Yemen's Houthis seize more key islands in Red Sea, tighten grip on shipping routes

Yemeni officials say the Houthi rebels captured more strategic islands in the southern Red Sea, strengthening their control of a major maritime shipping route

CAIRO -- Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured more strategic islands in the southern Red Sea, government and Houthi officials said Monday, strengthening their control of a major maritime shipping route.

The capture of the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish is the latest in the rebels' swift advance around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait , a key passage for Saudi oil shipments that has only become more crucial during the Iran war since it serves as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Like Hormuz, which is located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula — is a chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and Saudi Arabia's key Asian markets.

For more than a month, the Houthis have been striking Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, stepping up pressure on global oil prices and boosting Iran’s leverage in its war with the United States.

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have been attempting to rally and fight back. But the Houthi gains have seemingly come with little resistance.

The rebels deployed on the Hanish islands, 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Bab el-Mandeb, after hundreds of government-allied forces withdrew from the archipelago, according to two government officials and a Houthi official. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

The capture of the islands came after the rebels last week seized the port city of Mokha on the mainland nearby and the island of Mayun, inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis’ advance also puts them just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the U.S. military base in Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The fighting is pushing the impoverished nation back into full-fledged civil war , after a truce that largely maintained quiet since 2022. Even as they advance along the Red Sea, the Houthis have waged an offensive farther inland, particularly in the longtime battleground province of Taiz.

Some 150 civilians have been killed in fighting since Sept. 3, including a pregnant woman killed Saturday in a village in Taiz, the government’s Human Rights Ministry said. More than 200 civilians have been wounded, it said.

Thousands of families have fled their homes in Taiz and nearby provinces in the past day, said Khanzad Shah, acting head of Islamic Relief, a charity that operates in the area.

“Many of them don’t have enough food or water as they had to flee with whatever they could carry. In some areas, whole villages have reportedly emptied,” he said.

The United Nations has estimated that more than 80,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks, including over 2,000 people who fled by boat to Djibouti.

The fighting threatens to reignite a war that for more than a decade brought disaster to Yemen, killing more than 150,000 people and driving the country to the brink of famine .