Dramatic footage of plumes of smoke rising from a cargo ship shows an incident in 2017, contradicting social media reports that wrongly linked it to a Houthi attack in the Arabian Sea, when the rebels targeted commercial shipping after the war broke out in Gaza. The video shows a fire engulfing a massive container ship off the coast of Sri Lanka.
“Israeli cargo ship MSC Sarah V after a missile attack by Houthi fighters,” it reads in a Sinhalese language. Facebook post who shared the video on June 27.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched dozens of missile and drone attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea since November 2023, attacks they say are in solidarity with the Palestinians during the war in Gaza (archived link).
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also captured 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza. The army says 42 are dead.
At least 37,950 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli retaliation attack, according to figures from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-ruled area.
The minute-long video shows thick plumes of smoke billowing from a cargo ship as two ships on either side of it try to extinguish the flames.