Once thought a haven from Israeli strikes, a Christian town in Lebanon is now a scene of carnage

LEBANON HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF

Matt Bradley and Ziad Jaber and Alexander Smith
Sat, October 19, 2024 

AITOU, Lebanon — The scene of carnage in northern Lebanon showed heartbreaking snippets of everyday family life.

A dead baby inside a destroyed pickup truck; a child’s severed arm buried in nearby rubble; toddler clothing and books shredded; flies swarming as officials collected body parts, some too small for body bags ending up in clear ziplock bags.

Pervading everything, the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh mixed with concrete dust at the scene where 23 people including two children were killed, according to local officials.

This was the aftermath of an airstrike Monday on the Lebanese Christian village of Aitou that Israel said had targeted a position held by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

Until then, this region of hilly olive groves and winding, sea-view roads had been a relative haven, one that felt far away from the war dominating Beirut and the country’s south.

Just last week, the area “was calm; everything was quiet,” Illy Edwan told NBC News as he surveyed the wreckage of his villa, which was reduced to rubble in the blast, its insulation and inner structure ripped to pieces, an adjacent vehicle twisted open like a burnt pretzel.

“My house used to be three-story, but look at it today,” he added.

Illy Edwan, whose villa in Aitou, Lebanon, was destroyed in the blast.

Surrounding homes had glass and twisted metal strewn across their patios. Some nearby olive trees, laden with fruit ahead of the upcoming harvest, were also destroyed, their green leaves covered in gray soot from the explosion.

Hezbollah doesn’t usually have a presence here. But Edwan, who was not at home at the time of the bombing, said an official from the group had been visiting houses donating money to displaced people, some of whom had fled from southern Lebanon to escape the Israeli invasion, and asking about their concerns.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it had struck “a target belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in northern Lebanon,” and that the reports of civilian casualties were “under review” and “being examined.”

Calling for “a prompt, independent and thorough investigation,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said Tuesday that his organization had “real concerns” about the strike with respect to the “laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality.”

Since Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas launched its terror attacks on Israel, in which officials say 1,200 people were killed and around 240 were taken hostage, Hezbollah has been firing rockets and other projectiles into northern Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group. Israel’s offensive in Gaza since then has killed more than 42,000 people, according to health officials in the enclave.

Pages from a children’s book are strewn across the wreckage following an Israeli strike in Aitou, northern Lebanon, on Tuesday.

And for months, as the pair traded tit-for-tat attacks, more than 60,000 people were displaced from their homes in northern Israel, according to government tallies — and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers cited this as the reason for launching a military campaign into southern Lebanon last month.

More than 2,300 people, including 127 children, have been killed in Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack and an estimated 1.2 million have been displaced, according to Lebanese officials. A large number of these left their homes after Israel began its widespread bombing on Sept. 17, when pagers belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded across the country.

Since then, the Lebanese have suffered “the worst humanitarian crisis in decades,” the U.N.’s humanitarian office said in a statement Tuesday.

Lebanese people are “fleeing with almost nothing,” said Rema Jamous Imseis, Middle East director of the U.N.’s refugee office, adding that they were “being forced out into the open, they’re sleeping under the skies as they try to find their way towards safety and support.”

Some are choosing an unlikely route.

The port of Tripoli, 10 miles from Aitou, isn’t known for its beauty, much less its accommodations for civilian passengers. The grimy industrial hub is soundtracked by the banging of heavy machinery and creaking 40-foot containers being unloaded from ships docked here.

Still, hundreds of people are now turning to the city as one of the only ways to escape their homeland. Since Sept. 20, this previously passengerless terminal has launched seven ships to the southern Turkish port of Mersin, each vessel carrying up to 300 passengers paying $350 a head.

“People are scared, so they leave the airports and come to us, to the ships here,” said Mohamed Youssef, 57, the owner of a ship. “Everyone is exhausted, and the situation is very complicated,” he added. “So whoever can afford it travels. They travel however they can. If they can’t, they will remain in Lebanon.”

Emergency responders move a body bag following an Israeli strike in Aitou, Lebanon, on Tuesday.

It is a diverse exodus, evidenced by dusty vehicles from the 1990s alongside shiny Range Rovers and Porsches. While some wore smiles while completing their bureaucratic stamp work, for others the reality of their impending journey began to set in.

Nermin Khair, 28, said she had no plans to return with her daughter, Sandy, 3, and is temporarily leaving behind her husband, who said he will try to join her in a month’s time.

“It is my country but it makes us tired,” she said. “We left everything: We left our dreams, we left our stuff, we left everything here — my sisters, my brothers, everyone here.”

Her husband, Bashar Hanouf, 33, held his daughter’s hand as she and her mother walked the gangplank up to the waiting vessel. It’s up to him to figure out how, and when, he’ll get to see them again.

“I hate Lebanon. Every year we have a new situation,” he said. The family, he added, “is looking for a better life for my wife, my daughter. We have to.”

Matt Bradley and Ziad Jaber reported from Aitou and Alexander Smith from London.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Some Lebanese Americans endorse Harris, expect more Lebanon support

Andrea Shalal
Updated Fri, October 18, 2024 

Vice President Kamala Harris departs from Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids


By Andrea Shalal

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (Reuters) -Some prominent Lebanese Americans on Friday endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president, saying in a letter that the U.S. had been "unrelenting" in its support for Lebanon under the Biden administration and they expect additional backing if Harris wins in November.

The endorsement came amid ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon that have killed at least 2,350 people over the last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with more than 1.2 million people displaced. Militant group Hezbollah has also fired on Israel and about 50 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed.

Signatories include former members of Congress Donna Shalala and Toby Moffett, former President Barack Obama's onetime transportation secretary Ray LaHood, academics, CEOs and investors.

A number of Arab Americans and Muslims are abandoning the Democratic Party over the Biden administration's support for Israel in its war with Hamas.

More than 42,000 Palestinians have died in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, health officials in the enclave say. The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others.

Some Arab Americans and Muslims have declined to endorse Harris, while others are backing her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, or third-party candidate Jill Stein of the Green Party.

The letter was organized by Ed Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon, a Washington policy group, in his personal capacity. Gabriel is one of several Arab American and Muslim leaders who met with Harris when she visited Flint, Michigan, on Oct. 4.

The signers wrote they had been reassured that their concerns about the violence in Lebanon and the need for economic and political reforms would be supported if Harris wins the Nov. 5 election. Her views stood in "stark" contrast to Trump, they wrote, without elaboration.

