A tentative ceasefire between Israel and Hamas may not just reverberate across Gaza — it could upend the maritime battleground in the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi rebels have turned merchant shipping into target practice, wrote Sam Chambers in splash247.com.
Chambers, who is an expert on Maritime affairs, added that the Houthis have long justified their strikes on commercial vessels as solidarity with Palestinians. And now ship operators and insurers will now be watching carefully to see if the rebels scales back operations in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as previous conditional pauses were tied to earlier Gaza ceasefires.
Chambers noticed that at present, there is no sign of an easing back of hostilities, with Israeli air strikes continuing in Gaza over the weekend, and the Houthis attacking Israel via drone. And a Dutch-flagged ship, Minervagracht, was hit by the Houthis in the Gulf of Aden, forcing crew evacuation a week ago.
Chambers cited Lars Jensen, a leading container shipping consultant who has been running a daily commentary via LinkedIn of the nearly two years long Red Sea shipping crisis., who suggested that it was very likely that even if there is a ceasefire agreement, and even if it initially is successful, it requires a long period of stability before shipping can see a shift back to a Suez routing.