Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have released the crew of the Galaxy Leader more than a year after they seized the Bahamas-flagged vessel off the Yemeni Red Sea coast, Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV has reported.
It said on Wednesday the crew were handed to Oman “in coordination” with the three-day-old ceasefire in Gaza’s war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“The release of the Galaxy Leader crew comes within the framework of our solidarity with Gaza and in support of the ceasefire agreement,” it quoted the Houthi supreme political council as saying.
The crew is comprised of 25 nationals from Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Philippines, Mexico and Romania, according to the car carrier’s owner Galaxy Maritime. The vessel was chartered by Japan’s Nippon Yusen.
The Galaxy Leader was escorted to the Red Sea port of Hodeidah in Houthi-controlled north Yemen after being boarded by Houthi forces at sea on 19 November 2023, soon after the outbreak of war in Gaza.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Monday the group, known formally as Ansar Allah, was ready to act if Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
“We are in constant readiness to intervene immediately at any time the Israeli enemy returns to escalation, genocidal crimes and siege of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said in a statement that the “release of the Galaxy Leader crew is heartwarming news that puts an end to the arbitrary detention and separation that they and their families endured for more than a year“.
“This is a step in the right direction, and I urge Ansar Allah to continue these positive steps on all fronts, including ending all maritime attacks,” Grundberg said.
The news came as US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to once again designate the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization”.
When former president Joe Biden took over from Trump in 2021, he had removed the designation in response to concern from aid groups that they would need to pull out of Yemen as they are obliged to deal with the rebels, who are effectively the government in vast areas including the capital Sana’a.
But weeks after the war in the Gaza Strip broke out on 7 October 2023, the Houthis began launching attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in support of the Palestinians. They also declared US and British interests to be “legitimate targets.”
They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.
In response, the Biden administration last year put the Houthis back on the list of “specially designated global terrorist” groups. That slightly less severe classification still allowed for humanitarian aid to reach the war-torn country, one of the poorest in the world.
The Houthi attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa for more than a year.
“Innocent seafarers must not become collateral victims in wider geopolitical tensions,” Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, said in a statement.
“We call on all nations to support our seafarers and shipping so that this does not happen again,” the International Chamber of Shipping said in a statement.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
