CNN
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Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement has released one crew member. Cargo ship More than a year after its fighters hijacked a ship in the Red Sea, as part of a campaign of attacks in support of Hamas in its war against Israel.
The 25-strong crew of the Galaxy Leader – including 17 Filipinos, three Ukrainians, two Bulgarians, two Mexicans and one Romanian – has been handed over to mediators in Oman, Houthi-owned Al-Masira TV reported on Wednesday.
The release of the crew comes days after an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas. ArmisticeBringing relief to Palestinians in Gaza after 15 months of war. The Houthis have long said they would end their campaign in the Red Sea only if Israel halted its offensive in Gaza.
The crew had been held hostage since November 2023, when armed Houthis – disembarking from a helicopter flying Yemeni and Palestinian flags – stormed the ship off the coast of Yemen.
The Houthi attacks have forced the world’s largest shipping and oil companies to suspend traffic through the Red Sea, one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.
Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization, said the release of the crew was a “profound relief”.
“Today’s development is a testament to the power of collective diplomacy and dialogue, recognizing that innocent seafarers should not become victims of wider geopolitical tensions,” he said.
The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, welcomed the “heartbreaking” reports that the Houthis had “ended the arbitrary detention” of the ship’s crew for 14 months.
Galaxy Leader sails under the flag of Bahamas and is commonly used for transporting vehicles around the world. It was among dozens of ships targeted by the Houthis during their campaign in the Red Sea.
Eduardo de Vega, a Philippine foreign affairs official who oversees hundreds of thousands of Filipino migrant workers, said in March last year that little could be done to influence the Houthis beyond an end to hostilities in Gaza.
CNN has asked the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs for comment on the release of its nationals.
The Houthis — one side of Yemen’s civil war that has raged for more than a decade — have played an outsized role in the Middle East’s conflict over the past year. Along with targeting ships, the Houthis launched a series of missile attacks on Israel.
Although most of the attacks were repelled by Israeli air defenses, Israel’s military responded with its own airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The United States and Britain, both allies of Israel, have also launched attacks against the Houthis.
