Gaza Herlad- Israel’s southern port of Eilat is set to halt all operations starting Sunday after plunging into a financial crisis triggered by the ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which have severely disrupted shipping routes and revenues.
According to The Calcalist, the Eilat Municipality has frozen the port’s bank accounts, worth approximately 10 million shekels ($3 million), due to unpaid municipal taxes. The Shipping and Ports Authority confirmed that the port’s deepening financial woes have led to the imminent suspension of all activity.
Port income has nosedived in 2024, generating just 42 million shekels ($12.5 million), a sharp drop from 212 million shekels ($63 million) in 2023. The decline is largely due to maritime traffic being rerouted to Israel’s Mediterranean ports of Haifa and Ashdod amid ongoing Houthi threats in the Red Sea.
Sources from the port described the shutdown as a major blow to Israel’s economy and a symbolic “victory for the Houthis,” the Yemeni movement that has been targeting Israeli-linked vessels in protest against the war in Gaza.
Israeli lawmaker Oded Forer criticized the government’s failure to protect strategic trade routes and support the port, calling the closure a “badge of shame.” He accused the state of allowing a critical southern gateway to “collapse quietly” despite repeated warnings.
Before the war, Eilat’s main source of revenue came from offloading imported vehicles, about 150,000 cars in 2023. In stark contrast, no vehicles were unloaded in 2024, and the number of docking ships plummeted from 134 to just 6 by May 2025.
Although the Israeli government approved a 15 million shekel grant to bail out the port earlier this year, port officials say the support was too little, too late.
“They threw us to the dogs,” one official told The Calcalist. “This is a victory for the Houthis and a loss for the Israeli economy.”
Due to the financial crisis, the port laid off more than half its staffonly 47 out of 113 workers remain. Many now face unemployment without compensation.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, launched maritime attacks in response to Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed over 58,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 140,000, the majority of them women and children. The group says their operations will continue as long as the war in Gaza persists.