Trump's campaign had no immediate comment, but a source close to the campaign said it planned more outreach events in Michigan next week. Trump also stopped by a campaign headquarters in Hamtramck, a suburb of Detroit, on Friday.

Trump has called Israel's attacks on Lebanon "unacceptable," but has not laid out any strategy. His affiliates are trying to win Arab American votes, with the help of Lebanese American businessman Massad Boulos, whose son is married to Trump's daughter Tiffany.

"The Lebanese people have suffered terribly from the loss of innocent lives and massive displacement of families and one of the worst economic disasters in the world caused by wide-spread corruption. They cannot afford another long drawn out war that further destroys Lebanon," the letter said, as it called for a ceasefire.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Rod Nickel and Leslie Adler)

Lebanon: One war too many

Issued on: 18/10/2024 - 

It’s the deadliest conflict in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war. The current war between Hezbollah and Israel has set the whole country ablaze. The provisional death toll on the Lebanese side stands at more than 2,300, with 11,000 wounded, while thousands more are missing. The violence of the Israeli strikes has also provoked a mass exodus of the population: some 1.2 million people already have been forced to leave their homes, or a fifth of the population. Our Lebanon correspondents Chloé Domat and Sophie Guignon report.

It all began the day after October 7, 2023, when Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese ally, opened a second front in northern Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. For 10 months, clashes occurred almost daily, but remained contained along the border between the two countries. But everything accelerated in September, when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced the opening of a second front "in the north of Israel".

In mid-September, several thousand Hezbollah fighters across Lebanon were hit by pager explosions, followed by walkie-talkie blasts. These unprecedentedly sophisticated attacks were attributed to Israel and were the prelude to massive air strikes in the south of the country, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated. But the escalation did not stop there. On October 1, Israel launched a “limited” ground operation in the south of the country.

Whatever they think of Hezbollah, the lives of all Lebanese have been turned upside down. Everyday life has come to a standstill, in a country that has already experienced so many wars and whose economy is on its knees, while the population has barely recovered from the devastating Beirut port blast of August 2020. This new conflict recalls past traumatic episodes: from the long 1975-1990 civil war to the 34-day conflict in the summer of 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel.

Our reporters Chloé Domat and Sophie Guignon went to meet Rania, a mother watching the bombardments from her balcony; Ali, a doctor at the public hospital; and Jaafar, a vegetable seller who has lost his home.

WARPORN

Videos Show Houthi Attack on Tanker and Attempt to Explode Bomb Boat

Explosion after tanker is hit by drone boat (Houthis)

Published Oct 3, 2024 6:27 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

Videos were released showing the two sides of the attack on the tanker Cordelia Moon (163,288 dwt), from the perspective of the Houthis which launched a drone boat, and the security guards aboard the vessel attempting in vain to destroy the bomb boat. The crude oil tanker, which was empty and heading north in the Red Sea to Suez, is damaged but continuing to move away from the danger.

The Houthi took responsibility for targeting the tanker which they called a British vessel saying they unleashed a barrage including eight ballistic and “winged” missiles, a drone, and finally an uncrewed surface boat. The attack on October 1 commenced while the vessel, which is registered in Panama, was approximately 64 nautical miles north of Hudaydah, Yemen.

 

 

The captain reported seeing four splashes in the water. About 30 minutes later the ship spotted a drone boat approaching on its port side. The video obtained by well-known commentator Sal Mercogliano shows the armed guard aboard firing at the boat but failing to explore it or disable it. It makes contact puncturing the number six ballast tank. Later videos obtained by Mercogliano show the wet decks from the blast and the ship apparently attempting to disperse vapors by spraying water over the side from fire hoses.

From a distance, the Houthis video shows the boat approaching and making contact. The power of the explosion is seen from the smoke and plume. 

 

 

The Cordelia Moon, managed from India, reported it was continuing its trip. Its AIS signal shows it has traveled north to a point near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The signal indicates it will continue its trip to Suez. There is a shipyard in Suez that previously performed emergency repairs on a bulker that was hit by a Houthi rocket that left a large hole in the hull above the waterline.

Releasing the video today the Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree vowed the attacks would continue until the assaults on Gaza and Lebanon stopped. The Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in a video-taped address said the group has now targeted a total of 188 vessels while also vowing to continue the attacks.

The UK Maritime Trade Operation which monitors activity in the region numbered the attacks on Tuesday on the Cordelia Moon and a bulker as the 124 and 125 incident of 2024.

Russia Strikes Cargo Ship in Ukrainian Port of Yuzhny

In this infrared video frame taken by a Russian aircraft, an Iskander missile (black streak) approaches vessel at Ukrainian port of Yuzhny

Published Oct 6, 2024 8:17 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

A Russian missile strike damaged a civilian vessel at the port of Yuzhny, Ukraine overnight Saturday, according to Ukrainian state media and the Russian ministry of defense. 

The attack on the ship reportedly involved an Iskander-M missile. In hazy infrared UAV footage captured at the scene, the missile is shown approaching the target, followed by a large blast. Russian state media claimed that the video showed a secondary explosion of a cargo of ammunition. 

Russia claimed that the vessel was carrying a cargo of European-origin armament for the Ukrainian military. 

The name of the vessel was not disclosed, but the head of the Odesa region, Oleg Kiper, confirmed that no crewmembers aboard the ship had been injured. It was the third Russian attack on a civilian vessel in the Black Sea region in a month (though a previous strike may well have been accidental).

In simultaneous strikes, Russian drones damaged a gas pipeline, cargo trucks and a warehouse buildings. The attack went on for hours and involved about 90 drones in multiple waves. Targets in Kyiv were also hit in the same attack. 

One warehouse security guard was injured in the UAV attack and was hospitalized.  

Russian forces have repeatedly struck Ukrainian-bound shipping, but not always intentionally, according to UK military intelligence. A September 11 strike on the bulker Aya was "almost certainly" a mistake, according to UK Defence Intelligence. The vessel was hit by an AS-4 anti-ship missile launched by a Russian bomber and was likely the victim of "poor targeting procedures from Russian pilots." The bomber was likely attempting to hit a ground target along Ukraine's coastline or on Snake Island, but ended up striking the Aya instead. It is

Lebanese Doctor Races to Save the Eyes of Those Hurt by Exploding Tech Devices

Elias Jaradeh, a legislator and an ophthalmologist, left, who has conducted dozens of operation for victims of this week's attack in Lebanon, makes an eye surgery operation for a man who was injured in the explosion of one of the handheld devices, at the Eye Specialist hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024

. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Asharq Al Awsat
23 September 2024 

AD ـ 20 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1446 AH


For almost a week, ophthalmologist Elias Jaradeh has worked around the clock, trying to keep up with the flood of patients whose eyes were injured when pagers and walkie-talkies exploded en masse across Lebanon.

