DUBAI (Dispatches) – The Sana’a-based government of Yemen said Wednesday it released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle carrier seized in November 2023 at the start of their campaign in the Red Sea corridor.
The militia said they released the sailors after mediation by Oman.
The crew of 25 included mariners from the Philippines, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Mexico.
Yemeni armed forces said confiscated the ship over its connection to the Zionist regime. They then had a campaign targeting ships in international waters, which only stopped with the recent ceasefire in the Zionist regime’s genocidal war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
A representative for the Galaxy Leader’s owners had no immediate comment.
The Bahamas-flagged vessel is affiliated with an Israeli billionaire Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is known as one of the richest men in the Israeli-occupied territories.
The operation to confiscate the Galaxy Leader saw the Yemeni armed forces launched a helicopter-borne raid. Footage of the raid has been played constantly by the Yemeni forces, who even shot a music video aboard the ship at one point.
The Yemeni forces have targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the  Zionist regime’s aggression on the Gaza Strip started in October 2023.
AUN official said on Tuesday that operations at a Red Sea port in Yemen used for aid imports have fallen to about a quarter of its capacity, adding it was not certain that a Gaza ceasefire would end attacks on Israeli ships. 
 “(The) impact of airstrikes on Hudaydah Harbor, particularly in the last weeks, is very important,” Julien Harneis, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Yemen told a UN meeting in Geneva on Tuesday via videolink.
Four of the port’s five tugboats needed to escort the large ships bringing imports had sunk, while the fifth was damaged, he said, without attributing blame.
“The civilian crews who man them are obviously very hesitant. The capacity of the harbor is down to about a quarter,” he added, saying the port was used to transit a significant portion of imported aid.