Recently, a series of attacks in the waters of the Red Sea have led international shipping companies to announce the suspension of navigation in the region. The Houthis' frequent attacks on Israeli-linked ships on the grounds of support for Palestine have heightened the risk of spillover from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to reports, Yemen's Houthis issued a statement on the 15th, saying that they fired ** missiles at two container ships bound for Israel, and said that they would continue to block all ships going to Israel until the supplies needed by the people in the Gaza Strip arrived. According to the U.S. Command, the Houthis used ballistic missiles in the attack, one of which hit a Liberian-flagged container ship. As a result of these attacks, a number of international shipping companies have announced the suspension of navigation in the Red Sea. Since the outbreak of the new Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Houthis have repeatedly attacked targets in the Red Sea waters and even detained a cargo ship linked to Israel. This tension has affected international maritime transport and has raised concerns. Yemen's Houthis launched missile strikes in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea regions against Norwegian-flagged oil tankers. According to the Houthis, any Israeli-flagged vessel or owned or operated by an Israeli company is a "legitimate target" for them.
This series of attacks has made the southern waters of the Red Sea a high-risk area for the London insurance market, and merchant ships must inform the insurer in advance and take out additional war insurance. This tension has led to continued disruptions to international shipping, and analysts are concerned that the international ** chain will not be immune to shocks. Yemeni political analyst Ibrahim Jalal pointed out that the Houthi attacks will raise the cost of securing the transportation of goods, thereby inflating goods**. Eyal Pinko, a senior researcher at Israel's Akin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said that a large number of ** travel between Europe and Asia, through the waters of the Red Sea, so the security situation in the Red Sea is a matter of concern. If the Red Sea is blocked, the Western economy and the global ** chain will be "greatly affected". However, there is also an argument that the Houthi attacks have been targeted only at individual countries and have a relatively limited overall impact on international shipping. Walid Zahran, a professor of economics at Egypt's Arab Academy of Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, noted that the Houthis' main targets are Israeli merchant ships, not ships of other countries. In addition, Yemen's Houthis have not only attacked sea targets, but also launched long-range strikes against Israel inside Yemen.
This tension exacerbates the risk of conflict spillover, which could also lead to a renewed escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). For the international community, this uncertainty will have a negative impact on the global economy and the ** chain. The U.S. Embassy in Iraq suffered a "two-round artillery attack" on the 8th, and the shells fell into the area of the complex, but fortunately there were no people. At the same time, a number of US military bases in Iraq and Syria were attacked five times. Ahmed Rafiq Awad, a professor at Al-Quds University in Palestine, noted that armed groups in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq are becoming more deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "The Houthi attack on merchant ships in the Red Sea has raised concerns in Western countries such as the United States, and Israel's intention to join forces with countries in the Red Sea to patrol the Red Sea, which increases the risk of conflict spillover," he said. "A photo of the Lebanese-Israeli border on the Israeli side on December 16 shows smoke rising from a village in southern Lebanon after it was attacked by Israeli forces, as shown in the picture. It is said that as the Israeli army's offensive in the Gaza Strip continues to expand, the situation in the Red Sea will continue to be tense, and the United States may increase its involvement.
The Financial Times published an article saying that the most dangerous scenario is the outbreak of a full-scale war in the region, involving both the countries of the region and the United States. At the same time, according to the Russian Sputnik news agency 17**, the US Pentagon is considering a fight against the Houthis, raising concerns that the risk of war expansion is rising. (Participating reporters: Wang Hao, Dong Xiuzhu, Yao Bing, Liu Weijian, Wang Zhuolun).