What's happened
Yemen's Houthi rebels seize an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Red Sea, taking the crew members hostage.
Why it matters
The hijacking of the cargo ship by Houthi rebels is a significant event as it raises tensions in the region and highlights the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. It also poses a threat to international maritime security and has implications for global shipping routes.
What the papers say
Gulf News says the ship was hijacked with Iran's guidance, while the New York Post insists that the vessel has no links to Israel. Al Jazeera reports that the Houthis have declared themselves part of Iran's allies and have launched drones and missiles towards Israel. The Independent highlights the fears of regional tensions playing out on a new maritime front.
How we got here
The Houthi rebels have been launching attacks on Israel in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel has been conducting a bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza, resulting in a high number of casualties. The Houthis had previously threatened to target Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
More on these topics
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The Houthi movement, officially called Ansar Allah and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamic political and armed movement that emerged from Sa'dah in northern Yemen in the 1990s.
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Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is the second-largest Arab sovereign state in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 square kilometres.
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The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden.
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Israel, formally known as the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia, located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea.
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Iran, also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and Azerbaijan, to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan a
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Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist militant organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
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The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.