Armed assailants seized but soon let go of a tanker linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen on Sunday before being apprehended by the United States Navy. Following the incident, two ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled Yemen then landed near an American warship assisting the tanker in the Gulf of Aden, raising the stakes amid a series of attacks on ships, attacks linked to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government blamed the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for the attack, though the rebels in control of the capital, Sanaa, did not acknowledge either the seizure or the missile attack. The attackers seized the Liberian-flagged Central Park, managed by Zodiac Maritime, in the Gulf of Aden, the company, along with the American and British militaries as well as a private intelligence firm, Ambrey, said.

America’s Central Command said in a statement early Monday that its forces and allies, including an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, United States Ship Mason, responded to the seizure and demanded the armed assailants release the tanker. “Subsequently, five armed individuals debarked the ship and attempted to flee via their small boat,” Central Command said. “The Mason pursued the attackers resulting in their eventual surrender.”

The Central Command did not identify the attackers, but confirmed that a missile launch from Houthi-controlled Yemen followed early Monday morning. “The missiles landed in the Gulf of Aden approximately 10 nautical miles from the ships,” the statement said. “The USS Mason … was concluding its response to the M/V Central Park distress call at the time of the missile launches. There was no damage or reported injuries from either vessel during this incident.”

Early Monday morning, Zodiac said the vessel carrying phosphoric acid and its crew of 22 sailors from Bulgaria, Georgia, India, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam were unharmed. Zodiac described the vessel as being owned by Clumvez Shipping Inc., though other records directly linked Zodiac as the owner. London-based Zodiac Maritime is part of Zodiac Group, owned by an Israeli billionaire, Eyal Ofer.

British corporate records listed two men with the last name Ofer as a current and former director of Clumvez Shipping, including Daniel Guy Ofer, who is also a director at Zodiac Maritime.

Yemen’s government, which is based at Aden, blamed the rebels for the seizure in a statement carried by their state-run news agency. “The Yemeni government has renewed its denunciation of the acts of maritime piracy carried out by the terrorist Houthi militias with the support of the Iranian regime, the most recent of which was the hijacking of the Central Park,” the statement read.

The attack happened in a part of the Gulf of Aden that is in theory under the control of that government’s forces and is fairly distant from Houthi-controlled territory in the country. Somali pirates are not known to operate in that area. 

Zodiac Maritime has been targeted previously amid a wider yearslong shadow war between Iran and Israel. In 2021, a drone attack assessed by Washingtn to have been carried out by Iran killed two crew members aboard Zodiac’s oil tanker Mercer Street off the coast of Oman.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, had earlier issued a warning to sailors that “two black-and-white craft carrying eight persons in military-style clothing” had been seen in the area. The UKMTO put the Central Park‘s location approximately 35 miles south of Yemen’s coast in a key shipping route.

The Central Park seizure comes after a container ship, the CMA CGM Symi, owned by another Israeli billionaire, came under attack Friday by a suspected Iranian drone in the Indian Ocean. Both the Symi and the Central Park had been behaving as if they faced a threat in recent days. The ships had switched off their Automatic Identification System trackers, according to data from MarineTraffic.com.

Ships are supposed to keep their AIS active for safety reasons, but crews will turn them off if it appears they might be targeted. In the Central Park‘s case, the vessel had last transmitted four days ago after it left the Suez Canal heading south into the Red Sea. Global shipping has increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict.

Earlier in November, the Houthis seized a vehicle transport ship also linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. The rebels still hold the vessel off the port city of Hodeida. However, the Houthis had not directly targeted the Americans for some time, further raising the stakes in the growing maritime conflict. 

Meanwhile on Sunday, the American aircraft carrier United States Ship Eisenhower traveled through the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Persian Gulf. The warship was accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser United States Ship Philippine Sea, two guided-missile destroyers, and the French frigate Languedoc.