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US Launches Red Sea Force as Ships Reroute to Avoid Attacks
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meet, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Dec. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Phil Stewart
The United States on Tuesday launched a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea as attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni terrorists forced major shipping companies to reroute, fueling concern over sustained disruptions to global trade.
The Houthi terrorist group, which controls vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, has since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea — attacks it says respond to Israel‘s assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
This week, the attacks began to take their toll on global trade, disrupting a key trade route that links Europe and North America with Asia via the Suez Canal.
Oil major BP paused all Red Sea transits, and a slew of top shipping firms including Maersk started diverting shipments normally made through Suez around the Cape of Good Hope on Africa’s southern tip. The new route all the way around Africa adds days to journey times and incurs higher costs. The list of companies avoiding the Red Sea continued to grow on Tuesday.
The crisis, which has grown out of the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, is the latest in the Middle East to pit the United States and its allies against Iran and its regional Arab proxy militias.
Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in a cross-border raid on Oct. 7, drawing an Israeli military offensive of air strikes and ground operations targeting the terror group in Gaza.
Iranian proxies including the Houthis and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah have fired rockets at Israel since the conflict began. The Houthis have meanwhile stepped up their Red Sea attacks, threatening to target all ships heading to Israel and warning shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is on a trip to Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s headquarters in the Middle East, said Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain were among nations involved in the Red Sea security operation.
The group, widely dubbed in media reports as a “task force,” will conduct joint patrols in the southern Red Sea and the adjacent Gulf of Aden.
“This is an international challenge that demands collective action,” Austin said in a statement, announcing the initiative as “Operation Prosperity Guardian.” He called on other countries to contribute as he condemned “reckless Houthi actions.”
But it was unclear how many other countries are willing to do what mostly US warships have done in recent days — shoot down Houthi missiles and drones, and rush to the aid of commercial ships under attack.
A European diplomat whose country will take part in the task force said the idea of the operation was for participating nations’ ships to shoot down missiles and drones and accompany vessels through the Red Sea.
A US military official who spoke on condition of anonymity played down the idea that naval ships would escort commercial vessels, given that hundreds normally travel the route daily, but said the US operation would position ships in areas where they could have the greatest security benefit.
IMPACT ON GLOBAL TRADE
BP’s decision to temporarily pause all transit through the Red Sea, and oil tanker group Frontline saying its vessels would avoid passage through the waterway, showed the crisis was broadening to include energy shipments. Crude oil prices rose on those concerns on Monday.
Shipping companies continued to reroute on Tuesday. Denmark’s Maersk, which had paused Red Sea shipping, said it would sail its ships around Africa until further notice.
Maersk said in a statement that the Red Sea task force was a “positive” development, but added that it was seeking more details on how it would work.
“With the line of impacted vessels building fast in the area, progressing with speed will be key for the coalition in order to minimize direct negative impact on global trade,” the statement said.
International firms said they were drawing up contingency plans. Sweden’s Electrolux said it had set up a task force to find alternative routes or identify priority deliveries if needed.
Many other ships were still plying the Red Sea. Several ships underway have armed guards on board, LSEG data showed.
Industry sources said the impact on global trade would depend on how long the crisis persists, but insurance premiums and longer routes would be immediate burdens.
Economic policymakers said it was too early to assess the broader financial impact, but the main concern was whether disruption would get serious enough to ignite a new round of global inflation, just as central banks are finally overcoming price pressures after the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 12 percent of world shipping traffic usually transits via the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, passing then as well into Red Sea waters off Yemen.
Normally, about 11,800 voyages are made each month through the Suez Canal — some 393 a day — according to a Reuters analysis of data from supply chain research firm Project44.
ATTACKS PERSIST, IRAN BLAMED
Austin said on Monday Iran was behind the Houthi attacks. Iran denies involvement but says it supports its Houthi allies.
The European diplomat said the task force aimed to send a strong signal to Iran and its proxies. “There is no doubt Houthis are acting on behalf of Iran,” they said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Houthis said the US-led security initiative would not deter them.
“Our position will not change in the direction of the Palestinian issue, whether a naval alliance is established or not,” Houthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam told Reuters, saying only Israeli ships or those going to Israel would be targeted.
“Our position in support of Palestine and the Gaza Strip will remain until the end of the siege, the entry of food and medicine, and our support for the oppressed Palestinian people will remain continuous.”
British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Tuesday it received information of a potential boarding attempt 71 nautical miles west of Yemen’s port of Aden, adding that the attack was unsuccessful and all crew were safe.
Many major Arab allies of the United States have so far declined to join the task force. Bahrain’s defense minister met Western counterparts to discuss maritime security, an official social media page said on Tuesday, but gave no other details.
The post US Launches Red Sea Force as Ships Reroute to Avoid Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove explores the curious case of a stamp from an imaginary land
This 1 V. postage revenue stamp from West Refaim was postmarked in Virikoso in South Giantsland 100 years ago. Problem is—none of these places ever existed. There is a second […]
The post Treasure Trove explores the curious case of a stamp from an imaginary land appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Israel Has Told ICC It Will Contest Arrest Warrants, Netanyahu Says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: ABIR SULTAN POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has informed the International Criminal Court that it will contest arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant over their conduct of the Gaza war, Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.