He has lost track of how many eye operations he has performed in multiple hospitals, surviving on two hours of sleep before starting on the next operation. He has managed to save some patients’ sight, but many will never see again.

“There is no doubt that what happened was extremely tragic, when you see this overwhelming number of people with eye injures arriving at the same time to the hospital, most of them young men, but also children and young women,” he told The Associated Press at a Beirut hospital this past week, struggling to hold back tears.

Lebanese hospitals and medics were inundated after thousands of hand-held devices belonging to the Hezbollah militant group detonated simultaneously on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, killing at least 39 people. Around 3,000 more were wounded, some with life-altering disabilities. Israel is widely believed to have been behind the attack, although it has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Although the explosions appear to have targeted Hezbollah fighters, many of the victims were civilians. And many of those hurt in the attack suffered injuries to their hands, face and eyes because the devices received messages just before they detonated, so they were looking at the devices as they exploded.

Authorities have not said how many people lost their eyes.

Veteran and hardened Lebanese eye doctors who have dealt with the aftermath of multiple wars, civil unrest and explosions, said they have never seen anything like it.
Jaradeh, who is also a lawmaker representing south Lebanon as a reformist, said most of the patients sent to his hospital, which specializes in ophthalmology, were young people who had significant damage to one or both eyes. He said he found plastic and metal shrapnel inside some of their eyes.

Four years ago, a powerful blast tore through Beirut’s port, killing more than 200 people and wounding more than 6,000. That explosion, caused by the detonation of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrates that had been stored unsafely at a port warehouse, blew out windows and doors for miles around and sent cascades of glass shards pouring onto the streets, leading to horrific injuries.

Jaradeh also treated people hurt in the port explosion, but his experience with those wounded by the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies has been so much more intense because of the sheer volume of people with eye injuries.

“Containing the shock after the Beirut port blast was, I believe, 48 hours while we haven’t reached the period of containing the shock now,” Jaradeh said.

Jaradeh said he found it hard to dissociate his job as a doctor from his emotions in the operating theater.

“No matter what they taught you (in medical school) about distancing yourself, I think in a situation like this, it is very hard when you see the sheer numbers of wounded. This is linked to a war on Lebanon and war on humanity,” Jaradeh said.

Can Lebanon’s battered economy survive a war between Israel and Hezbollah?

By — Kareem Chehayeb, Associated Press

Aug 26, 2024 


BEIRUT (AP) — The ferocious exchange of fire by Hezbollah and the Israeli military is raising fears of a regional war beyond the tense border.

The risks for Lebanon are far greater than in 2006, when a monthlong war with Israel ended in a draw. Lebanon has struggled with years of political and economic crises that left it indebted, without a stable electricity supply, a proper banking system and with rampant poverty.

And with Hezbollah’s military power significantly greater, there are concerns that a new war would be far more destructive and prolonged.

Can Lebanon afford any of it?

Planning for a 2006 war repeat — or worse

Since Hezbollah and Israel began firing rockets and drones at each other a day after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, the conflict has been mostly limited to border towns. But with the threat of a wider war, Lebanon has scrambled to equip hospitals with supplies and prepare public schools to open up to people seeking shelter.

A rare Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut last month that killed a top Hezbollah commander set off a flurry of meetings between humanitarian organizations and the Lebanese government, said Laila Al Amine, who heads the Beirut office of international relief organization Mercy Corps. It’s one of some 60 organizations helping the government with its relief efforts.

The government and U.N. agencies prepared a comprehensive response plan this month outlining two possible scenarios: a limited escalation that would resemble the 2006 war, with an estimated 250,000 people displaced, and a worst-case scenario of “uncontrolled conflict” that would displaced at least 1 million people.

The U.N.-drafted plan, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, projects a monthly cost of $50 million in case of a limited escalation and $100 million if an all-out war breaks out.

The Lebanese government said that funding for the emergency will come from creditors and humanitarian aid organizations. But the authorities have struggled to find money to care for 100,000 currently displaced and an estimated 60,000 people living in conflict areas, which is costing about $24 million a month.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, who is spearheading relief operations, told reporters after an emergency government meeting Sunday that the morning attacks won’t change the plan.

“It already presents scenarios of all the possibilities that could happen, among them is an expansion of the hostilities,” said Yassin.

Indebted and cash-strapped Lebanon desperate for aid money

Decades of corruption and political paralysis have left Lebanon’s banks barely functional, while electricity services are almost entirely in the hands of private diesel-run generator owners and fuel suppliers. Public service institutions rely on aid groups and international donors to function at a barebones level. Lebanese who once lived in relative comfort are receiving food and financial aid to survive.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic further battered the economy, and the Beirut port explosion flattened several neighborhoods in the heart of the capital. Lebanon’s banks and the ruling elite have resisted painful reforms as a condition for an International Monetary Fund bailout while the infrastructure continued to wither and living conditions worsened.

Tourism, which officials had relied on to help rebuild the economy, has also taken a hit since the border conflict with Israel.

And unlike in 2006, Lebanon is hosting more than 1 million Syrian refugees who fled the conflict in their country. Health Minister Firas Abiad told the AP earlier this month that the Lebanese health system is ill-equipped to treat the additional population in the event of an all-out war, as international funding for Syrian refugees continues to decline.

In April, Yassin said the country had only half the money needed to respond to the conflict and ensuing humanitarian needs.

Lebanon faces tougher logistics

In 2006, Israel bombed the runways of Lebanon’s only airport, putting it largely out of commission, and imposed an air and sea blockade. Its bombardment crippled critical infrastructure and flattened neighborhoods, with damage and losses worth $3.1 billion, according to the World Bank.

But aid groups eventually were able to send supplies through the country’s ports and at times through the airport using the remaining limited runway space. In their assessment of the war, the U.N. said that their relief efforts was not in response to a humanitarian crisis. “People did not die from poor sanitation, hunger or disease. They died from bombs and shells,” U.N. OCHA said in a report a month after the war.

