American and British vessels are cautiously returning to the Red Sea as the Gaza truce and prisoner exchange deal continues to hold. Starting last week Yemen’s Houthi movement made clear that it would honor the ceasefire, and refrain from attacking international vessels in the Red Sea so long as Israel bides by the ceasefire. However, a key exception is that Houthis will only continue attacking Israeli vessels. This intent to scale back pro-Palestine maritime operations, which has seen drones and missiles lobbed against foreign ships for many months, is translating to less incidents over this past week. The Yemeni Houthi army’s Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) announced Tuesday, “JMIC assesses that as the peace agreement progresses and vessels and infrastructure remain untargeted, improved stability is expected; however, the risk in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden remain elevated.” Ansarallah representatives first revealed on January 19 that attacks would be scaled back given Hamas has agreed to the ceasefire deal with Israel.  According to Lebanon-based The Cradle, “Since 19 January, six US and UK vessels have transited the Red Sea safely. Despite this, major international shipping firms such as Danish company Maersk, Swiss company MSC, and Japanese company Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd have said that they […]