Oil climbed more than 2% on Tuesday to its highest level in December, as further attacks on ships in the Red Sea prompted fears of shipping disruptions. Crude oil rose on Tuesday following the latest strike by Yemen's Houthis on a container ship in the Red Sea. Yesterday, crude oil booked its biggest gain in over a week, according to Bloomberg, following the news that the Houthis had struck a container vessel owned by MSC and bound for Pakistan, traveling from Saudi Arabia. The attack took place despite the increased military presence of U.S. and U.K. forces in the area after the U.S. announced Operation Prosperity Guardian last week. Several other countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Norway, and Denmark, pulled out of the coalition, saying they would not serve under U.S. command but only under NATO command.
Swiss shipping giant MSC confirmed one of its container vessels was targeted by Houthis in Yemen on Tuesday as it transited the Red Sea en route from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan. The group's naval forces carried out "a targeting operation against the commercial ship, MSC United VIII, with appropriate naval missiles," the Houthi Armed Forces spokesman Yahya Sare'e said Tuesday in a post on X. MSC confirmed the incident in a news release, saying the United sought assistance from a nearby coalition task force warship and undertook evasive maneuvers as directed and that none of its crew were hurt.
On Wednesday, the Houthi group abducted a number of citizens in the central Yemeni governorate of Al-Bayda, local sources said. The group raided the village of "Al-Masmaq" in the Al-Taffah district of Al-Bayda governorate yesterday and kidnapped several residents, according to the sources. The kidnapping of the residents coincided with the funeral procession of a resident named Saad Mohammed. The sources indicated the group kidnapped approximately 25 individuals, claiming that Houthi authorities wanted them.
Israeli forces pummelled central Gaza by land, sea and air on Wednesday, and a telecommunications outage in much of the enclave hit efforts to reach Palestinian casualties after Israel's military chief said the war on Hamas would grind on for months. Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the 11-week-old war would last "many months" and there were no "magic solutions" or "shortcuts." Israel's military on Wednesday reported three more soldiers killed in action in Gaza, bringing total military losses in the enclave since ground operations began on Oct. 20 to 166. Nearly 21,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes, according to Gaza's health ministry.
