the houthis are ramping up their blockade of israel's southern port;

Just last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu recalled his Israeli negotiating team from Doha - which is certainly not a first instance - as talks broke down, also after the US representative mentioned dissatisfaction with Hamas' position.

On Sunday night, the Houthis of Yemen declared it will target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports. This part is nothing new, but what is a renewed escalation is that the Houthis statement made clear this will be regardless of nationality as part of the next phase of its operations.

This Red Sea war has been going for a long time, and has featured direct ballistic missile attacks on Tel Aviv - which have been waning in the last weeks, but the resulting shipping disruptions have wreaked havoc on a vital global transit point through which an estimated $1 trillion in goods usually passes each year.............more...........