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Houthi rebels have caused the deaths of at least six people on a cargo ship traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Tuesday, marking the first fatalities from attacks on maritime vessels near Yemen since the group ended a long-standing truce last month.

Getting into it: Yemen’s Transport Ministry reported that the Houthis launched three ballistic missiles toward the Tihamah, torching the ship and inflicting heavy damage. Three Pakistani sailors and one Indonesian lost their lives. The Yemeni coast guard stated that the Houthis resumed firing during a rescue operation, and a second strike killed two rescuers from the National Resistance Forces, a group allied with the government. Ten additional individuals were injured, seven of whom were crew members.

The ownership of the ship is not clear. Equasis, a database for shipping information, shows the Tihamah as a small cargo ship from Egypt flying a Tanzanian flag, while the Transport Ministry states it is from Yemen.

The Houthis have not commented on the casualties. Their news agency reported that the group attacked a ship carrying Saudi military supplies through the waterway, without identifying the ship, while Riyadh has not addressed the incident.

Yemen’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attack and urged the global community to shift from mere condemnation to taking effective, decisive steps against the Houthis. The United Nations called for restraint, warning that renewed hostilities risked pulling Yemen into a broader regional conflict and causing civilian suffering.

This all comes as the Bab el-Mandeb matters more than usual right now because Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, which handled roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil trade before the war, leaving the Red Sea as the alternate route for Saudi crude. In recent weeks, the Houthi’s have threatened to close the strait, and if they did so some analysts project oil prices could go up 20-50% in a week.