Yemen's Houthi group claimed on July 28, 2026, that it fired several ballistic missiles at the Saudi oil tanker NCC GHAZAL while the vessel transited the Red Sea, forcing it to retreat. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced the strike in a post on X, stating the tanker was targeted for violating the group's maritime navigation ban on Saudi vessels and had ignored warning calls before the missiles were launched (Detroit News; Al Jazeera).

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that a tanker experienced an explosion while transiting the Red Sea. The crew was safe and no environmental damage was recorded, according to UKMTO's account as cited by Al Jazeera.

The attack on the NCC GHAZAL is the third confirmed strike on Saudi shipping since the Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi vessels in the Red Sea on July 20, 2026. On July 22, Saree claimed the group attacked two Saudi oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, using both missiles and drones for violating the blockade. The Saudi Press Agency confirmed that the Encelia was hit, citing a Saudi Transport General Authority official who said all crew members were safe (Al Jazeera; Reuters Connect).

The Houthis have also attacked Saudi oil installations in two ports along the Red Sea coast, widening the campaign beyond commercial shipping to energy infrastructure (Reuters). Ship traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb strait has declined following those attacks on Saudi oil installations, according to data reported by Reuters on July 27.

The Bab al-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, is approximately 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point. In 2024, about 4.1 billion barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum products transited the chokepoint, representing roughly 5 percent of the global total. Any sustained disruption to traffic through this corridor carries direct implications for energy supply chains linking Gulf producers to European and North American markets (Al Jazeera).

Oil prices have already responded. International oil prices topped $100 a barrel amid the Houthi escalation and the broader conflict involving Iran, and prices surged following the initial attacks on Saudi tankers (AP News; Reuters).

The US military launched new strikes on Iran as clashes escalated in the Strait of Hormuz region, and President Donald Trump vowed to punish Iran for the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, directly linking the Houthi maritime campaign to the broader US-Iran confrontation (AP News; Reuters).

The broader context here is a deliberate Houthi strategy of sequential escalation. The blockade declaration on July 20 was followed within 48 hours by strikes on two vessels, then by attacks on Saudi port infrastructure, and now by a third tanker engagement. The group's stated targeting logic, violation of a declared maritime ban, gives each strike a veneer of enforcement rather than indiscriminate attack, which complicates the legal and diplomatic framing for any military response. The pattern also mirrors the Houthis' earlier Red Sea campaign targeting Israel-linked shipping, where declared exclusions were used to legitimize strikes and deter insurers and operators.

The connection the US administration has drawn between Houthi actions and Iran matters for how this escalates. By framing the maritime blockade as an Iranian-abetted campaign rather than a localized Yemeni conflict, Washington has positioned military strikes on Iran as a proportional response to Red Sea disruptions. That framing, combined with concurrent clashes in the Strait of Hormuz, means the Red Sea and the Gulf are now operating as linked theaters in a single US-Iran confrontation rather than separate flashpoints.

For shipping operators and energy traders, the operative question is whether the observed decline in Bab al-Mandeb transit hardens into a sustained rerouting. The data already shows traffic dropping. If insurers raise war-risk premiums for Saudi-flagged or Saudi-owned vessels, the cost differential could push those tankers onto longer Cape routes, tightening available fleet capacity and putting upward pressure on freight rates independent of the crude price moves already triggered by the geopolitical risk premium.