Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile strike on the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht in the Gulf of Aden, marking one of their most serious assaults on shipping outside the Red Sea since November 2023.The attack occurred on Monday and involved a cruise missile, according to Houthi military spokesperson Brig Gen Yahya Saree, who said the strike targeted the vessel over alleged violations of “the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine” by the ship’s owners, Amsterdam-based Spliethoff, reported news agency AP.
The rebels stated the operation was “in response to the crimes of genocide and starvation perpetrated by the Zionist enemy against our people in the Gaza Strip, and to affirm the continued ban on Israeli maritime traffic in the Red and Arabian Seas”, according to the Times of Israel.The strike injured two crew members and forced the evacuation of all 19 sailors, hailing from the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine, after the ship caught fire and was left adrift, according to the European naval force operating in the region, Operation Aspides.The US Navy-overseen Joint Maritime Information Centre initially reported that the Minervagracht had no ties to Israel, though a follow-up note said the centre was “reviewing vessel affiliations for possible links to Israel”.The attack highlights the Houthis’ widening campaign against shipping, which has already targeted over 100 vessels and Israel in response to the ongoing war in Gaza. While some of their strikes have hit targets with tenuous or no direct links to Israel, the campaign has disrupted maritime traffic in the Red Sea—a corridor for roughly $1 trillion in goods annually prior to the war—and has killed at least eight mariners and sunk four ships over the past two years.Monday’s assault indicates the group’s expanding operational reach in the Gulf of Aden, far from their usual Red Sea strikes, and comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following renewed Israeli ground operations in Gaza and UN sanctions on Iran.