Houthis pledge to spare US vessels as Red Sea tensions simmer amid West Bank violence

In the volatile geography of the Middle East, where trade routes and human lives are equally entangled in the consequences of unresolved conflict, the Houthi movement has pledged to spare American vessels in the Red Sea — a corridor through which a significant share of global commerce flows. The declaration, if honored, offers a partial reprieve to an international shipping industry battered by years of militant disruption, yet it arrives alongside fresh bloodshed in the West Bank, where an Israeli and a Palestinian have each lost their lives in the enduring cycle of reciprocal violence. Histo