Yemen's Houthi rebels signal that they've stopped attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping

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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.

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.