TEHRAN – Danish shipping giant Maersk announced Friday it will soon suspend all vessel calls at Israel’s Haifa port.
In a statement sent to clients, the company confirmed: “After a careful analysis of threat risk reports regarding the continued Israeli and Iran conflict, the potential risks of calling certain Israeli ports, particularly the impact on crew safety, have been decided that Maersk will temporarily suspend air ports at Haifa ports.
The move sent smoke plumes over key trade hubs, including suspected oil refineries and military logistics facilities, after Iranian ballistic missiles attacked a strategic point in Haifa.
Iran’s operations were called True Promise III and punished the damage to the regime’s infrastructure and economy.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has issued a detailed communion that declared that the recent strike targeted “military and industrial sites related to Haifa’s Israeli defense industry” and emphasized the accuracy of ballistic missiles to facilities supporting “invasions against oppressed countries.”
Social media footage showed multiple effects near the port complex, with one missile causing serious damage to the Bazan Group’s oil refinery (Israel’s largest), forcing a temporary shutdown and killing three settlers.
Israel’s maritime quarantine accelerates
Maersk’s withdrawal combines the cascade of maritime trade crisis of the Israeli regime, which deals with 98% of commerce.
With Haifa handling more than a third of Israel’s container volumes, suspensions are threatening that supply chains are already succumbing to local pressure.
Compounding this even further, the Port of Ashdod (the second-largest hub of the Israeli regime) is increasingly constrained by its proximity to Gaza, where Palestinian resistance work is disrupting the logistics corridor.
Rocket fires and security alerts slow cargo handling, but shipping insurers are currently collecting “high risk” premiums that stop the ship from being called.
Meanwhile, the Port of Eilat, which once linked Israel to the Asian market via the Red Sea, has been effectively abolished.
Yemen’s Ansarla-led lockdown was forced in solidarity with Gaza and has halted most traffic through the Babu-er-Mandev Strait since late 2023.
Satellite data monitors critical imports of vehicles and electronics, revealing a 92% reduction in Eilat’s cargo throughput.
As interceptors decrease, economic fees increase
Israel’s war economy bleedings more than $200 million every day, according to a preliminary assessment by the Aaron Institute for Economic Policy.
Tens of millions of people will be consumed by Iranian missiles alone. Each arrow three missile costs $4 million, while David’s sling interceptor runs between $700,000 and $2 million per launch.
Experts estimate that restructuring the damage caused solely by Iran’s missile strikes could cost at least $400 million.
Iran’s calibrated strike systematically degraded Israel’s economic resilience.
Beyond Haifa’s refinery, a crash into the central Israeli power grid caused a blackout, but it was a direct hit at Belsheva’s Microsoft data center, which had acquired the target for “cooperation with enemy forces.”
The IRGC emphasized that the facility houses the “spy and artificial intelligence sector” and directly supported military operations.