Two crew members of a Liberian-registered cargo ship were killed when a number of small boats attacked it off the coast of Yemen, Liberian officials told a United Nations meeting on Tuesday, the second attack on a ship in the Red Sea this week.
No one claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but it is likely to renew concerns that a vital trade route is no longer safe despite President Trump’s announcing a truce with the Houthis to restore freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. It followed a similar attack on Sunday, when the Houthis said they had sunk a different ship.
Two other crew members were injured in the latest attack, which struck the Eternity C, a Greek-operated ship, on Monday, according to Liberian delegates to a U.N. meeting in London of the International Maritime Organization.
The incident occurred a day after Yemen’s Houthi militia, which is backed by Iran, said it had attacked the Magic Seas, a different Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel. That ship caught fire and sustained heavy damage, according to Operation Atalanta, the European Union’s antipiracy patrol. Twenty-two crew members were rescued and taken to Djibouti.
The assault on the Magic Seas was the first Houthi attack on a commercial ship since December. It was also the first since Mr. Trump declared a cease-fire between the United States and the Houthis in May, after he launched a bombing campaign on Yemen that he said was an effort to make it safe for ships to travel through the Red Sea.
Yahya al-Sarea, a Houthi military spokesman, said in a statement on social media that the group had targeted the Magic Seas because the company that owns it had “violated the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine” — a reference to a Houthi pledge to attack any vessels that frequent Israeli ports. He said that the ship “sustained a direct hit.”
Mr. al-Sarea added that the Houthis would continue to target Israel, Israeli shipping and ships that frequent the country’s ports “until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted.”
The Houthis began assaulting ships in the Red Sea after the war in Gaza erupted in 2023 in response to a Hamas-led attack on Israel. The Houthis say their campaign is an attempt to pressure Israel to stop its bombardment of Gaza and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid there.
Houthi territory abuts a vital waterway in the Red Sea that ships must pass to reach the Suez Canal, and the attacks have disrupted global trade by forcing container ships to take a longer route around the southern tip of Africa to reach Europe and other markets.
The attack on the Eternity C occurred as the vessel was traveling north through the Red Sea to the Saudi port of Jeddah.
The Houthis have not claimed responsibility, but the U.S. embassy to Yemen condemned the group, accusing them of showing a “blatant disregard for human life” and “undermining freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a senior Houthi political official, declined to comment on the latest attack.
A Houthi missile attack on a ship in March 2024 killed three crew members. In 2023, the militia seized a ship called the Galaxy Leader and held its crew hostage for more than a year.
“The objective of our military operations in the Red Sea is to lift the naval blockade imposed on Gaza,” Mr. al-Bukhaiti said, adding that international shipping companies should avoid dealing with Israel or docking in Israeli ports.
The attacks this week will renew questions about the efficacy of the cease-fire that Mr. Trump announced in May, which had ambiguous parameters.
In mid-March, the United States resumed bombing Yemen in what Trump administration officials called a push to reopen international shipping lanes.
When Mr. Trump announced the truce, he said that the United States would halt its bombings in Yemen and implied that the Houthis would, in turn, stop attacking commercial ships.
“They just don’t want to fight,” he said “They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.”
But the Houthis stopped short of publicly declaring a full cease-fire, saying that they would continue to attack Israel.
Oman, which mediated the truce, was more cautious, saying in a statement that “neither side will target the other, including American vessels.” That left it unclear whether the Houthis would continue to attack vessels not tied to the United States. Until the attack on the Magic Seas, they had refrained from doing so.
Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting from Sana, Yemen.
Vivian Nereim is the lead reporter for The Times covering the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. She is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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