ConfirmedShipping, energy & marketsBackgroundSouthern Red Sea, off Hodeidah, Yemen
Houthis seize the Galaxy Leader, opening their Red Sea shipping campaign
- Mountain Time
- Local time
- 1:00 PM in Aden
- Where
- Southern Red Sea, off Hodeidah, Yemen
Armed men rappelled from a helicopter onto the Bahamas-flagged, Japanese-operated cargo ship Galaxy Leader in the southern Red Sea off Yemen and seized it with its 25 crew, targeting it as an Israeli-linked ship over the Gaza war. It was the first of many Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Why it matters
The attacks that followed cut oil flows through the Bab el-Mandeb from 8.7 million barrels a day in 2023 to 4.0 million in early 2024 as tankers rerouted around Africa, the template now used to judge Hormuz risk.
Sources (4)
- CFR Yemen and Red Sea trackercfr.org
- EIA Red Sea tanker analysiseia.govPublished
- NBC Newsnbcnews.comPublished
- CBS News timelinecbsnews.comPublished
Confidence: Corroborated by independent sources or direct evidence. About confidence labels
Corrections
- Removed an unverified publication date from CFR Yemen and Red Sea tracker (2026-05-01). Why and evidence
- Corrected the time from Nov 19 2023, 12:00 PM Yemen time; source gives date marker, exact hour not specified to 1:00 PM Aden time, Nov 19, 2023; corrected the headline (it read "Houthi Red Sea attacks turn the war into a shipping crisis"); revised the summary; revised the context note; corrected the location from Red Sea / Bab el-Mandeb to Southern Red Sea, off Hodeidah, Yemen; reclassified it from market to maritime-security; updated the sourcing note; added 2 sources: NBC News, CBS News timeline. Why and evidence