Denmark’s Maersk said on Tuesday it would continue to suspend all cargo shipments through the Red Sea following a weekend attack on one of its ships. Maersk on Sunday suspended its Red Sea navigation for 48 hours after Iran-backed Houthis attempted to board the Maersk Hangzhou ship, but U.S. military helicopters ultimately repelled the attack and the militants 10 people died.
In November, the Houthis, who control parts of Yemen after years of civil war, launched attacks on international ships sailing through the Red Sea, saying they were responding to Israeli attacks on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
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Major shipping groups such as Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are abandoning the Red Sea route and instead using long-haul routes around the Cape of Good Hope.
Israeli forces attacked Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday with tank shelling and airstrikes, residents said, while Israeli ground forces and Hamas militants fought in other areas of the shattered Palestinian enclave.
Major shipping groups, including container giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, last month stopped using the Red Sea route and the Suez Canal, instead switching to long-distance routes around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope.
Israel says its forces have killed dozens of militants in northern Gaza over the past day. Residents said Israeli tanks shelled parts of the central Albrai refugee camp. The Gaza Health Ministry said 207 people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of Palestinian deaths recorded in nearly three months of fighting in the Hamas-controlled enclave to more than 22,000.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said the operation in the south around Khan Yunis was focused on areas above a network of tunnels where Hamas leaders are believed to be hiding.
“We are reaching out to them in every possible way. There is already an engagement going on and, sadly, there are also hostages,” he told Gaza troops in footage broadcast on Israeli television. Ta. “This will continue as a focused effort in the heart of Khan Yunis,” he said.
The fighting comes after Israel announced plans to withdraw some troops, signaling a new phase in its war with Hamas. Israeli shelling has reduced much of the territory to rubble, engulfing the country’s 2.3 million people in a humanitarian disaster and pushing thousands into poverty.
Officials say Israel plans to defend itself before the United Nations against accusations of involvement in a genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but Israel is often accused of being biased against international bodies. Japan’s involvement with a world organization is unprecedented.