Many Lebanese were able to flee to neighboring Syria, where an uprising in 2011 plunged the country into a civil war. It’s unclear how easy crossing the border would be this time, both for civilians and aid groups.

It is also unclear whether the Beirut port, still not fully rebuilt after the devastating blast in 2020, would have sufficient capacity in case of a wider war. Its damaged grain silos collapsed in 2022, and the country relies on minimal food storage due to the financial crisis.

“Lebanon apparently has stocks of food and fuel for two-three months, but what happens beyond this duration?” Al Amine said. “We only have one airport and we can’t transport things through our land borders. It would be difficult to bring items into the country.”
An empowered Hezbollah

In 2006, Hezbollah reportedly had some 15,000 rockets in its arsenal, “but more recent unofficial estimates suggest this number has multiplied by almost 10 times,” said Dina Arakji, associate analyst at U.K.-based risk consultancy firm Control Risks.

The group has also “acquired more advanced weaponry, including precision missiles and variants of Iranian arms, as well as Chinese and Russian weaponry,” she said.

Hezbollah, which relies on a network of Iran-backed allied groups that could enter the conflict, has also substantially expanded its drone arsenal and capabilities, against which Israeli air defenses are less effective.

Lebanese officials and international diplomats hope that an elusive cease-fire agreement in Gaza will bring to calm in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has said it will halt its attacks along the border if there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

Associated Press videographer Ali Sharafeddine contributed to this report.

Left: The Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand hotel is seen, with a general view visible in the background, in Beirut, Lebanon, August 19, 2024. Photo by Amr Alfiky/REUTERS

'SOUND TERROR'

Sonic booms – the psychological warfare Israel uses to sow fear in Lebanon

Since October 7, Israel has been using thunderous noise, triggering memories of Beirut’s devastating port explosion and spreading dread among the population.

An Israeli combat jet flies near the border with Lebanon on February 29, 2024 in northern Israel [Amir Levy/Getty Images]

By Mat Nashed
Published On 10 Aug 2024

Beirut, Lebanon – The first time Eliah Kaylough, 26, heard the thunderous blast, he was so terrified, he instinctively ran for cover. On Tuesday this week, he had just started his shift as a waiter at a restaurant on bustling Gemmayze Street in east Beirut when he was suddenly startled by the sound of a major blast.

For Kaylough, it immediately triggered memories of the massive port explosion in 2020 and he was terrified the city was either experiencing a new explosion or that it was under attack.

But as he was racing out of the restaurant, a man from a nearby shop stopped him and explained that Beirut wasn’t being bombed. The sound, Kaylough discovered, was a sonic boom, a thunderous noise caused by an object moving faster than the speed of sound.

Israeli jets have been increasingly triggering these sonic booms over Lebanon since October 7 last year, following the attack on southern Israel by Hamas. But the booms which sounded over Beirut on Tuesday were the loudest that had been heard in the city, several residents told Al Jazeera.

Kaylough said that it was the first time that he had heard one since Israel tends to launch sonic booms in other parts of the country and city.

“The sound was terrifying and I really thought we were under attack,” Kaylouh told Al Jazeera on Thursday evening at the restaurant, where he was back working a shift. “I remember putting on my hat and grabbing my bag and I was ready to close up shop.”

Since October, the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, and Israel have been engaged in a low-level conflict. On Friday, Israel stepped up its attacks, killing Hamas official Samer al-Hajj in a drone attack on the coastal city of Sidon, about 50km (30 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.

Throughout the Gaza war, however, Israel has been launching sonic booms by flying jets at low altitudes over Lebanon in an apparent effort to intimidate and terrify the population, analysts and residents told Al Jazeera.

“We are concerned about the reported use of sonic booms by Israeli aircrafts over Lebanon that has caused great fear among the civilian population,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Parties in armed conflict should not use methods of intimidation against a civilian population.”

Indeed, sonic booms heard earlier this week occurred just two days after the anniversary of the August 4, 2020 Beirut-port explosion, which devastated large swaths of Beirut, killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. The blast was caused by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of highly combustible ammonium nitrate was being stored.

Tuesday’s sonic boom was triggered just moments before Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was about to begin a speech. Last month, tensions between the foes escalated after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s senior commander, Fuad Shukr, in Lebanon and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital Tehran.

Civil defence workers extinguish a fire in a car after it was hit by an Israeli strike, killing a Hamas official, in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, on Friday, August 9, 2024 [Mohammed Zaatari/AP]

Systematic use of ‘sound terror’

The use of sonic booms is part of a broader trend of psychological warfare that Israel wages against the Lebanese population, according to Lawrence Abu Hamdan, a sound expert and the founder of Earshot, a nonprofit that conducts audio analysis to track human rights abuses and state violence.

Abu Hamdan said that since the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, which lasted 34 days and left 1,100 Lebanese nationals and 165 Israelis dead, Israel has routinely violated Lebanese airspace with its fighter jets to scare civilians.

“Since the truce of 2006, there have been more than 22,000 Israeli air violations of Lebanon. In 2020 alone, there were more than 2,000 [air violations] with no response from Hezbollah, Abu Hamdan told Al Jazeera.

Abu Hamdan believes that, since last October, Israel has also been using sonic booms as an “acoustic reminder that [Israel] can turn Lebanon into Gaza at any point”.

He said Israel’s increasing use of sonic booms reflects the escalation in conflict with Hezbollah over the past several months.

“There is an escalation and we are seeing that escalation in sound. The next phase to the escalation is, of course, material destruction,” Abu Hamdan said.

Beirut resident Rana Farhat, 28, said Israel’s scare tactics are having the desired effect. She heard the August 6 sonic booms while having dinner with her family at a restaurant in a town north of Beirut.

They were startled when they heard the sound of an explosion, but her parents tried to reassure her and her siblings that Beirut was not being attacked. Everyone quickly checked their phones to find out what was going on.

“We were all checking the news to see if it was an explosion or not,” Farhat, 28, said, while smoking shisha in a Beirut cafe on Thursday night. “There were little children in the restaurant and they were clearly scared. They don’t understand what such sounds mean.”

Recurring trauma

The murmur of fighter jets and other blast-like noises can re-traumatise populations that have survived previous explosions and wars, Abu Hamdan said.

Over the long term, recurring jet and blast sounds can even increase the risk of stroke and deplete calcium deposits in the heart, according to medical studies he cited.

“Once you have been exposed to [jet or blast] sounds that have produced the sort of fear that they have in this country, then whenever you hear it – even quietly – it will produce the same stress response [in an individual],” Abu Hamdan explained.

