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Ship Attacked in Red Sea After Bulk Carrier Sinking Claimed by Yemen’s Houthis

The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas is seen in Ambelakia Bay, Salamis Island, Greece, Aug. 9, 2022. (Nektarios Papadakis via AP)
The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas is seen in Ambelakia Bay, Salamis Island, Greece, Aug. 9, 2022. (Nektarios Papadakis via AP)
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Ship Attacked in Red Sea After Bulk Carrier Sinking Claimed by Yemen’s Houthis

The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas is seen in Ambelakia Bay, Salamis Island, Greece, Aug. 9, 2022. (Nektarios Papadakis via AP)
The Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Magic Seas is seen in Ambelakia Bay, Salamis Island, Greece, Aug. 9, 2022. (Nektarios Papadakis via AP)

A Liberian-flagged cargo ship came under fire on Monday in the Red Sea, with two security guards on board reportedly hurt and two others missing in an assault that came after Yemen's Houthi militants purportedly sunk another vessel in a similar attack.

Earlier, the Houthis said they attacked Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas, also Liberian-flagged, with drones, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire on Sunday, forcing its crew of 22 to abandon the vessel.

The two attacks and a round of Israeli airstrikes early Monday targeting the militants raised fears of a renewed Houthi campaign against shipping that could again draw in US and Western forces to the area, particularly after US President Donald Trump's administration targeted the militants in a major airstrike campaign.

The attacks come at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance, and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites during an Israeli war against Tehran in June. Also, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to meet with Trump on Monday at the White House.

The private security firm Ambrey reported the latest attack on Monday night in the Red Sea, offering the details on the two hurt and two missing security guards. It said the vessel had been heading north toward the Suez Canal when it came under fire by men in small boats and by bomb-carrying drones. The security guards on board had opened fire in the attack.

“The vessel’s engines had reportedly been disabled and Ambrey observed that the vessel had started to drift,” the firm said.

There were no other immediate details on the attack, which also was acknowledged by the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, or UKMTO, center. The Houthis' al-Masirah satellite news channel noted the attack, but the militants didn't claim the assault.

However, Moammar al-Eryani, the information minister with Yemen's legitimate government that opposes the Houthis and is based in southern Yemen, said the militants had also carried out the second attack. The Houthis control the northern half of Yemen and its capital, Sanaa.

The US military's Central Command said it was aware of reports of the attack, but declined to comment further.

Sunday's attack on the Magic Seas, another bulk carrier heading north to Egypt’s Suez Canal, happened about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the port of Hodeidah, Yemen, which is held by the Houthis. That's the same area of the attack on Monday night.

The UKMTO first said that an armed security team on the vessel had returned fire against an initial attack of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, though the vessel later was struck by projectiles. The UKMTO said the ship was taking on water and its crew had abandoned the vessel. They were rescued by a passing ship, it added.

A European Union anti-piracy patrol in the region, called Operation Atalanta, said that 22 mariners had been on board the Magic Seas.

The United Arab Emirates later Monday said that one of its ships from Abu Dhabi Ports received the call to help on the Red Sea and rescued the 22 people aboard the Magic Seas.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, claimed Sunday's attack and said the militants used missiles and bomb-carrying drone boats to attack the ship.

“Our operations continue in targeting the depths of the Israeli entity in occupied Palestine, as well as preventing Israeli maritime navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas ... until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege on it is lifted,” Saree said.

The Magic Seas’ owners didn’t respond to a request for comment. Saree later said the vessel had sank Monday in the Red Sea.

Israeli strikes target Houthi-held ports

The Israeli military said that it struck Houthi-held ports early Monday at Hodeidah, Ras Isa and Salif, as well as the Ras Kanatib power plant. It released footage showing an F-16 launching from Israel for the strike, which came after the Israeli military issued a warning for the area.

“These ports are used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are employed to carry out terrorist operations against the state of Israel and its allies,” the Israeli military said.

The Israeli military also said it struck the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle-carrying vessel that the Houthis seized back in November 2023 when they began their attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war.

“Houthi forces installed a radar system on the ship and have been using it to track vessels in the international maritime arena to facilitate further terrorist activities,” the Israeli military said.

The Bahamas-flagged Galaxy Leader was affiliated with an Israeli billionaire. The ship had been operated by a Japanese firm, NYK Line.

The Houthis acknowledged the strikes, but offered no damage assessment from the attack.

Israel has repeatedly attacked Houthi areas in Yemen, including a naval strike in June. Both Israel and the United States have struck ports in the area in the past, including an American attack that killed 74 people in April, but Israel is now acting alone in attacking the militants as they continue to fire missiles at Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to launch further strikes.

“What’s true for Iran is true for Yemen,” Katz said in a statement. “Anyone who raises a hand against Israel will have it cut off. The Houthis will continue to pay a heavy price for their actions.”

The Houthis then responded with an apparent missile attack on Israel. The Israeli military said that it attempted to intercept the two missiles launched by the Houthis, but they appeared to make impact, though no injuries have been reported.

