the Houthis, a Shiite faction that has been waging war against a Saudi-led Sunni coalition in the country since 2015.
The Houthis have emerged as a major military power on the Arabian Peninsula, with tens of thousands of fighters and a vast arsenal of ballistic missiles and armed drones.
The movement emerged in the 1990s and has the slogan “God is great, death to the USA, death to Israel, curse to the Jews and victory to Islam.”
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted following the October 7 terrorist attacks, the Houthis have launched at least six rocket attacks against Israel and its allies.