Kaylough said that the sonic booms he heard on Tuesday this week transported him back to the Beirut port explosion. That day, he was working in a mall when a sudden blast shattered the glass around him and blew the doors off the hinges of the store he was working in.

“The sound was so loud. I remember people were screaming, but I couldn’t hear them,” he told Al Jazeera.

After the initial shock, Kaylough felt a sudden pain and realised that a large piece of metal was wedged into his lower leg. He was rushed to hospital and eventually treated by doctors.

While Kaylough suffered no long-term physical injuries, he says the sonic booms are triggering the trauma he experienced that day.

“The [sound from] the sonic boom did take me back to the moment of the blast, but I’m just trying not to think about it,” he said.

Farhat said the sonic booms also remind her of the 2006 war.

At the time, her neighbourhood was not directly being hit, but she remembers watching coverage of the war on television with her parents. As a 10-year-old, she realised that the scenes of collapsed buildings and rubble she was seeing were being filmed just a short drive from her home.

She also recalls hearing the sound of Israeli fighter jets flying over Beirut to bomb the southern suburbs. While Farhat does not know if another war is looming over Beirut right now, she insisted that Israel’s scare tactics won’t compel her to leave her beloved city.

“They are just trying to scare us, but I take it as a sign of weakness,” she told Al Jazeera. “Whatever happens, I don’t want to leave home and I won’t. I was born here, raised here and I will stay here.”

Source: Al Jazeera

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France Unveils Latest Plan to Rebuild the Port of Beirut

Beirut's port was devastated by the 2020 explosion (Image courtesy Iran's Mehr News - CC BY 4.0)

PUBLISHED MAR 15, 2024 3:21 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

As Lebanon continues to seek to rebuild the Port of Beirut almost four years after the ammonium nitrate explosion, France has come forward with a new proposal. At a conference in Beirut this week, Lebanese and French officials revealed the port’s reconstruction and re-organization plan. 

The proposal aims to repair the damaged infrastructure, optimize the port layout for better traffic flow, and enable the transition to the use of solar power. However, the proposal does not address the rebuilding of the grain silos, which experienced the most impact during the blast.

Two French engineering firms, Artelia and Egis, were involved in the development of the plan through funding from the French government. Another French public agency Expertise France, conducted a study with recommendations on how to improve security at the Port of Beirut.

“The plan has been accepted and the port’s revenue will be used to finance the required investments,” Lebanon’s transport and public works minister Ali Hamie told the French newspaper Le Monde. 

Restoration of the state’s infrastructure destroyed during the explosion is estimated at $60 to 80 million. However, this cost rises to $140 million while accounting for private companies' infrastructure which was impacted, according to a 2021 assessment by USAID’s Middle East Economic Growth Project.

With the restoration costs expected to come from the port’s revenue, Director General of the Port of Beirut Omar Itani noted that there have been several positive changes after the disaster. He highlighted that revenues increased to nearly $150 million in 2023 from a low of $9 million in 2020. The number of containers handled also rose to 800,000 TEUs last year from around 600,000 TEUs in 2022. However, this is still low compared to the 1.2 million TEUs that the port handled in 2019 before the explosion.

France was among the first responders, with President Emmanuel Macron visiting the country on August 6, 2020, two days after the explosion. At the time, Macron promised to rally international players for financial support to the Lebanese people.

This week, the French ambassador to Lebanon Hervé Magro reiterated France’s support for Lebanon. “The Lebanese economy needs a port that has been rebuilt, modernized, and made safe. The French government has made the issue of the port a priority and one of the pillars of French cooperation with Lebanon,” said Magro.

In 2022, CMA Terminals, a subsidiary of the ocean carrier CMA CGM won a ten-year concession to run and manage the Port of Beirut’s container terminal. The firm pledged to invest $33 million in the terminal, focused mainly on replacing, renewing, and purchasing new equipment.

Besides France, Germany in 2021 also presented a comprehensive proposal to rebuild the port, in addition to redeveloping more than 100 hectares of the surrounding area, including residential developments. 

 ECOCIDE

Rubymar Sinks in Red Sea 13 Days After Houthi Attack Damaged Bulker

Rubymar was lost after remaining afloat for nearly two weeks (Government of Yemen on X)

PUBLISHED MAR 2, 2024 1:21 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

 

The bulker several damaged in a Houthi attack and abandoned by its crew finally succumbed to its damage reportedly sinking after having drifted since the February 18 attack. The government of Yemen issued a statement reporting the sinking of the Rubymar followed by an update to its previous reports from the UK Maritime Trade Operations.

The attack was reported to have taken place in the range of 15 to 25 nautical miles from the Yemeni port of Al-Mukha. The UKMTO in its statement confirmed the vessel had been dragging anchor. Previous analysis reported by Sky News calculated the vessel had drifted approximately 37 nautical miles north in the Red Sea. 

The Yemeni government statement said the vessel was lost as the weather deteriorated on March 1. Previously it was said the vessel was continuing to take on water and images released on Yemeni TV earlier in the week clearly showed that it was continuing to settle at the stern.  The BBC had published pictures a few days earlier showing the stern still above the water. Efforts to salvage the vessel and tow it to a port possibly in Djibouti or Saudi Arabia were hampered by the security situation in the Red Sea.

The government statement reported the bulker Rubymar registered in Belize was lost in a position about 11 miles from the nearest point of land in Yemen. It is unclear if any crew or authorities were at the ship when it was lost. The crew was evacuated immediately after the attack and taken to Djibouti where reports said they were flown home. 

 

 

“The Yemeni government holds the Houthi militia responsible for the environmental disaster, and the repercussions of its continued targeting of shipping,” the government said. They reiterated that the Rubymar was carrying 41,000 tons of fertilizer as well as oils and fuel. The U.S. Central Command a week ago highlighted an 18-mile oil slick formed behind the damaged ship.

The statement from the spokesperson from the Yemen government highlighted the danger coming from the phosphate and other dangerous chemicals saying it was likely an algae plum would form which could result in the death of the coral, kill marine animals, and possibly damage desalination plants in the region. They referred to the “recklessness and indifference to the catastrophic repercussions,” using the loss of the Rubymar to call for further international action against the militants.

