Maritime traffic through the Red Sea — the vital waterway carrying goods from Asia to Europe — had already fallen by nearly 80% when Yemen's Houthi rebels and Israel escalated their spillover conflict from the Gaza war last weekend.
On Friday, the Iran-backed Houthi militia attacked the Israeli city of Tel Aviv from more than 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) to the south, killing one person. Israel retaliated a day later with its first-ever airstrikes on Yemen's port city of Hodeida, which the Houthis control, killing six people and wounding 83 others, the Health Ministry in Yemen said.
Last year, the Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, forcing shipping lines to reroute their vessels via southern Africa.
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Despite the risk, some ships are still opting for the Red Sea route, with dozens of vessels still traversing the waterway that, at its narrowest point, is only 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) wide. The website marinetraffic.com showed more than a dozen ships moving along the Red Sea, with many more in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south of Yemen and Oman.
"It was larger, international container ships that were being targeted [by the Houthis]," Emily Stausboll, a senior shipping analyst at the Denmark-based Xaneta consultancy, told DW. "Smaller, regional vessels haven't been fired at to the same extent."
Stausboll said despite the risk of attack,........