Suspected Attack by Yemen’s Houthis Targets Ship in Gulf of Aden

Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
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Suspected Attack by Yemen’s Houthis Targets Ship in Gulf of Aden

Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
Houthi supporters chant slogans during a protest against the US and Israel, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, in Sanaa, Yemen, 15 March 2024. (EPA)

A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi militias saw an explosive detonate near a ship early Sunday in the Gulf of Aden, potentially marking their latest assault on shipping through the crucial waterway leading to the Red Sea.

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel's crew saw the blast as it passed off the coast of Aden, the port city in southern Yemen home to the country's legitimate government.

“No damage to the vessel has been reported and the crew are reported safe,” UKMTO said.

The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks in the same area, disrupting energy and cargo shipments through the Gulf of Aden.

The militias did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack, though it typically takes the Houthis several hours before acknowledging their assaults.

Separately, the US military's Central Command said it carried out a series of strikes targeting the Houthis. It said it destroyed five drone boats and one drone before takeoff from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen on Saturday. It was an unusually high number of drone boats to be destroyed.

The US military also shot down one Houthi drone over the Red Sea, while another was “presumed to have crashed.”

“There were no reports of damage or injuries from ships in the vicinity,” Central Command said.

The Houthis have attacked ships since November, saying they want to force Israel to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas.

The ships targeted by the Houthis, however, largely have had little or no connection to Israel, the US or other nations involved in the war. The militias have also fired missiles toward Israel, though they have largely fallen short or been intercepted.

Earlier in March, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden, killing three of its crew members and forcing survivors to abandon the vessel. It marked the first fatal attack by the Houthis on shipping.

Other recent Houthi actions include an attack last month on a cargo ship carrying fertilizer that later sank after drifting for several days.



Video Shows Last Moments for Slain Gaza Aid Workers, Red Crescent Says

This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP
This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP
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Video Shows Last Moments for Slain Gaza Aid Workers, Red Crescent Says

This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP
This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP

A video recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers shows their final moments, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, with clearly marked ambulances and emergency lights flashing as heavy gunfire erupts.

The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel who were killed on March 23 in an attack by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The Israeli military has said its soldiers "did not randomly attack" any ambulances, insisting they fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles".

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off, AFP reported.

But the video released by PRCS on Saturday appears to contradict the Israeli military's claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights and emergency lights clearly flashing.

The six minute and 42 second video, apparently filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red firetruck and ambulances driving through the night.

The vehicles stop beside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men exit. Moments later, intense gunfire erupts.

In the video, the voices of two medics are heard -- one saying, "the vehicle, the vehicle," and another responding: "It seems to be an accident."

Seconds later, a volley of gunfire breaks out, and the screen goes black.

PRCS said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the deceased aid workers.

"This video unequivocally refutes the occupation's claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings," PRCS said in a statement.

"The footage exposes the truth and dismantles this false narrative."

Those killed included eight PRCS staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.

Their bodies were found buried near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.

- Fear and prayers -

OCHA has said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on that day. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of successive attacks.

According to the PRCS, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.

In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.

"There is no God but God, Mohammed is his messenger," he says repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background.

He is also heard saying: "Forgive me mother because I chose this way, the way of helping people."

He then says, "accept my martyrdom, God, and forgive me." Just before the footage ends, he is heard saying, "The Jews are coming, the Jews are coming," referring to Israeli soldiers.

The deaths of the aid workers has sparked international condemnation.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were "in their uniforms, still wearing gloves" when they were found.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, raising concerns over possible "war crimes" by the Israeli military.

"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," Volker Turk told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Turk called for an "independent, prompt and thorough investigation" into the attack.

An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered "in sand and cloth" to avoid damage until coordination with international organizations could be arranged for their retrieval.

The military said it was investigating the attack.