The loss of the Rubymar would be the most significant casualty since the Houthi attacks began in November days after they seized the car carrier Galaxy Leader. UKMTO calculates a total of 55 commercial ships have been targeted by the Houthi. While they were also successful in causing a significant fire on the Marlin Luanda in late January, and multiple strikes on vessels, the 32,200 dwt Rubymar (564 feet/172 meters in length) would be the first vessel to sink. Reports have alternately linked it to UK ownership although the manager is based in Lebanon. 

While most of the leading shipping firms have diverted vessels away from the Red Sea region, many ships are still operating in the area. This week the Houthi leader Abdul-Maliks said “We have a big surprise that the enemies do not expect, and we will indeed start it." He wrote on social media of the “greater effectiveness” of the operations while the group has vowed to continue in support of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

British ship M/V Rubymar, crippled by Houthi strikes, sinks in Red Sea

Mike Heuer
Sat, March 2, 2024 

Cargo ship M/V Rubymar, carrying Ukrainian grain, is shown at anchor in the Black Sea in November 2022. The ship sank on Saturday after being crippled by Houthi attacks in February.

 File photo by Tolga Bozoglu/EPA-EFE

March 2 (UPI) -- The British bulk carrier M/V Rubymar, crippled by fire from Houthi rebels last month, sank in international waters in the Red Sea on Saturday, Yemeni government officials announced.

The ship's sinking "will cause an environmental catastrophe" affecting Yemen's territorial waters and the Red Sea, Yemen's ad hoc Crisis Management Cell said in a statement reported by Turkey's Anadolu Agency.

The vessel was carrying 41,000 tons of fertilizer, and its sinking raises worsens what the U.S. Central Command called an environmental disaster caused by the "unprovoked and reckless attack by Iran-backed Houthi terrorists."

The ship was attacked in a missile strike launched by Houthi militants on Feb. 18, which caused a large oil slick and concerns that its cargo of fertilizer would create a catastrophe.

The Rubymar took on water following the attack and was awaiting a tow to the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah before sinking overnight. Its crew had abandoned the ship following the missile attack.

The Houthi militants are based in Yemen and are targeting cargo ships owned or operated by Israeli firms or that are carrying supplies to or from Israel in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea since the onset of the war in Gaza.

Joint strikes by the United States and Britain against Houthi targets recently caused the Houthis to declare all British and U.S. ships to be legitimate targets for military action.

After the Rubymar was attacked, officials in and around the ports of Aden and Djibouti refused to accept it.

Oil spill, fertilizer leak from sinking of cargo ship highlight risks to Red Sea from Houthi attacks

JOSHUA GOODMAN
Sat, March 2, 2024 


In this satellite image provided by Planet Labs, the Belize-flagged bulk carrier Rubymar is seen in the southern Red Sea near the Bay el-Mandeb Strait leaking oil after an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. Despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. This week, they seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and apparently downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)More


MIAMI (AP) — A vibrant fishing industry, some of the world’s largest coral reefs, desalination plants supplying millions with drinking water. They're all at risk from large amounts of fertilizer and oil spilled into the Red Sea by the sinking of a cargo ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Officials on Saturday said the M/V Rubymar, a Belize-flagged vessel reportedly carrying 22,000 metric tons of toxic fertilizer, sunk after taking on water in the Feb. 18 attack.

Even before plunging to the ocean’s depths, the vessel had been leaking heavy fuel that triggered an 18-mile (30 km) oil slick through the waterway, which is critical for cargo and energy shipments heading to Europe.

Since November, the Houthi rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea over Israel’s offensive in Gaza. They have frequently targeted vessels with tenuous or no clear links to Israel.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, has warned in recent days of an “environmental disaster” in the making. That has less to do with the size of the vessel’s hazardous cargo than the unique natural features and usage of the Red Sea, said Ian Ralby, founder of maritime security firm I.R. Consilium.

Aggravating concerns over the Rubymar's sinking is the Red Sea’s unique circular water patterns, which operate essentially as a giant lagoon, with water moving northward, toward the Suez Canal in Egypt, during winter and outward to the Gulf of Aden in summer.

“What spills in the Red Sea, stays in the Red Sea,” said Ralby. “There are many ways it can be harmed.”

Saudi Arabia for decades has been building the world’s largest network of desalination plants, with entire cities like Jeddah relying on the facilities for almost all of their drinking water. Oil can clog intake systems and inflict costly damage on saltwater conversion.

The Red Sea is also a vital source of seafood, especially in Yemen, where fishing was the second largest export after oil before the current civil war between the Houthis and Yemen’s Sunni government.

Ralby has been studying the Red Sea’s vulnerabilities in relation to what could've been a far worse maritime tragedy: the FSO Safer, a decrepit oil tanker that had been moored for years off the coast of Yemen with more than 1 million barrels of crude until its cargo was successfully transferred to another vessel last year.

While the amount of oil the Rubymar leaked is unknown, Ralby estimates it couldn’t have exceeded 7,000 barrels. While that’s a mere fraction of the Safer’s load, it’s significantly more oil than was spilled by a Japanese-owed vessel, the Wakashio, that wrecked near Mauritius in 2020, causing millions of dollars in damages and harming the livelihood of thousands of fishermen.

Harder to grasp is the risk from the 22,000 metric tons of fertilizer that port authorities in Djibouti, adjacent to where the Rubymar sank, said the ship was transporting at the time of the attack. If the Rubymar remains intact underwater, the impact will be a slow trickle instead of a massive release, said Ralby.

Fertilizer fuels the proliferation of algae blooms like the ones seen every year in the Texas Gulf Coast as a result of far larger nutrient runoff from farms, urban lawns and industrial waste. The result is the loss of oxygen, asphyxiation of marine life and the creation of so-called “dead zones.”

At risk in the Red Sea are some of the world’s most colorful and extensive coral reefs. Several are major tourist draws and increasingly a subject of great scientific research owing to their apparent resilience to warming seawater temperatures that have destroyed reefs elsewhere in the ocean.

However manageable the fallout from the Rubymar’s sinking, Ralby worries that it could be a forerunner of even worse to come. He said most of the container ships pulled out from the Red Sea shipping lanes since the Houthis began targeting ships in the area over the Israel-Hamas war. What remains, he said, are poorly maintained vessels, oil tankers and bulk carriers that pose far greater environmental risks.

“With fewer and fewer container ships to target, the odds of another spill with massive environmental impact has increased enormously,” said Ralby.

___
British cargo ship sinks after Houthi attack in Red Sea

Our Foreign Staff
Sat, March 2, 2024 

The Rubymar was carrying more than 41,000 tons of fertiliser when it came under attack - Yemeni Al-Joumhouriya TV HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock


A British-owned cargo ship sank in the Red Sea after it was damaged in a Houthi attack last month, Yemen’s government said on Saturday.

