The National Security Council of Israel yesterday issued an urgent instruction to the country's ports to remove information about the arrivals and departures of ships from their websites, "Globes" has learned. "As soon as it becomes clear in the future that there is no longer a problem that must be taken into account, it will be possible to immediately return to the previous situation."
The National Security Council's instruction comes in the wake of Monday afternoon's attack on the Norwegian chemical tanker the STRINDA, 60 nautical miles north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, when Iranian-backed Houthis rebels fired a cruise missile at the ship from Yemen. The US military said that the attack caused damage but there were no casualties.
The STRINDA was officially sailing from Malaysia to Venice but from Ashdod Port's website, it was possible to know that the Norwegian vessel was due to dock in Israel on January 4. The Houthis attacked the ship when there were no US warships in the vicinity but the USS Mason subsequently came to the Norwegian ship's aid.
The tanker was flying the Norwegian flag and is owned by Norway's Mowinckel Chemical Tankers, which said the ship was sailing to Italy with a cargo of biofuel feedstock, not crude oil, as claimed by the Houthis. But Mowinckel did concede that an Israeli port call was scheduled for January, something the Houthis would have been able to discover through a simple Internet search..
Mowinckel said, "Upon the recommendation of our security advisors, it was decided to withhold this information (about the Israeli port call) until the vessel and her crew were in safe waters."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 13, 2023.
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