Yemen's Houthi rebels signal that they've stopped attacks on Israel and
Red Sea shipping
[November 11, 2025]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels are signaling
they’ve stopped their attacks against Israel and shipping in the Red Sea
as a shaky ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip.
In an undated letter to Hamas’ Qassam Brigades published online by the
group, the Houthis offered their clearest signal that their attacks have
halted.
“We are closely monitoring developments and declare that if the enemy
resumes its aggression against Gaza, we will return to our military
operations deep inside the Zionist entity, and we will reinstate the ban
on Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas,” the letter from Maj.
Gen. Yusuf Hassan al-Madani, the Houthi military's chief of staff,
reads.
The Houthis have not offered any formal acknowledgment their campaign in
the region has halted.
Israel's military, which has launched attacks killing senior Houthi
leaders, declined to comment Tuesday when reached by The Associated
Press. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened in September to
hit the Houthis “sevenfold” for attacks targeting Israel following a
drone attack on Eilat that wounded 22 people.
The Houthis gained international prominence during the Israel-Hamas war
with their attacks on shipping and Israel, which they said were aimed at
forcing Israel to stop fighting. Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10,
no attacks have been claimed by the rebel group.
While the Houthis insisted their campaign targeted Israel-affiliated
vessels, the ships attacked have had limited — if any — relationship to
the Israel-Hamas war.
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The campaign has killed at least nine mariners and seen four ships
sunk. It upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1
trillion of goods passed each year before the war. The rebels’ most
recent attack hit the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Minervagracht on
Sept. 29, killing one crew member on board and wounding another.
The attacks greatly disrupted transits through Egypt's Suez Canal,
which links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The canal remains one
of the top providers of hard currency for Egypt, providing it $10
billion in 2023 as its wider economy struggles. The International
Monetary Fund in July said the Houthi attacks “reduced foreign
exchange inflows from the Suez Canal by $6 billion in 2024.”
While traffic has inched up recently in the lull in attacks, many
shippers continue to go around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope to
avoid the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The U.S. launched an intense bombing campaign targeting the rebels
earlier this year that President Donald Trump halted just before his
trip to the Mideast. The Biden administration also conducted strikes
against the Houthis, including using America's B-2 bombers to target
what it described as underground bunkers used by the Houthis.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and
taken dozens of workers at U.N. agencies and other aid groups as
prisoners, alleging without evidence that they were spies —
something fiercely denied by the U.N. and others.
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