The government statement said the Rubymar sank on Friday night and warned of an “environmental catastrophe”.

It is believed to be the first vessel lost since the Iran-backed Houthis began targeting commercial shipping in mid-November.

The ship was carrying more than 41,000 tons of fertiliser when it came under attack, the US military’s Central Command previously said.

Yemen’s Houthi militants have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea region, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.


On Monday, a Yemeni government team visited the Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned cargo ship, and said it was partially submerged and could sink within a couple of days.

The US military previously said the attack had significantly damaged the freighter and caused an 18-mile oil slick.

The United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the sinking on Saturday.

Houthi attacks have prompted shipping firms to divert vessels on to the longer, more expensive route around southern Africa. They have also stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread, destabilising the wider Middle East.

The United States and Britain began striking Houthi targets in Yemen in January in retaliation for the attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government is based in the southern port of Aden while the Houthis control much of the north and other large centres.

Ship hit earlier by Yemen's Houthi rebels sinks in Red Sea

Euronews
Sat, March 2, 2024 

Ship hit earlier by Yemen's Houthi rebels sinks in Red Sea


A ship attacked by Yemen's Houthi rebels has sunk in the Red Sea after days of taking on water, officials said Saturday.

It is the first vessel to be fully destroyed as part of their campaign over Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The sinking of the Rubymar comes as shipping through the crucial waterway for cargo and energy shipments moving from Asia and the Middle East to Europe has been affected by the Houthi attacks.

Already, many ships have turned away from the route.

The sinking could see further detours and higher insurance rates put on vessels plying the waterway — potentially driving up global inflation and affecting aid shipments to the region.

The Belize-flagged Rubymar had been drifting northward after being struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on Feb. 18 in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial waterway linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The vessel had been abandoned for 12 days after the attack, though plans had been made to try and tow the ship to a safe port.

The Iran-backed Houthis, who had falsely claimed the ship sank almost instantly after the attack, did not immediately acknowledge the ship's sinking.

The US military’s Central Command previously warned the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer, as well as fuel leaking from the ship, could cause ecological damage to the Red Sea.

The Houthis have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014, expelling the government. It fought a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a stalemated war.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel Hamas war.

Despite over a month of US-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. That includes the attack on the Rubymar and the downing of a US drone worth tens of millions of dollars.

The Houthis insist their attacks will continue until Israel stops its combat operations in the Gaza Strip, which have enraged the wider Arab world and seen the Houthis gain international recognition.

However, there has been a slowdown in attacks in recent days. The reason for that remains unclear.

Ship sunk by Houthis threatens Red Sea environment, Yemen government and US military say

Updated Sat, March 2, 2024
By Mohammad Ghobari

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) -A UK-owned ship attacked by Houthi militants last month sank in the Red Sea, the U.S. military confirmed on Saturday, as it echoed a warning from Yemen's internationally recognised government that the vessel's cargo of hazardous fertiliser posed a risk to marine life.

The Belize-registered Rubymar is the first vessel lost since the Houthis began targeting commercial ships in November. Those drone and missile assaults have forced shipping firms to divert ships to the longer route around southern Africa, disrupting global trade by delaying deliveries and sending costs higher.

The sinking bulk carrier also "presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway," U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in its statement on social media platform X.

The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control the north of Yemen and other large centres, say their campaign is a show of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthi attacks have prompted a series of strikes against their positions by the United States and Britain, and have led other navies to send vessels to the region to try to protect the vital Suez Canal trade route.

The Rubymar went down in the southern Red Sea late on Friday or early on Saturday, according to statements from the Yemen government and CENTCOM.

The U.S. military previously said the Feb. 18 missile attack had significantly damaged the bulk vessel and caused an 18-mile (29-km) oil slick. The ship was carrying about 21,000 metric tons of fertiliser, CENTCOM said on Saturday.

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, the foreign minister in Yemen's internationally recognised government in Aden, said in a post on X: "The sinking of the Rubymar is an environmental catastrophe that Yemen and the region have never experienced before.

"It is a new tragedy for our country and our people. Every day we pay the price for the adventures of the Houthi militia ..."

The internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, has been at war with the Houthis since 2014.

MARINE LIFE THREATENED

The release of such large amounts of fertiliser into the Red Sea poses a serious threat to marine life, said Ali Al-Sawalmih, director of the Marine Science Station at the University of Jordan.

The overload of nutrients can stimulate excessive growth of algae, using up so much oxygen that regular marine life cannot survive, said Al-Sawalmih, describing a process called eutrophication.

"An urgent plan should be adopted by countries of the Red Sea to establish monitoring agenda of the polluted areas in the Red Sea as well as adopt a cleanup strategy," he said.

The overall impact depends on how ocean currents deplete the fertiliser and how it is released from the stricken vessel, said Xingchen Tony Wang, assistant professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College.

The ecosystem of the southern Red Sea features pristine coral reefs, coastal mangroves and diverse marine life.

Last year, the area avoided a potential environmental disaster when the United Nations removed more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying supertanker moored off the Yemen coast. That type of operation may be more difficult in the current circumstances.

The Houthi attacks have stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread, destabilising the wider Middle East.

In a separate report, the UKMTO agency said it had received a report of a ship being attacked 15 nautical miles west of Yemen's port of Mokha.

"The crew took the vessel to anchor and were evacuated by military authorities," the UKMTO said in an advisory note.

Italy's defence ministry also said that one of its naval ships had shot down a drone flying towards it in the Red Sea.

The Houthi Transport Ministry, meanwhile, said there had been a "glitch" in undersea communication cables in the Red Sea as a result of actions by U.S. and British naval vessels. It did not give further details.

(Reporting by Mohammad Ghobari in Aden, Andrew Mills in Doha, Yomb Ehab in Cairo and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Writing by Enas Alashray, Andrew Mills and Mark Potter; Editing by Alison Williams, Giles Elgood and Jamie Freed)


A ship earlier hit by Yemen's Houthi rebels sinks in the Red Sea, the first vessel lost in conflict

JON GAMBRELL
Updated Sat, March 2, 2024




This satellite image taken by Planet Labs PBC shows the Belize-flagged ship Rubymar in the Red Sea on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. The Rubymar, earlier attacked by Yemen's Houthi rebels, has sunk in the Red Sea after days of taking on water, officials said Saturday, March 2, 2024, the first vessel to be fully destroyed as part of their campaign over Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship attacked by Yemen's Houthi rebels has sunk in the Red Sea after days of taking on water, officials said Saturday, the first vessel to be fully destroyed as part of their campaign over Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The sinking of the Rubymar, which carried a cargo of fertilizer and previously leaked fuel, could cause ecological damage to the Red Sea and its coral reefs.

