New Houthi threats to ships in Red Sea, Eilat

The Iran-backed Houthis have threatened ships in the Red Sea and Israel again on Wednesday, December 6.

The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said that it had “received a report of an incident involving an Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) in the vicinity of position 1425N 04212E, 47nm west of port Hodeidah, Yemen.”

Hodeidah is an important port in Yemen.

According to Al-Arabiya, the reports led to warnings for ships transiting the area. “British maritime security company Ambrey also said on Wednesday it was aware of a drone incident in the same area and that it was investigating.

There were no further details about the reported incident, which follows a series of attacks in Middle Eastern waters since war broke out between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on October 7,” Al-Arabiya said.

An hour and a half after the UKMTO report, sirens sounded in Israel’s southern city of Eilat at around 13:11 due to a missile threat. The UKMTO report had been around 11:40 am. It is not clear if the two incidents are connected.

The IDF said, “Following the report regarding sirens that sounded in the city of Eilat, a launch of a surface-to-surface missile toward Israel was identified, and was successfully intercepted in the area of the Red Sea by the Arrow Aerial Defense System.”

The IDF added that the “target did not cross into Israeli territory, did not pose a threat to civilians, and the sirens that sounded were according to protocol.”

The Houthis said in a statement Wednesday that they had launched a number of ballistic missiles at Eilat.

Additional incidents

The report by UKMTO follows another report on December 3 of multiple incidents near the Bab al-Mandeb straits.

At the time, US Central Command said that “there were four attacks against three separate commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern Red Sea. These three vessels are connected to 14 separate nations. The Arleigh-Burke Class destroyer, USS CARNEY, responded to the distress calls from the ships and provided assistance.”

The Houthis have threatened shipping. In a statement this week, they also said that their attacks on ships are designed to target ships linked to Israel. They also claim this has had an impact on Israel.

The Houthi Al-Masirah media highlighted its anti-ship missile capabilities on December 6. Houthi media and US Central Command did not mention the December 6 incidents as of the time of this report. This is a developing story.

Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.