More intl. shipping companies suspend Red Sea passage fearing Yemeni forces attack

The Swiss-headquartered Mediterranean Shipping Company (MCS) and France's CMA CGM made the announcement on Saturday.

The two companies said they were halting traffic through the Bab al-Mandab strait, which is a waterway for transit of 40 percent of international trade.

The MSC said one of its container vessels was targeted in the Red Sea on Friday, noting that the attack caused no injuries, but the ship suffered fire damage.

CMA CGM said it had ordered all its vessels to leave the area and stay there until further notice, adding, "The situation continues to deteriorate and there are increasing concerns about security."

The new development came after on Friday, two major international shipping lines suspended the transit of goods through the Red Sea.

Danish giant Maersk and German carrier Hapag-Lloyd said they temporarily suspended all journeys through the Red Sea.

Yemen's Armed Forces have warned that they will target all the vessels that would use the country's territorial waters in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea to reach Israeli ports.

Yemeni army says it will continue its operations as long as the Israeli regime keeps up its all-out onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, which started on October 7.

Earlier this week, the Yemeni forces' spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree also reaffirmed that the attacks will continue until the occupying regime allows entry of "the food and medicine that our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip need."

As part of the siege of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli regime has cut off the flow of basic supplies, such as water, electricity, medicines, and fuel into Gaza, which is one of the world's most densely-populated territories housing over two million Palestinians.

The regime has also launched an unrelenting genocidal war on Gaza in response to an operation by the territory's resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. Nearly 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the war, while thousands more are suspected to be buried under the rubble.

Separately on Saturday, a spokesman for Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement said the movement is engaged in Oman-mediated talks with "international parties" over its ongoing operations in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

Mohamed Abdel-Salam reiterated that Yemeni Armed Forces will continue to target Israeli vessels heading to occupied territories until the "aggression and siege" on Gaza ends.

"In various meetings, it was emphasized that Yemen's position on Gaza is not subject to negotiation, and that enemy ships or those heading to its ports will remain vulnerable to targeting until the aggression stops, the siege of Gaza is lifted, and humanitarian aid continues to flow into the [Gaza] Strip," he said in a post on X social media platform.

Abdel-Salam stressed, "...we cannot stand idly by in the face of the aggression and siege that the [Gaza] Strip is being subjected to as there is no food, no medicine, and even drinking water...."