News - Middle East: The Zionist port of Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) in occupied Palestine is set to cease operations starting next Sunday due to its inability to pay off debts following a sharp revenue decline caused by the naval blockade imposed by the Yemeni Armed Forces in support of Gaza.

According to Israel’s Channel 12, the Eilat municipality has frozen the port’s accounts, leading to the decision to shut it down as of Sunday.

The channel reported that the closure stems from unpaid municipal taxes totaling about 10 million shekels (approximately $3 million). These debts accumulated because of a significant drop in port revenues, attributed to what the channel called “Houthi aggressive activity in the Red Sea,” which forced ships that previously docked at Eilat to reroute toward the Mediterranean ports of Ashdod and Haifa—both of which have now been included among the Yemeni Armed Forces’ declared targets until the Zionist aggression and genocide in Gaza end.

Hebrew media revealed that the port’s financial records showed revenues of about 42 million shekels ($12.5 million) in 2024, compared to 212 million shekels ($63.2 million) in 2023—a staggering 80 percent decline.

Before the war on Gaza, the port primarily relied on car imports, handling nearly half of all imported vehicles, as well as fertilizer and metal exports. It also serves as the endpoint of the “Eilat-Ashkelon” pipeline that transfers crude oil between the two ports.

Since November 2023, the Yemeni Armed Forces have targeted ships linked to or headed for “Israel” in solidarity with Gaza, which has been subjected to a genocidal war for the second consecutive year.