Persistent Houthi attacks have already disrupted traffic in the crucial waterway for cargo and energy shipments moving from Asia and the Middle East to Europe. Already, many ships have turned away from the route.

The sinking could see further detours and higher insurance rates put on vessels plying the waterway — potentially driving up global inflation and affecting aid shipments to the region.

The Belize-flagged Rubymar had been drifting northward after being struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on Feb. 18 in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial waterway linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen's internationally recognized government, as well as a regional military official, confirmed the ship sank. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as no authorization was given to speak to journalists about the incident.

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which watches over Mideast waterways, separately acknowledged the Rubymar's sinking Saturday afternoon.

The U.S. military's Central Command said early Sunday the Rubymar sank at 2:15 a.m. local time Saturday. It released an image of the vessel on its side as it was sinking.

“The approximately 21,000 metric tons of ammonium phosphate sulfate fertilizer that the vessel was carrying presents an environmental risk in the Red Sea,” it said in a statement. “As the ship sinks it also presents a subsurface impact risk to other ships transiting the busy shipping lanes of the waterway.”

The Rubymar’s Beirut-based manager did not respond to a request for comment.

Yemen's exiled government, which has been backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, said the Rubymar sank as stormy weather took hold over the Red Sea. The vessel had been abandoned for 12 days after the attack, though plans had been made to try and tow the ship to a safe port.

The Iran-backed Houthis had falsely claimed the ship sank almost instantly after the initial attack. Late Saturday, a Houthi leader tried to blame British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over the Rubymar.

“You have an opportunity to salvage the ship M/V Rubymar by guaranteeing ... that the relief trucks agreed upon at that time would enter Gaza,” Mohammed al-Houthi wrote in an online message.

Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, the prime minister of Yemen's internationally recognized government, called the ship's sinking “an unprecedented environmental disaster.”

“It’s a new disaster for our country and our people,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Every day, we pay for the Houthi militia’s adventures, which were not stopped at plunging Yemen into the coup disaster and war.”

Greenpeace also raised concerns about the ship sinking.

“Without immediate action, this situation could escalate into a major environmental crisis,” said Julien Jreissati, program director at Greenpeace MENA.

“As well as any further leaks of fuel oil from the engines, the sinking of the vessel could further breach the hull, allowing water to contact with the thousands of tons of fertilizer, which could then be released into the Red Sea and disrupt the balance of the marine ecosystems, triggering cascading effects throughout the food web.”

The Houthis have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014, expelling the government. The rebels have fought a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a stalemated war.

Satellite pictures analyzed by The Associated Press from Planet Labs PBC showed smaller boats alongside the Rubymar on Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear whose vessels those were. The images showed the Rubymar's stern sinking into the Red Sea but still afloat, mirroring earlier video taken of the vessel.

The private security firm Ambrey separately reported Friday about a mysterious incident involving the Rubymar.

“A number of Yemenis were reportedly harmed during a security incident which took place” on Friday, Ambrey said. It did not elaborate on what that incident involved and no party involved in Yemen's yearslong war claimed any new attack on the vessel.

A satellite image taken Friday from Maxar Technologies showed new blast damage on the Rubymar not previously seen, with no other vessels around it. Additional satellite images taken Saturday by Planet Labs PBC of the area the Rubymar had been in recent days no longer showed the vessel.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel-Hamas war. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo bound for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthi-controlled territory.

Despite over a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels have remained capable of launching significant attacks. That includes the attack on the Rubymar and the downing of an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars. The Houthis insist their attacks will continue until Israel stops its combat operations in the Gaza Strip, which have enraged the wider Arab world and seen the Houthis gain international recognition.

The attacks have also disrupted aid shipments to both Yemen and Sudan, which is gripped by its own monthslong war. In recent days, the International Rescue Committee said it suspended its aid shipments to Port Sudan through the Red Sea over long delays and drastically increased costs.

However, there has been a slowdown in attacks in recent days. The reason for that remains unclear. Between four to eight U.S. and allied warships now patrol the Red Sea on any given day, said Maj. Pete Nguyen, a Defense Department spokesperson.

On Saturday, the Italian Defense Ministry said one of its vessels, the destroyer Caio Duilio, shot down a suspected Houthi drone in self-defense that appeared to be flying toward it.

"The terrorist attacks by the Houthis are a serious violation of international law and an attack on the safety of maritime traffic, on which our economy depends," the ministry said.

___

Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

Only grain ships from Black Sea and for Iran still crossing Red Sea, analysts say

Reuters
Fri, March 1, 2024 

Satellite image shows cargo ship Rubymar, attacked by Yemen's Houthis, according to U.S. military, on the Red Sea


HAMBURG (Reuters) - Grain ships originating from the Black Sea or bound for Iran are about the only ones still sailing through the Red Sea as Houthi militants continue to attack vessels in the area, analysts said on Friday.

The attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis have disrupted global shipping since November and forced firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.

"Just about all (dry bulk grain) vessels going from the Americas and western Europe are avoiding the Red Sea, the only exception is vessels going to Iran, they're still taking the Red Sea route when shorter," said Ishan Bhanu, lead agricultural commodities analyst at data provider and analysts Kpler.

"All vessels we are tracking going from the Black Sea to Asia are going through the Red Sea, almost without exception," he added.

Grain transit through the Suez Canal hit a low of 2.6 million metric tons in February, down from 5.3 million tons in February 2023, Bhanu estimated.

The United States and other countries have sent naval vessels to protect civilian ships while the U.S. and UK have launched air strikes against Houthi forces, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel's military actions in Gaza.

"The Red Sea naval operation and air strikes have been going on for weeks now and it is pretty obvious that the Houthi attacks cannot be stopped easily by military means or that commercial ships can be given blanket protection," said one grain trader booking vessels to export cargoes from Europe.

"Many ship owners are still willing to accept the danger to their ships and vessels still can be booked for Red Sea sailings. Chinese purchases of Ukrainian corn recently are expected to transit the Red Sea."

(Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Kirsten Donovan)