The office also said that US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham had updated Netanyahu “on a series of measures he is promoting in the US Congress against the International Criminal Court and against countries that would cooperate with it.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants last Thursday for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri, known as Mohammed Deif, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
The move comes after the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced on May 20 that he was seeking arrest warrants for alleged crimes connected to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza.
Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
“Israel today submitted a notice to the International Criminal Court of its intention to appeal to the court, along with a demand to delay the execution of the arrest warrants,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Court spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah told journalists that if requests for an appeal were submitted it would be up to the judges to decide
The court’s rules allow for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that would pause or defer an investigation or a prosecution for a year, with the possibility of renewing that annually.
After a warrant is issued the country involved or a person named in an arrest warrant can also issue a challenge to the jurisdiction of the court or the admissibility of the case.
The post Israel Has Told ICC It Will Contest Arrest Warrants, Netanyahu Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Girls Attacked in London With Glass Bottles in Antisemitic Outrage
Shomrim officers at the scene of a hate crime in London in which Jewish girls were struck with glass bottles. Photo: Shomrim Stamford Hill/Screenshot
A group of young Jewish girls were the victims of an “abhorrent hate crime” when a man hurled glass bottles at them from a balcony as they were walking through the Stamford Hill section of London on Monday evening.
One of the girls was struck in the head and rushed to the hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, according to local law enforcement.
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the Woodberry Down Estate in the city’s borough of Hackney following reports of an assault on Monday evening at 7:44 pm local time.
“A group of schoolgirls had been walking through the estate when a bottle was thrown from the upper floor of a building,” the spokesperson said. “A 16-year-old girl was struck on the head and was taken to hospital. Her injuries have since been assessed as non-life changing.”
Police noted they were unable to locate the suspect and an investigation is ongoing before adding, “The incident is being treated as a potential antisemitic hate crime.”
Following the incident, Shomrim, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and serves as a neighborhood watch group, reported that the girls were en route to a rehearsal for an upcoming event. The community, the group added, was “shocked” by the attack on “innocent young Jewish girls,” calling it an “abhorrent hate crime.”
14-year-old girl rushed to Hospital with head & facial injuries following an attack in #StamfordHill.
Young Jewish girls on their way to a rehearsal were pelted with glass bottles by a male on a balcony at Woodberry Down Estate N4.
This… pic.twitter.com/MzHPHusgyX
— Shomrim (London North & East) (@Shomrim) November 26, 2024
Since then, another Jewish girl, age 14, has reported being pelted with a hard object which caused her to be “knocked unconscious, and left feeling dizzy and with a bump on her head,” according to Shomrim.
Monday’s crime was one among many which have targeted London Jews in recent years, an issue The Algemeiner has reported on extensively.
Last December, an Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted by a man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, two attackers brutally mauled a Jewish woman, and a group of Jewish children was berated by a woman who screamed “I’ll kill all of you Jews. You are murderers!” A similar incident occurred when a man confronted a Jewish shopper and shouted, “You f—king Jew, I will kill you!”
Months prior, a perpetrator stalked and assaulted an Orthodox Jewish woman. He followed her, shouting “dirty Jew” before snatching her shopping bag and “spilling her shopping onto the pavement whilst laughing.” That incident followed a woman wielding a wooden stick approaching a Jewish woman near the Seven Sisters area and declaring “I am doing it because you are Jew,” while striking her over the head and pouring liquid on her. The next day, the same woman — described by an eyewitness as a “serial racist” — chased a mother and her baby with a wooden stick after spraying liquid on the baby. That same week, three people accosted a Jewish teenager and knocked his hat off his head while yelling “f—king Jew.”
According to an Algemeiner review of Metropolitan Police Service data, 2,383 antisemitic hate crimes occurred in London between October 2023 and October 2024, eclipsing the full-year totals of 550 in 2022 and 845 in 2021. The problem is so serious that city officials created a new bus route to help Jewish residents “feel safe” when they travel.
“Jewish Londoners have felt scared to leave their homes,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan told The Jewish Chronicle in a statement about the policy decision earlier this year. “So, this direct bus link between these two significant communities [Stamford Hill in Hackney and Golders Green in Barnet, areas with two of the biggest Jewish communities in London] means you can travel on the 310, not need to change, and be safe and feel safer. I hope that will lead to more Londoners from these communities using public transport safely.”
Khan added that the route “connects communities, connects congregations” and would reassure Jewish Londoners they would be “safe when they travel between these two communities.”
However, it doesn’t solve the problem at hand — an explosion of antisemitism unlike anything seen in the Western world since World War II. Just this week, according to a story by GB News, an unknown group scattered leaflets across the streets of London which threatened that “every Zionist needs to leave Britain or be slaughtered.”
Responding to this latest incident, the director of the Jewish civil rights group StandWithUs UK Isaaz Zarfati told GB News that the comments should be taken “seriously.”
“We are witnessing a troubling trend of red lines being repeatedly crossed,” he said. “This is not just another wave that will pass if we remain passive. We must take those threats and statement seriously because they will one day turn into actions, and decisive steps are needed to combat this alarming phenomenon.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Girls Attacked in London With Glass Bottles in Antisemitic Outrage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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