DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthis continued an hourslong attack Tuesday targeting a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea, authorities said, after the group claimed to have sunk another vessel in an assault that threatens to renew combat across the vital waterway.

The Greek-owned Eternity C remains “surrounded by small craft and is under continuous attack,” the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center warned Tuesday. At least two people on board the ship were reported to be hurt and two others missing.

The bulk carrier had been heading north toward the Suez Canal when it came under fire by men in small boats and by bomb-carrying drones Monday night. The security guards on board also fired their weapons. The European

Union anti-piracy patrol Operation Atalanta and the private security firm Ambrey both reported those details.

While the Houthis haven’t claimed the attack, Yemen’s exiled government and the EU force blamed the Houthis for the attack.

The Houthis separately attacked the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas on Sunday with drones, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, forcing its crew of 22 to abandon the vessel. The Houthis later said it sank in the Red Sea.

The two attacks and a round of Israeli airstrikes early Monday targeting the Houthis raised fears of a renewed Houthi campaign against shipping that could again draw in US and Western forces, particularly after US President

Donald Trump’s administration targeted the Houthis in a major airstrike campaign.

The attacks come at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance, and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites during the Israel-Iran war in June.

The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. Their campaign has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. Shipping through the Red Sea, while still lower than normal, has increased in recent weeks.

The Houthis paused attacks until the US launched a broad assault against the Houthis in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis hadn’t attacked a vessel until this weekend, though they did continue occasional missile attacks targeting Israel.

TEL AVIV: Eighteen Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, health officials said Tuesday, as fighting continued amid efforts to broker a US-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Israeli military also reported that five of its soldiers were killed overnight in northern Gaza, in an attack that occurred while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington.

An Israeli security official said explosive devices were detonated against the soldiers during an operation in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza, which was an early target of the war and an area where Israel has repeatedly fought regrouping militants.

Militants also opened fire on the forces who were evacuating the wounded soldiers, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the incident with the media.

The military said two soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack, which brings the toll of soldiers killed to 888 since the war against Hamas began in 2023.

The soldiers died roughly two weeks after Israel reported once of its deadliest days in months in Gaza, when seven soldiers were killed when a Palestinian attacker attached a bomb to their armored vehicle.

In a statement, Netanyahu sent his condolences for the deaths, saying the soldiers fell “in a campaign to defeat Hamas and to free all of our hostages.”

Health officials at the Nasser Hospital, where victims of the Israeli strikes were taken, said one of the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing four people. A separate strike in Khan

Younis killed four people, including a mother, father, and their two children, officials said.

In central Gaza, Israeli strikes hit a group of people, killing 10 people and injuring 72 others, according to a statement by Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes, but it blames Hamas for any harm to civilians because the militant group operates out of populated areas.

US President Donald Trump has made clear that, following last month’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran, he would like to see the 21-month Gaza conflict end soon. Netanyahu’s visit to Washington may give new urgency to the ceasefire proposal.

White House officials are urging both sides to quickly seal an agreement that would bring about a 60-day pause in the fighting, send aid flooding into Gaza and free at least some of the remaining 50 hostages held in the territory, 20 of whom are believed to be living.

A sticking point is whether the ceasefire will end the war altogether. Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile — something it refuses to do.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Most have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas government, does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.