At dawn on Thursday, 19 December 2024, between seven and nine civilians were killed, and at least one civilian was injured in declared Israeli airstrikes on the al-Sulaif Port in the al-Hudaydah Governorate, western Yemen. Employees of the Yemeni Red Sea Ports Corporation were reportedly among the civilian casualties, and were said to be the crew members of a civilian tugboat that was hit in the strike.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released a statement on their website that “Fighter jets and aircraft of the Air Force, under the direction of the Intelligence and Navy Branch, flew nearly 2,000 kilometers last night and attacked, with the help of over 60 bombs, military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the western coastal strip and deep inside Yemen.” The IDF also published a map of “targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Sana’a area and the western coastal strip in Yemen” which included two strikes on al-Hudaydah where al-Sulaif Port is located, in addition to mentioning “Among the targets: … eight tugboats”.

Facebook user Hasan Kateesh, noting that the strike took place at dawn, shared images of six of the civilians killed. Users on social media shared the names and designations of some of the identified civilians among those killed.

Abdullah al-Ajam shared a post on Facebook listing the names of those killed in the strike – Abdullah Mukhlis, Abdo Ibrahim, Awad Sajma, Osama Hassan Deek, Essam Bakri, Yahya Alwan, and Mohammed Omar Zaim. He noted that they were “from Tihama working for the Red Sea Ports Corporation” and added images of the victims.

Shaifa Mohasn shared the news of the death of Mohammed Zaim and “several” others, noting that he was the captain of the civilian tugboat crew. Zaim’s younger sibling Hakmi al-Zaim posted saying “My support and my beloved older brother, Captain Mohammed Zaim, has passed away”, sharing an image of Mohammed – a clean-shaven, cheerful middle-aged man with a thin mustache. Mohammed Hagar posted the news of the death of Abdullah Mukhlis “and the rest of the martyrs on duty”, noting that Abdullah was an engineer for the crew and sharing his photo, a cheery middle-aged man with glasses and a goatee. Nader Alwan shared a tribute in the memory of his cousin Yahya Muhammad Hadan Alwan, and shared a photo of Yahya, a smiling, bearded middle-aged man. Ilhab Omran Sabry posted an image of Osama al-Deek, a smiling young bearded man smartly dressed in a tuxedo and tie, and offered condolences to his surviving family members. Facebook user Mothar posted an image of their friend Essam Bakri, saying “He ascended to his Lord as a martyr while performing his duty.”

Mohammed Sagiri posted details of the funeral for the civilians killed, which took place three days after the strike, and shared the funeral banner that had images of nine victims killed in the strike – Mohammed Zaim and Essam Bakri are seen dressed in their merchant navy uniforms.

Many other friends and relatives mourned their passing and posted their images with heartfelt tributes on social media, a particularly poignant one was posted by Facebook user Hamaz Waleed al-Wafi about the crew members of the Abu Ali-

“Life burdened them with its difficult circumstances, and the world exhausted them with its hardships, which only the simple person knows the path to in these wretched times. They suffered the hardship of life and the responsibilities of this world with patience, hope, and optimism, and moments in which they steal joy from the world like a hungry orphan on the roads of desolation. They were forgotten because they were the weakest, invisible link in the big gear that turns, grinding their days and dreams, stealing them alive and dead. They did not abandon their duty or the voice of their conscience despite the injustice and unfairness inflicted upon them, and they performed their message with all sincerity, honesty, diligence, effort, silence, and the patience of the greats. Their demands are simple, and their needs for living are simpler. They grew tired and exhausted demanding a salary increase, incentive, insurance, additional benefits, food allowance, danger allowance, or humanitarian allowance, but their voices, like them, are not heard, even though they are the nerve of the big gear that grinds them. Now their voices and groans will be heard, and the moment of their martyrdom will be witnessed, their virtues will be remembered, and their pictures will be hung only because they left, even though they grew tired in conveying their voices and groans over years and years… The moment of their martyrdom came to remind us of the state of this wretched time, that such stars die, shackled by helplessness, surrounded by sorrow, and no one mourns them. My dear departed friends…”

Al-Masirah TV reported that there were “seven martyrs” as a result of an airstrike on the port of Sulaif, attributing the strike to Israeli forces. Other local news and social media sources including Al Hadath News, Al Nour Radio, and the Beirut News Center, further corroborated that seven civilians had been killed at the port in Israeli strikes. Yemen Shabab TV News reported that nine civilians, employees of the Red Sea Ports Corporation, had been killed in the strike that hit a tugboat called “Abu Ali” at the port. An image they shared showed the damaged tugboat and the port, surrounded by people during the day in the aftermath of the strike. Mohammed Sagiri posted an image with memorials to nine men, identified as “martyrs” of the Red Sea Ports Corporation – while nine names are included in this image, half of the names are not legible, and therefore the two additional names were not possible to discern.

Al Hadath News later shared a video showing a damaged crane, boat and other debris at the port, and stated that between Israeli strikes at the Sulaif port and the Ras Issa oil facility three civilians had been injured, along with reports of killed civilians. Given that the injury toll for the strikes on Ras Issa (separately assessed in ISYEM241219a) was determined to be 1-2 based on the sources, an injury toll of 1-2 has been recorded for the strike at the Sulaif Port.