Two major freight firms including MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co, the world’s biggest container shipping line, on Saturday said they would avoid the Suez Canal as Houthi militants in Yemen stepped up their assaults on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi movement has been attacking vessels in response to the Gaza war on a route that allows East-West trade, and especially oil, to use the Suez Canal to save the time and expense of circumnavigating Africa. War risk insurance premiums have risen as a result. The Liberian-flagged MSC Palatium III was attacked on Friday with a drone in the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen at the southern end of the Red Sea, according to the Houthis. No injuries were reported, but the vessel suffered some fire damage and was taken out of service, MSC said in a statement. Another Liberian-flagged vessel, Hapag Lloyd’s Al Jasrah, was hit by a missile, the U.S. military said. Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk on Friday paused all its container shipments through Bab al-Mandab until further notice, and it was joined on Saturday by the Swiss-based MSC and the French shipping group CMA CGM. “The situation is further deteriorating and concern for safety is increasing,” CMA CGM said in a statement. The German container line Hapag Lloyd had said it might do the same. The Houthis have in recent weeks stepped up attacks on shipping and fired drones and missiles towards Israel – on Saturday hitting the Red Sea resort city of Eilat – in support of the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamist Hamas group fighting Israel in Gaza. U.S. Central Command said the guided-missile destroyer Carney had shot down 14 drones launched by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Saturday morning. In a statement, it said they were assessed to be one-way attack drones and had been shot down with no damage to ships. Britain also said one of its warships had shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping.