Yemen Monitor/Agencies
Gideon Golber, the CEO of Israel’s Eilat Port, has stated that he is forced to lay off half of the port’s workers due to its closure for eight months, resulting from the operations conducted by the Houthi group in the Red Sea.
In an interview with the Hebrew newspaper Maariv on Sunday, Golber said, “The Eilat Port is Israel’s southern gateway to the Far East, Australia, and Africa.”
He added, “At the end of November, the situation changed completely when the Houthis hijacked a ship belonging to the NYK company, kidnapped the ship’s crew, and closed the shipping lane. Since then, Eilat Port has ceased its activity.”
Golber explained, “All activity has stopped because ships are unable to pass in either direction to reach Eilat Port, nor to pass towards Europe via the Suez Canal. Therefore, the port has ceased its activity and income has stopped.”
He pointed out that this situation “has caused significant economic losses to the Port,” warning that “50% of the port’s workers will be laid off this week due to the inability to pay their salaries.”
He added, ” Eilat Port has 110 direct employees in operations, and there are between 40 to 100 other security personnel depending on the activity they carry out.”
Golber further explained, “There are between 250 to 300 other people who work indirectly with the port. Since the moment work stopped, everything has basically stopped. We have salary expenses, we have taxes, we have property taxes, we have no income, but only expenses.”
In other statements to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, he said that he is paying workers’ salaries worth 3.5 million shekels per month (about $952,000).
He added, “Since the beginning of the war, we have lost about 50 million shekels ($13.61 million), and we have not received any assistance from the state.”
Since November, Houthi rebels have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, which they consider to be linked to Israel or heading to its ports, stating that this is in support of Palestinians in Gaza Strip amid the ongoing war since October 7th.
The United States is leading an international maritime coalition aimed at “protecting” maritime navigation in this strategic region through which 12% of global trade passes.
