The British military's UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said the attack on the ship took place off the coast of Aden.
 "Suspected Houthi group attacks target ship in Gulf of Aden, Israeli city of Eilat")
The Houthis have previously attacked Eilat with drones and missiles | Main Photo: Bloomberg AP Dubai
The attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels early on Wednesday appeared to target a ship in the Gulf of Aden and the southern Israeli port city of Eilat, authorities said.
The attack came after the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier left port after an eight-month deployment leading the US response to the Houthi attacks. These attacks have significantly reduced shipping traffic through a shipping lane vital to markets in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, but the Houthis insist the operations will continue as long as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues.
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The attack on the ship took place off the coast of Aden, according to the British military's UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre.
The merchant ship's captain reported that a missile had landed on the water near his vessel, UKMTO said. The crew are safe and the vessel is en route to its next port of call.
UKMTO did not say whether the ship had been damaged.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said a drone had crashed off the coast of Eilat early on Wednesday, and the army sounded air raid sirens in the area.
The Israeli army said the drone was monitored by soldiers throughout the incident but did not enter Israeli territory. Interceptors were fired at the drone during the incident.
The Houthis have previously targeted Eilat with drones and missiles.
The Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility for either attack, but it could be hours or even days before the rebels acknowledge the attacks.
The rebels have targeted more than 60 ships with missiles and drones, killing four sailors. Since November, they have seized one ship and sunk two. A U.S.-led air campaign has been targeting Houthis since January, and the rebels said a series of airstrikes on May 30 killed at least 16 people and wounded 42.
The Houthis claim that their attacks are targeting ships linked to Israel, the US and Britain, but many of the ships attacked, including those bound for Iran, have little or no connection to Israel's war with Hamas.
Late Tuesday, Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saleh claimed the Greek-controlled, Liberian-flagged container ship MSC Salah V was attacked on Monday. Saleh claimed the Houthis used a new type of ballistic missile in the attack but did not provide additional evidence. The missile targeted a ship far from nearly all of the Houthis' previous attacks in the Gulf of Aden.
