Yemen’s Huthis say freed detained ship’s crew after Gaza truce

SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels said on Wednesday they had released the detained crew of the ship Galaxy Leader, held since November 2023, after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire came into effect.

The Huthi supreme council “has announced the freeing of the crew of the Galaxy Leader, who were arrested on November 19, 2023 during the campaign in solidarity with Gaza”, the rebel Saba news agency said.

It added that the release came “in support of the ceasefire” in Gaza which began on Sunday.

At the start of their anti-shipping campaign, helicopter-borne rebels stormed the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier, and detained its 25 international crew members.

Seventeen of the Galaxy Leader’s crew are from the Philippines.

Saba said the crew were released “in coordination with Hamas” and with the help of the Gulf state of Oman.

The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader is operated by a Japanese firm but has links to Israeli businessman Abraham “Rami” Ungar.

The rebels later opened the ship as an attraction for Yemeni tourists who were invited to visit the captured vessel, which was by then flying Yemeni and Palestinian flags off the rebel-held province of Hodeida.

Among the ships targeted in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden were vessels the rebels believed were linked to Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Part of Iran’s “axis of resistance”, the Huthis have also repeatedly launched missile and drone attacks on Israel since the war in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

On Tuesday, the Huthis said that during the Gaza ceasefire they would limit their Red Sea attacks to vessels linked to Israel.

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