The Houthis say they will free the crew of a cargo ship they hijacked 14 months ago

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said on Wednesday they would release the crew of the commercial ship Galaxy Leader, which they hijacked 14 months ago as part of an offensive in the Red Sea aimed at supporting Hamas in its war. war against Israel.

The decision is in line with an announcement made on Sunday by the rebel group, backed by Iran, to reduce the scale of attacks, as a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict took effect at the weekend.

The Houthis brought the Galactic Leader to the Yemeni port of Al-Hudaydah and have since held its crew hostage. The World Cargo News website reported in November that 25-member crew includes citizens of 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-linked Al-Masirah TV channel said the decision was ordered by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi and coordinated with Hamas and Oman as broker. .

The release could not be independently confirmed.

The Galaxy Leader, designed to carry vehicles, sailed under the flag of the Bahamas and was shown on Wednesday “stopping” in the Red Sea and out of satellite positioning range, according to MarineTraffica ship tracking app and website that provides real-time information about ships around the world.

The seizure of the ship en route to India from Türkiye is one of the most serious incidents. daring maritime operations by the Houthis and by the start of the campaign in support of Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering the war in Gaza.

At the time, the Houthis had threatened to target ships passing through the Red Sea that were flagged, owned and operated by Israel. After Galaxy Leader was captured, a Houthi spokesman stated that the hijacking was a show of support for “the oppressed Palestinian people.”

While the Israeli military said the Galaxy Leader’s crew included no Israelis, it appears that Israeli billionaire Rami Ungar was at one time a beneficial owner of the company that owned the ship, according to Paradise Papers. a major leak of secret documents that 2017 revealed a hidden world of wealth and ownership. A beneficial owner of a company is a person who exercises control over the company, owns more than one-fourth of the company, or receives significant economic benefits from the company.

The Houthi campaign against Israel has disrupted maritime traffic in one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, forcing many ships to make longer journeys around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

In recent months, the group has also launched a series of missile attacks on 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.

Houthis spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said social media on Sunday that supporting the Palestinian cause would remain a top priority even after the ceasefire. Houthi forces said they would stop targeting all ships “after full implementation of all phases” of the ceasefire agreement. But they said they would continue to target ships owned by Israeli individuals or entities or sailing under the Israeli flag.

But in an email dated Sunday and sent by a Group affiliated with Houthi contacting the shipping industry, the Houthis warned that if the United States or Britain attacked Yemen directly, they would continue attacks on ships linked to those countries.