The port of Eilat (Umm al-Rashrash) in the southernmost tip of the Occupied Territories has seen its revenues fall to “nearly zero” due to Yemeni pro-Palestine operations disrupting Red Sea shipping lines, Israeli media report.
On Monday, January 12, Israeli paper Yediot Ahronoth reported that the port was now “almost completely paralyzed,” with dockworkers arriving daily to empty berths as commercial vessels failed to reach the port.
“The port’s revenues, which previously reached about $74 million a year, have dropped to almost zero,” it wrote.
The operational crisis dates back to November 2023, when the Yemeni Armed Forces seized a vessel bound for the port.
The seizure came as part of operations that the servicemen and Yemen’s popular resistance Ansarallah movement had begun launching in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who had come under a war of genocide by the Israeli regime.
Since then, shipping traffic has failed to recover, amid the attacks that would target Israeli ships as well as vessels travelling to or from ports in the occupied territories, the outlets wrote.
The disruption marked a sharp reversal for the port, which used to handle large volumes of cargo.
Before the disruptions, Eilat was experiencing significant growth. In October 2024 alone, the port reportedly handled around 150,000 vehicles. At the time, Israeli officials even considered expanding its role to support Mediterranean ports such as occupied Haifa and Ashdod, which were facing threats from retaliatory rockets fired by Gaza’s Hamas resistance movement.
However, the outlets said Yemen’s intervention in support of Palestinians “changed everything,” effectively halting activity in Eilat.
Batya Zafarani, the port’s vice president of finance, told Yediot Ahronoth that the situation deteriorated rapidly after the November 19, 2023 seizure of the ship, which was en route to the port.
“Two companies, NYK and ZIM, that work with us, stopped sending ships here,” Zafarani said. “For months, we thought it would be okay” and the regime “would help.”
Port officials have repeatedly called on the Zionist regime to intervene, but say no effective support has materialized.
In July 2025, Eilat’s CEO Gideon Golber warned in comments to The Times of Israel that the port’s closure would represent an unprecedented blow.
“The closure of a strategic seaport…would be a huge international success for the Houthis (Ansarallah) that none of our enemies have ever achieved,” Golber said at the time.
Also on Monday, Avi Hormaru, chairman of the port and CEO of the Nakash Group, an investment body, said the regime had abandoned the port, adding that those launching the retaliatory strikes were now “deciding” whether Tel Aviv could operate the port or not.
“We don’t manage the Red Sea,” he added, citing the repercussions of the solidarity strikes that had prompted ships seeking to reach the territories to sail around southern Africa at great cost for the regime’s economy.
(PressTV)
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