Who are the Houthi rebels and what do they want? Israeli cargo ship seized in the Red Sea

Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, Yemen's Houthi group has allegedly seized an India-bound cargo ship, the Nippon Yusen-operated Galaxy Leader. The rebel group allegedly said that the cargo ship was Israeli which was why they took control of it. However, Al Jazeera reported that Israel denied these claims and stated that the cargo was British-owned and operated by the Japanese. They also said that no Israelis were present on board the ship.

The Yemen group reportedly seized the cargo on November 19, 2023, in the Red Sea. They also released a warning stating that all the vessels linked to Israel would become a legitimate target for the armed forces.

A spokesperson for the group, Yahya Saree, shared a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

"Houthi forces would continue to carry out military operations against the Israeli enemy until the aggression against Gaza stops and the ugly crimes … against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank stop," he said in the statement.

The Houthi group, also known as Ansar Allah, are a group of Zaydi Shi'as in Yemen. Zaydis are a minority in Islam and they founded the group in the 1990s to revive their religious traditions. Feeling threatened by efforts to promote different leaders in their areas, some Zaydis, including influential families, joined the movement to protect their beliefs from political and religious marginalization in Yemen.

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Why did Houthi seize the cargo ship inbound to India?

According to the statement released by the spokesperson of the group, the Houthi rebels seized the cargo ship as they were revolting against Israel and for the oppression on Gaza to be stopped.

Yahya Sare also said the seizure was done in response to "heinous acts" against their Palestinian brothers in Gaza and the West Bank.

According to The Guardian, the Israeli military took to X to react to the hijacking of the ship, calling it a "global incident of global consequence."

"The ship departed Turkey on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis. It is not an Israeli ship," they wrote on the social media platform.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke about the act in a statement, which was translated by Google, according to CNBC.

"This is another act of Iranian terrorism which expresses a leap forward in Iran’s aggression against the citizens of the free world, and creates international implications regarding the security of global shipping lanes," Netanyahu said.

According to The Guardian, the leader of the Yemen rebels, Abdul Malik al-Huthi, announced on November 14, 2023, that the group was actively monitoring and searching for vessels. They claimed to be looking for vessels in the strategically important Red Sea, regardless of whether they displayed Israeli flags. He made this statement during a broadcast on the rebels' Al-Masirah TV station.