Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced Wednesday they would free the crew of a commercial ship, the Galaxy Leader, that they hijacked 14 months ago as part of their campaign of attacks in the Red Sea to support the Hamas in its war against Israel.
The move is in line with the Iran-backed rebel group’s announcement on Sunday to reduce its attacks, given the ceasefire in the Gaza conflict that came into effect over the weekend.
The Houthis took the Galaxy Leader to the Yemeni port of Al-Hudaydah and have since held its crew hostage. The World Cargo News website reported in November that its crew of 25 members included nationals from the Philippines, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Mexico and Romania.
A senior Houthi official, Nasser Al-Din Amer, said on social media that the detained crew members would be released on Wednesday. Yemen’s rebel-affiliated Al-Masirah TV said the move was ordered by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi and coordinated with Hamas and mediated by Oman.
It was not possible to independently confirm the publication.
The Galaxy Leader, designed to transport vehicles, sails under the flag of the Bahamas and was presented on Wednesday as “arrested” in the Red Sea and out of range of satellite navigation, according to MarineTraffica ship tracking app and website that provides real-time information on ships around the world.
The capture of the ship, which was en route to India from Turkey, was one of the most significant daring maritime operations by the Houthis and intervened at the start of their campaign in support of Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the war in Gaza.
At the time, the Houthis threatened to target ships crossing the Red Sea flagged, owned and operated by Israel. After the Galaxy Leader’s capture, a Houthi spokesperson announced that the hijacking was a show of support for the “oppressed Palestinian people.”
While the Israeli military has said the Galaxy Leader’s crew did not include any Israelis, it appears that an Israeli billionaire, Rami Ungar, was at one time the true owner of the company that owns the ship, according to the Paradise Papers. a major leak of confidential documents which, in 2017, revealed a hidden world of wealth and property. The beneficial owner of a company is a person who exercises control over it, owns more than a quarter of it or derives a substantial economic benefit from it.
The Houthis’ campaign against Israel has disrupted maritime traffic on one of the world’s most important shipping routes, forcing many ships to undertake a much longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the Africa.
In recent months, the group has also launched a series of missile attacks against Israel. Most of the missiles were intercepted before reaching Israeli territory, but the Israeli military responded with a series of airstrikes against targets in Yemen linked to the rebels.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the social networks Sunday, support for the Palestinian cause would remain a top priority even after the ceasefire. The Houthis said they would stop targeting all ships “once all phases” of the ceasefire agreement are fully implemented. But they said they would continue to target vessels owned by Israeli individuals or entities or sailing under the Israeli flag.
But in an email dated Sunday and sent by a Houthi-linked group which communicates with the shipping industry, the Houthis have warned that if the United States or Britain attacked Yemen directly, they would resume their assaults on ships associated with those countries.
