The CEO of the Israeli Eilat Port, Gideon Golber, stated that he is "forced to lay off half of the workers due to the port's closure for the past eight months, following operations by the 'Houthi' group in the Red Sea." This was mentioned in an interview conducted by the Hebrew newspaper "Maariv" with Golber on Sunday.
Golber said, "Eilat Port is Israel's southern gateway to the Far East, Australia, and Africa." He added, "At the end of November last year, the situation changed completely when the Houthis hijacked a ship belonging to NYK and abducted its crew, closing the maritime passage. Since then, Eilat Port has ceased its operations."
Golber explained, "All activity has stopped because ships are unable to pass in either direction to reach Eilat Port, nor to transit to Europe via the Suez Canal. Therefore, the port has halted its activities and income has stopped." He indicated that this situation has "caused heavy economic losses for Eilat Port," warning that "50 percent of the workers at the port will be laid off this week due to the inability to pay their salaries."
He added, "Eilat Port employs 110 direct operational staff, and there are between 40 to 100 other security personnel depending on the activity they perform." Golber further elaborated, "There are between 250 to 300 other people working indirectly with the port. Since work came to a halt, everything has essentially stopped; we have salary expenses, we have taxes, we have property taxes, we have no income, only expenses."
In further comments to the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth," he mentioned that he pays salaries to workers amounting to 3.5 million shekels monthly (approximately 952,000 dollars). He added, "Since the beginning of the war, we have lost about 50 million shekels (13.61 million dollars), and we have not received any assistance from the state."
