Editorial | Houthi headache must be tackled forcefully

The incessant assault on Gaza by Israel’s military risks destabilising the region, given the inexcusable number of civilian deaths among Palestinians in the enclave.

Israel may have had the high moral ground when it launched retaliatory action against Hamas in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks on its territory. But now, Israel has overreached.

There is no justification for the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and the siege on Gaza that is leaving hundreds of thousands more, hungry, thirsty, sick and unable to access basic sanitary and health services.

Israel risks pushing its allies and new friends it had gained in the region to the brink of rejection with its senseless action that continues to claim innocent lives. Israel is playing into the hands of Hamas with its scorched earth policy. It is evident that part of the militant group’s strategy when attacking Israel was to disrupt the rapprochement between Israel and Arab countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. These relationships are now on hold.

And if the instability caused by the Gaza conflict was not enough, we now have the Houthi rebels in Yemen waging a war of harassment on merchant ships passing through the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.

The Houthis claim they are targeting ships with some form of connection with Israel as a show of support for Hamas. The reality is that the tensions in the Red Sea are not helping the Palestinians’ cause and only serve to distract the world’s attention from what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

But the targeting of merchant ships in the Red Sea with missiles, drones and militiamen on speedboats has caused jitters in global trade and some of the large shipping companies have ordered vessels to reroute. This means lengthier journeys around the southern tip of Africa, higher fuel costs and heftier insurance premiums. The higher costs if the situation persists will eventually work their way into consumer and producer prices, contributing to a fresh bout of inflation.

Although the disruption so far has not upended world trade, the price of crude oil has edged upwards. The risk that world trade takes a direct hit as a result of the Houthis’ actions is real.

About 12% of world shipping traffic passes up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal, making it an important waterway that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean.

The world already had a taste of the disruption an incident in the area can cause when in March 2021, the Suez Canal was blocked for six days by the Ever Given, a container ship that had run aground in the canal.

The last thing the world needs right now is trouble on one of the key global trade routes, which is why the threat posed by the Houthis cannot be ignored. The rebel group’s actions are a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security and have to be addressed forcefully.

The US is leading an international naval military mission in the Red Sea to protect ships passing through the area from Houthi attacks.

One can only hope that the presence of warships from different nations in the region may deter more attacks. The security operation is likely to heighten tensions in the region but it is important that the Red Sea trade route remains functional.