Saree on Monday claimed to launch missiles and drones targeting Israel in its attack.

The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. Their campaign has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. Shipping through the Red Sea, while still lower than normal, has increased in recent weeks.

The Houthis paused attacks until the US launched a broad assault against the militants in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis haven’t attacked a vessel, though they have continued occasional missile attacks targeting Israel.

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Arab World

Israeli Soldiers Share Rare Accounts from Gaza: Killings Never Stopped

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Israeli Soldiers Share Rare Accounts from Gaza: Killings Never Stopped

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Israeli combat soldier saw his teammates yelling in celebration, congratulating one another. They had just struck a vehicle of Palestinians driving near the Israeli-controlled part of the Gaza Strip, killing everyone inside.

The reservist said scenes like this had become common after a fragile ceasefire took effect in October. In the weeks he was stationed in Gaza, he said, he saw soldiers relishing the chance to go after those who crossed — or came close to crossing — the so-called yellow line that divides the strip into Israeli-controlled and Palestinian areas.

“It was a jungle,” the soldier, in his 20s, told The Associated Press. “After the ceasefire, the order was: If someone crosses the line, you shoot them.”

As diplomatic efforts to strengthen the deal have stalled, three soldiers described to AP a sense of confusion in the embattled territory, with a lack of clarity on rules of engagement around the yellow line. Some commanders paid lip service to the agreement, the soldiers said, while privately voicing desire for the war in Gaza to continue.

Sometimes, troops were too far away or acted too quickly to recognize who they were shooting, one soldier said — a concern echoed in comments from a whistleblower group of veterans.

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed by Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The soldiers' accounts are a rare glimpse into what’s happened in the Israeli-controlled part of Gaza since the deal went into effect seven months ago. The soldiers — reservists deployed throughout Gaza between October and January who've since returned — spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared being ostracized over their comments. They said they were speaking out because they were angered and saddened by what they saw.

AP has documented shootings of Palestinian civilians, including children playing, close to the yellow line. And the soldiers said it felt like the killings never stopped amid the tenuous deal.

“To call it a ceasefire is a joke,” one soldier told AP.

Gaza's yellow line has been ambiguous, and Israel has taken control of more land When the ceasefire went into effect, Israel withdrew troops to a buffer zone demarcated by a yellow line, giving it control of just over half the strip.

Under the agreement, Israeli forces are meant to complete a fuller withdrawal, though there's no timeline for that. The US-backed diplomat overseeing the truce says progress is deadlocked over the central sticking point of disarming Hamas, upon which all other issues — including Israeli withdrawals and reconstruction — hinge.

In the meantime, Israel has expanded control over additional territory in Gaza. Both sides have accused the other of violating the ceasefire.

The line’s exact location has been ambiguous and sometimes invisible. In some places, it’s marked with yellow blocks and barrels; in others, it at times hasn't been indicated at all.

A concrete block marks the "Yellow Line" drawn by the Israeli military in Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip, on Nov. 4., 2025. AFP

The Israeli military invited AP this week to see a section of the yellow line in central Gaza, near the Maghazi refugee camp. The line there was visible, demarcated by a wide dirt path and small yellow markings. To the east was a desolate stretch of open space leading to a heavily fortified Israeli military post about 500 meters away.

An Israeli military commander said Hamas is active on the other side of the line and frequently sends people — militants and civilians — toward the line and even across it to test the army’s readiness and responses.

“There is no reason for anyone to come near the line,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under military rules. “There’s nothing here.”

The army says the entire line, which stretches the length of Gaza, is now clearly marked.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, more than 900 people have been killed in Gaza — dozens of those close to or over the yellow line, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn't say how many are militants, but unarmed men and children have been among the dead.

Israel's military has said most of the people killed crossing the line posed a threat to troops. But soldiers who spoke to AP and Breaking the Silence — the whistleblower group that has collected troops' testimonies throughout the war — say that at times soldiers were too far away, acting too quickly and under too much pressure to tell.

Israel's army told AP that the area adjacent to the yellow line is a “sensitive operational environment” with signs saying approaching is prohibited. It said the army doesn't target civilians solely for approaching the line and that its rules of engagement require the use of warnings before using force. In situations involving an immediate threat, forces are authorized to act, it said.

One soldier says troops must act fast, with information sometimes based on a hunch It was the combat soldier's second tour in Gaza when the ceasefire began. He said he was posted several hundred meters from the yellow line and saw several people trying to cross it killed by soldiers.

Soldiers shooting or ordering drone strikes don't always know who's crossing the line, he said. Although soldiers must provide coordinates and get approval from superiors before striking, it's hard to give exact information as people are moving, he said. He described soldiers calling in coordinates based on a hunch or the last place they saw someone.

Breaking the Silence says the general rules of engagement are extremely permissive, especially for those crossing the line, with orders in many areas being “shoot to kill.”

