Revenues from the Suez Canal have dropped by 50 percent due to growing tensions in the Red Sea, said the Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Egypt Hala Helmy el-Said on Sunday.
“The decline is caused by disruption in maritime traffic due to tensions in the Red Sea,” el-Said said in a speech on the sidelines of the Economic Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Suez Canal, a critical maritime route for global trade, is the shortest sea route between Europe and Asia. It is one of the main sources of foreign currency for Egypt.
The transit through the international waterway has been affected by tensions in the Red Sea amid attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial ships linked to Israel.
In violation of the temporary decision of the International Court of Justice, Israel continues its attacks on the Gaza Strip, where, according to Palestinian health authorities’ data since October 7th, at least 34.454 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 77.575 have been injured.
The Israeli war has displaced 85 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip, with acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines, while 60 percent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations (UN) data.
Israel has been accused of genocide before the International Court of Justice. In a provisional ruling in January, Tel Aviv was ordered to stop genocidal acts and take measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
