Almost two months have passed since July 19, when a Houthi explosive drone breached Israeli air defenses, murdering 50-year-old Yevgeny Ferder and injuring eight others. The next day, the Israel Air Force launched a retaliatory attack against the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah, dubbed “Operation Outstretched Arm.”
Despite Houthi promises of retaliation and targeting of the Tel Aviv area, no such action came – until Sunday, when they launched a ballistic missile attack at central Israel. There were no injuries.
In this context, a few experts have noted that almost two months after Israel’s retaliatory attack in Hodeidah, the notable port is still essentially disabled. “After Israel’s attack, some claimed that the damage will take only a week to fix,” Eran Efrat told The Jerusalem Post.
Efrat, an entrepreneur, owns several companies in the biomass sector. He imports raw materials for the green energy industry and, as part of his job, tracks shipping routes and cargo ships.
“Already back then I claimed that following a bombardment of a fuel terminal, assuming that pipelines and fuel tanks were damaged as well, a long time would be needed to fix everything,” he explained, adding that his companies also boast port terminals and that establishing such infrastructure is not a simple task.
According to Efrat, rebuilding this infrastructure is very difficult; oil and gas terminals are not easy to operate.
“Ship tracking tools are as accurate as aircraft tracking, and they are free to use as well, except for some premium features. Every ship is registered, and its route is well documented, along with sailing times, documents, and any information that doesn’t qualify as a commercial secret,” he said.
Efrat started monitoring the damage at Al-Hodeidah out of curiosity, and he has now reached the level of an open-source intelligence analyst, monitoring the port and drawing conclusions that are available to the public.
“A month after the retaliatory attack, I saw that there were no listed tankers transporting fuel or liquefied gas in Al-Hodeidah, which I concluded from the list of ships scheduled to moor in the port,” he said.
“In addition, the port has issued an official notice to ships, telling them not to arrive. For me, this was a main indicator that they were unable to receive oil and liquid gas, both of which were part of the infrastructure of Al-Hodeidah. We also saw that cranes were damaged, and therefore, the unloading was carried out more slowly, using either the ships’ cranes or mobile cranes, which are much smaller.
Economic impact of strikes
“The economic damage is immense,” Efrat continued. “I calculated, according to the size of the tanks, that they were able to store about 40,000-50,000 tons. I found that they lose about 50,000 tons of oil and liquid gas every 48 hours or so. This is based on how often the ships would dock and how large those containers were.
“I also checked tankers to see if there was any improvement in the unloading of containers, according to ships that dock and leave. You can see the size of the ship and guess how long it takes to unload. If you leave after 24 hours or more, you know that the capacity is not high, especially when you compare it to a year ago, and you see that ships would enter and leave several times a day.
“According to my calculation, this means that the port is running at 30% of its original capacity,” he added, stressing that from two to three tanks of fuel or gas unloaded daily, the Houthis are now down to one tank per month.
ANOTHER MONTH later, Efrat observed that no new calls were issued for tankers to dock at the port for the next 30 days, at least not until September 21; “This means two or three months that the port will be shut.”
Efrat claimed that the Houthis chose the primitive and formally closed Ras Isa port over the Hodeidah port. “Take a look at the tanker Lady Amira 1. This is a well-known tanker that nowadays can’t dock in Hodeidah. I saw that it stopped in Hodeidah for one day, probably for a regular inspection of the goods by the Houthis. From there, it continued to Ras Isa, a former export port that has three tanks for the use of oil and liquid gas. The port has no pier. The ships have to anchor several tens of meters in the sea; a pipe goes into the ship, and the cargo is pumped back to the shore. This is how the goods were unloaded in a port that was defined as closed. But it’s a small port, so, if in the past, there was a tanker a day, today a tanker is emptied once every 20 days or month.”
As for the Ras Isa port, Efrat stresses that it’s officially closed, and ships are not supposed to dock there. “There is no formal staff. In the photos, you can see trucks waiting there, which is further proof that there is unloading activity going on there. So, this is the auxiliary port that they’re using to unload oil and gas, albeit at a much slower pace.
“Following today’s attack, the Israeli government may be mulling the targeting of the auxiliary port in Ras Isa,” he concluded.