Eilat Port shut down due to debts, Red Sea blockade
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Eilat Port will shut down after massive debts and Yemen’s Red Sea blockade slashed revenue, marking a major economic blow to "Israel".
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New cars are parked in the port of the southern city of Umm el Rashrash, near the border with Egypt, Occupied Palestine, February 15, 2012. (AFP)
The Israeli economic media outlet The Marker reported that the port of Eilat will completely cease operations starting next Sunday after the city municipality froze its bank accounts due to millions of shekels in accumulated debts.
This development comes as the port has faced near-total paralysis since November 2023, when Yemen imposed a naval blockade on ships heading to "Israel", leading to a sharp decline in revenue and a collapse in commercial activity at the facility.
The Eilat Municipality announced that it had frozen the port's bank accounts due to massive accumulated debts, and according to the Israeli economic outlet The Marker, all operations will come to a complete halt starting Sunday, signaling a total economic shutdown of the port.
The crisis at Eilat Port began when Yemeni forces imposed a naval blockade on ships heading to "Israel," prompting international shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea route, which brought the port's operations to a near standstill and caused a collapse in its revenue.
The Eilat Municipality stated that the port's debts had exceeded its repayment capacity, forcing the municipality to take legal action by freezing its accounts following months of declining commercial activity and the port's failure to pay municipal fees, with Eilat Port being one of Israel's most important Red Sea harbors.
Earlier, Israeli business newspaper The Marker revealed that Eilat Port's revenues had plummeted by 80% in 2024 after ships stopped docking there due to Yemen's maritime blockade in the Red Sea, which was imposed in support of the Gaza Strip.
Yemen remains adamant in its naval blockade
On Tuesday, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, confirmed that their forces had successfully targeted a key Israeli military site in the occupied Naqab region using drone strikes.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree emphasized in a July 15 statement that these operations represent a continuation of Yemen's support for Gaza amid the Israeli war, affirming that military actions will continue without interruption until the aggression ceases and the siege on Palestinians is completely lifted.
"The operations are continuing as part of our religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the oppressed people of Gaza," Saree stated.
Yemen's armed forces have reaffirmed that their Red Sea operations exclusively target ships connected to the Israeli regime or participating in the aggression against Gaza, with recent strikes hitting the Eilat-bound vessel ETERNITY C and intercepting the Magic Seas in Red Sea waters.
The Yemeni Armed Forces released video footage on Wednesday confirming the successful targeting and sinking of the ETERNITY C, a commercial vessel headed toward the occupied port of Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat), on July 9, 2025.
The video, shared by the official Yemeni military media outlet, documents multiple communications made by the Yemeni Naval Forces to the ETERNITY C’s crew.
![Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi during a speech in Sanaa, Yemen, August 7, 2025 (Al Mayadeen screengrab)\](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/8/7/a2ede8ef-8a7d-46a0-91a5-69a216c3ece6/1.jpg?format=webp "Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi during a speech in Sanaa, Yemen, August 7, 2025 (Al Mayadeen screengrab)\")