https://thecradle.co/articles/yemens-red-sea-blockade-forces-mass-layoffs-at-key-israeli-port
Israel’s port of Eilat in the occupied south is set to fire half of its employees due to the devastating effects of Yemen’s maritime blockade on Israeli shipping.
The main Israeli labor federation, the Histadrut Labor Federation, said on 20 March that port authorities have announced their intention to lay off half of the 120 people employed at the Eilat port.
It added that the workers plan on protesting the decision on Wednesday.
“It would have been right for the company at this time to have embraced the workers and their families, and not chosen the easy way of attempting mass layoffs. We won’t be a part of this,” said Eyal Yadin, the chairman of Israel’s transportation workers union, in a statement.
Nir Eisenberg, head of the Maritime Division at the Histadrut Transport Workers Union, said, “Port management is trying to take advantage of the war situation and harm the livelihood of dedicated workers in the southern periphery.”
Israeli media outlet Calcalist reported recently that 149,000 vehicles entered Eilat port last year, as opposed to none in 2024. In December 2023, Calcalist said that revenues from Eilat port plummeted by 80 percent since the start of Yemen’s campaign against vessels bound for or linked to Israel.
Since November, Yemen’s Armed Forces – which is aligned with the Ansarallah resistance movement – have targeted Israeli-linked ships in the Red and Arab Seas in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who are currently facing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
They have also launched numerous drones and missiles toward Eilat, known in Arabic as Umm al-Rashrash.
As a result of Yemeni operations, major international shipping companies have been forced to reroute their vessels around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi announced on 14 March that Ansarallah and the Yemeni army will expand its maritime operations against Israeli-linked shipping and prevent ships from being able to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope.
Yemeni operations have caused a significant strain on the Israeli economy, which has plummeted nearly 20 percent since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has inflicted similar losses on Israel’s northern settlements, where sales have plummeted 70 percent since October. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis were forced to flee from the north.
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