Houthis seize Greater and Lesser Hanish islands

Houthi forces in Yemen have seized the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the Red Sea, tightening their grip near the Bab al-Mandab strait, according to The Guardian. The move comes as Saudi Arabia faces continued drone and missile attacks and as the kingdom’s east–west oil pipeline remains closed after an attack, leaving fewer alternatives to move crude away from the Gulf.

The islands sit near a maritime chokepoint that links the Red Sea to the open ocean and to Saudi Arabia’s Asian markets. The Guardian reports the Houthis had previously captured the port of Mokha and Perim island, and that the latest island seizure reinforces their ability to monitor and potentially threaten traffic near Bab al-Mandab. Houthi leaders, the paper says, claim they are not seeking to block all commercial shipping, only Saudi-linked vessels — a distinction that still forces shipowners, insurers and traders to price the risk as if the route could close at any moment.

The timing matters because the region has been losing redundancies. With the Strait of Hormuz already treated as a contested corridor in the broader Iran war, Saudi Arabia’s ability to divert exports via its east–west pipeline to the Red Sea has become more valuable — and therefore a clearer target. The Guardian cites officials estimating repairs could take weeks, and says that since late August an average of 2.6 to 4 million barrels per day moved through the pipeline and out of Yanbu, volumes now at risk of disappearing from the market. Analysts quoted by the paper warn that inventories can cushion the blow only briefly, and that a prolonged outage would push prices higher.

On the ground, the pressure is showing up as displacement rather than diplomacy. The International Organization for Migration estimated that nearly 94,000 people in Yemen have fled their homes since fighting escalated this month, The Guardian reports, with schools converted into shelters. More than 2,000 people have crossed the sea into Djibouti, and the Houthi advance has brought them within 32 km of a US military base there, placing a foreign garrison on the far shore of the same bottleneck.

Saudi Arabia is on high alert with daily air alerts, according to The Guardian. The new front line is not a trench but a chain of islands that can make a shipping lane expensive simply by being held.