News - Middle East: Half the workers at Eilat Port are on the verge of losing their jobs after the seaport took a major financial hit due to the Yemeni blockade on Israeli navigation.

The head of Eilat Port announced that more than half of the workers will be laid off after the port's operations ceased for eight months. 

"We are in a critical situation and will lay off half of the workers after the port stopped operating eight months ago due to attacks in the Red Sea," he informed the enemy's Minister of Transport.

The Zionist economic newspaper Calcalist confirmed on Wednesday that Eilat Port has been nearly completely closed for eight months since the Yemeni Armed Forces began imposing a blockade on Israeli navigation through the Red Sea.

The newspaper noted that in the two years before the Zionist aggression on Gaza, the port was the main entry point for cars into Israel, stating that in 2023, 150,000 cars arrived through Eilat Port, while no cars arrived in 2024.

Avi Horemro, the chairman and owner of the port, sent a letter to the Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, requesting an "urgent" meeting about the port's "critical situation." Horemro complained that due to the aggression on Gaza and the closure of the Bab al-Mandab strait, he and his partners have borne the burden of enormous expenses for ongoing port maintenance and employee wages over the past eight months. He added, "We believe no business faces the kind of challenge we face today."

Horemro stated in his letter that no commercial company would face such challenges as the company managing Eilat Port, which constitutes national shipping infrastructure and is a strategic asset for Israeli trade. He lamented that it has received no government financial support.

"We have no choice but to start laying off workers," Horemro said, indicating that approximately 50 to 60 workers would be dismissed, leaving only essential staff at the port.

Eilat Port is considered "national infrastructure for Israel," facilitating the movement of goods through trade with Europe and East Asia, and is described as "the most important maritime border crossing."

The WorldCargo website revealed that Eilat Port declared bankruptcy due to a lack of commercial activity, resulting from Yemeni Armed Forces' attacks on Israeli ships linked to the occupying entity in the Arab seas. Gideon Golbert, the port's CEO, told the Knesset's Economic Affairs Committee last Sunday that the port had seen no activity or revenue for eight months.

The report noted that Yemeni retaliatory operations in the Red Sea led to an 85 percent reduction in shipping activity, prompting the port to request financial aid from the government.

In December, after two months of the Al-Aqsa Storm battle, the Eilat Port CEO told Reuters that activity had dropped by 85 percent since Yemeni Armed Forces imposed a blockade on Israeli navigation through the Red Sea. He stated at the time that layoffs might be necessary if the crisis continued.

During a meeting with the Knesset's Economic Affairs Committee on July 7, Golbert said there had been no activity at the port for eight months and no revenue generated. He pointed out that ships are now afraid to pass through the Bab al-Mandab strait en route to Eilat Port, instead taking a route around the entire African continent, increasing the voyage duration by about 20 days. Ships now enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar and continue to the ports of Haifa and Ashdod, making passage through the Suez Canal to Eilat Port unnecessary.

In response to the aggression and genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by Zionist enemy forces since October 7, Yemeni Armed Forces imposed a naval blockade on Israeli ports. 

Despite the US-UK coalition and militarization of the Red Sea and aggression against Yemen since late December, the coalition has not succeeded in breaking the Yemeni blockade on Zionist ships. Consequently, Israeli ports have declared bankruptcy, closed their doors, and laid off workers.