Executive director Nadav Weiman, a veteran who served in Gaza but not in this war, said distance from the target and some trigger-happy soldiers can be problematic.

He said orders and policies from the military’s high commanders “have created a reality where countless civilians have and are being killed for crossing invisible lines.”

In one account to Breaking the Silence, in interview notes seen by AP, a soldier describes instructions for troops about anyone crossing the yellow line: “eliminate him no matter what."
Another soldier stationed in Gaza for weeks after the ceasefire said the message from commanders was to hold the line at all costs.

“There was a general feeling that human lives are not valuable,” he said.

When it came to demarcating the yellow line, the soldier said his superiors told him it was “too much work," not their job and that Palestinians should know where it was.

Being in Gaza took an emotional toll, he said.

Sometimes snipers fired warning shots at people close to the line, he said, but commanders told troops to do more to protect themselves. The soldier understood that to mean firing more lethal shots.

He and the other soldiers who spoke to AP said troops generally understood, based on leaders and fellow soldiers' actions, that Israel was in Gaza for the long run, not an eventual withdrawal.

An internal report circulated among aid groups last month and seen by AP said that across Gaza, Israel has become “increasingly proactive” with its strikes.

Separate data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a US-based nonprofit, said April was the deadliest month in Gaza this year and that recorded deaths near the yellow line or of people who crossed it increased by more than 25% from January to April, to 73 from 58.

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel controls 60% of Gaza and the next step was to move to 70% control.

The soldiers told AP that on the ground, the ceasefire is elusive.

“We need to stop using this term," one said of the word, ceasefire. "It’s not serving people that want to stop the war.”

Arab World

Palestinian Authorities Say Israeli Forces Kill Man Trying to Climb Barrier

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
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Palestinian Authorities Say Israeli Forces Kill Man Trying to Climb Barrier

Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians walk along the separation barrier between the West Bank and east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Sunday Feb. 15, 2026. (AP)

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man Sunday as he attempted to enter Jerusalem by climbing over a barrier separating the city from the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah identified the man as Imad Haroun Ashtiyeh, 26, saying he was killed by Israeli gunfire near the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem.

Ashtiyeh, a construction worker from the village of Salem near Nablus, had attempted to climb the barrier at Al-Ram along with a few other men to make his way to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for work, said Omer, a relative who gave only his first name.

"But then he was shot while attempting to climb over," Omer told AFP.

An AFP journalist saw Ashtiyeh's corpse shrouded in a Palestinian flag at the Ramallah medical complex, his relatives weeping over his body.

The Palestinian Authority's press office wrote on X that "Israeli occupation forces killed a Palestinian man seeking work while crossing the annexation and apartheid wall".

Al-Ram, located near the Qalandiya checkpoint, is separated from Jerusalem by a section of the barrier reinforced with barbed wire.

The Israeli military and police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli security officials say a significant number of Palestinians from the West Bank attempt to enter Israel illegally, often by climbing over the barrier.

They are driven largely by economic hardship and the loss of work permits since the Hamas assault that sparked the Gaza war in October 2023, Palestinian officials say.

Most of them are arrested, while some have died or been injured fleeing from Israeli forces, Palestinian officials say.

Ashtiyeh is the fifth Palestinian killed trying to cross into Israel this year, and the 52nd since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.

Israel began building the barrier at the height of the second Palestinian intifada that erupted in 2002, saying it was needed to maintain security amid suicide bombings in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.

The barrier cuts into many parts of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, and Palestinians see it as a land grab and de facto border illegal under international law.

Israel maintains tight restrictions on the movement of the West Bank's roughly three million residents, who require special permits to cross checkpoints into east Jerusalem and Israel.

Violence has sharply escalated in the Palestinian territory since the Gaza war began.

At least 1,075 Palestinians -- both militants and civilians -- have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since October 2023, according to AFP figures based on Palestinian health ministry data.

In the same period, at least 46 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, Israeli official figures show.

Arab World

France Requests UN Security Council 'Emergency Meeting' on Lebanon

Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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France Requests UN Security Council 'Emergency Meeting' on Lebanon

Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers drive a tank in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

France has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after Israeli forces seized the medieval Beaufort castle in Lebanon, the French foreign minister said Sunday, AFP reported.

"I have requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council because, while we recognize Israel's right, like that of all countries, to self-defense... nothing can justify the continuation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon and its ever-deeper occupation of Lebanese territory," Jean-Noel Barrot said on the BFMTV channel.

On Sunday, Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century.

The capture of Beaufort castle, near the city of Nabatiyeh, came after days of airstrikes and intense fighting in nearby villages where Israeli troops fought Hezbollah members in the rugged area.

Israel has since launched a ground invasion, capturing dozens of Lebanese villages and towns close to the border. Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles and drones at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

The Israeli push came despite a nominal ceasefire that has been in place since April 17 and just days before Lebanon and Israeli hold their next round of direct talks in Washington starting Tuesday.