News - Middle East: Hebrew media outlets have confirmed this week that the blockade imposed by the Yemeni Armed Forces on ships reaching Israel continues to have wide-ranging economic effects. They acknowledged that rerouting cargo ships around Africa to avoid the Red Sea has not proven to be a practical solution. Additionally, they revealed that Israel has begun importing more goods from America to compensate for the disruption of Chinese and Eastern imports.

The Hebrew website iCar,  a part of Yedioth Ahronoth Group and specializing in automotive news, published a report stating, "For more than six months, Israel has been engaged in a multi-front war, and one of those fronts lies far in the Red Sea, where the Houthis disrupted trade routes from the East and inflicted severe damage on the Israeli car market, as half of the cars sold in Israel come from the East (China, Japan, South Korea, etc.)."

The report quoted Dani Shavit, CEO of the Lubeski Car Import Group, as saying, "In the past, we used to bring MG cars from China on vehicle carrier ships, especially to the port of Eilat, and in some cases to the ports of Ashdod or Haifa via the Suez Canal, but today it's a little different, as ships have to bypass entire Africa. So, if the previous transport time from Shanghai to the port of Eilat was 22 or 23 days, today it takes between 41 and 48 days."

The report also quoted Meirav Itzchaky, CEO of Mara Shipping Company, as saying, "October 7th caused shipping companies to stop visiting Israel, and in reality, passing through Africa did not provide a solution; most vehicles arriving from the East today arrive in containers and actually circumvent with container ships belonging to Zim and MSC companies."

The Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom published a report two days ago confirming a decrease in imports to Israel from China due to the blockade imposed by the Yemeni Armed Forces on ships from the East.

The newspaper explained that the increase in imports to Israel from the United States comes as an alternative to the disruption of Chinese imports, indicating that Yemen has fundamentally changed the trade map for Israel.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they won’t stop retaliatory strikes.

The maritime attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.

Tankers are instead adding thousands of miles to international shipping routes by sailing around the continent of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal.