traffic has dropped since the Iran-aligned Houthi militia began targeting ships in November 2023 in what the group says are attacks in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel in the Gaza war.
Killing random innocent civilians in solidarity with the Palestinians 😎 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸
Both of the ships that were attacked flew Liberia flags and were operated by Greek firms.
Some of the sister vessels in each of their wider fleets have made calls to Israeli ports in the past year, shipping data analysis shows.
…
The crew comprised 21 Filipinos and one Russian.
Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who was one of those rescued.
This isn’t a targeted attack on Israel at all, it looks to be a somewhat random attack on trade in the region. I find this despicable, though I certainly support Palestinians over Israelis in this conflict due to the brutality against citizens of the former by the latter.
This isn’t how you draw anyone to your cause, this is just terrorism.
I think it has to do with this part in your quote:
Some of the sister vessels in each of their wider fleets have made calls to Israeli ports in the past year, shipping data analysis shows.
This is exactly what happened. They are paying close attention to where these ships go, what they haul, who own them, etc. Now that it is known it is dangerous to be a shipping vessel going to Israel these companies are going to do what they can to obfuscate shipping to Israel in response. So on the surface it will look like they hit a ship with cargo for elsewhere, but they are actually part of a fleet moving cargo into Israel.
