Authorities in the United States and United Kingdom say their warships have shot down 15 attack drones over the Red Sea as Israel’s war on Gaza threatens to expand across the region.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday its guided-missile destroyer responded to a wave of drones from “Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen” over the Red Sea, shooting down 14 suspected attack drones.

It described the launches as “unilateral attack drones” and said they were “shot down without any damage or injury to ships in the area.”

British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps also said the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Diamond fired a Sea Viper missile and destroyed a drone that was “targeting merchant ships.”

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said the group attacked the Israeli city of Eilat with a swarm of drones on Saturday, according to spokesman Yahya Sarea, who described the Red Sea resort town as being in “southern occupied Palestine.”

The Houthis promised continue their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, to pressure Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza.

“Global trade problem”

The Houthis reiterated their earlier promise to attack all Israel-affiliated ships, saying any vessel traveling to and from Israel in the waters off Yemen would be targeted.

CENTCOM reported that three merchant ships came under fire in the Red Sea on Friday.

Shapps said attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant vessels in the global trade artery “pose a direct threat to international trade and maritime security.”

“The UK remains committed to deterring these attacks to protect the free flow of global trade,” he said in a statement.

The threat to trade has increased in the region Container ships and oil tankers Ships flying the flags of countries such as Norway and Liberia have been attacked or fired upon by missiles in the waterway between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

French container shipping line CMA CGM Group said on Saturday it had ordered all ships sailing through the Red Sea to “suspend their voyages in safe waters with immediate effect until further notice.”

On Friday, Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, notified all ships planning to transit through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea stop their travels after a rocket attack on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship.

Germany-based shipowner Hapag-Lloyd said it would suspend all container ship traffic through the Red Sea by Monday.

John Stawpert of the International Chamber of Shipping told Al Jazeera that the Houthi attacks on the Red Sea had had a significant impact on global trade.

“We have seen two major airlines divert around the Cape of Good Hope [off South Africa] This will add six to 14 days to their journey. “It will delay the arrival of goods to the markets to which they are delivered,” he said. “This is not an Israeli trade issue. This is a global trade issue.”

Stawpert said the economic impact wasn’t immediately clear, but “if we look at the Suez Canal, we’re talking about $3 billion to $9 billion worth of trade going through every day – so it’s going to be significant.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels – who control much of Yemen but are not internationally recognized – have held Omani-brokered talks with “international parties” about their operations in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, a Houthi spokesman said on Saturday.

The statement did not name the international parties involved in the talks or say where or when they took place, but could suggest that the Houthis may be ready to de-escalate.

The Houthis stressed in the Oman-brokered talks that their position was not subject to negotiations until Israel stopped its “aggression” against Gaza and allowed humanitarian aid to enter, Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Salam said.

However, Abdel-Salam also said that “any real steps” to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by providing food and medicine would “contribute to containing the escalation.”

“We emphasized that to everyone [the Houthi] “The operations are in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and we cannot stand idly by in the face of aggression and siege,” he said.

The US-based website Semafor reported on Saturday that Washington was considering a direct attack on the Houthis in response to increasing attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea.

Officials in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration told the news site they are weighing the strategic value of targeting the group against the potential escalation of a larger Middle East conflict.

The USA has attacks carried out regularly about alleged Iran-aligned groups in Iraq and Syria in response to attacks on bases housing U.S. personnel.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday: “As the Houthis pull the trigger, so to speak, Iran puts the gun in their hands.”