Navy special forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used a helicopter to board and seize a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. It added that the MSC Aries was being transferred to Iranian territorial waters.
Video on the state-owned news network, Press TV, showed what it said were people using a rope to drop onto the ship. NBC News could not independently verify the footage.
IRNA stated that the Portuguese-flagged ship was operated by the Zodiac shipping company, which it linked to an Israeli businessman. Zodiac said in a statement that the ship is managed and operated by the U.K.-based shipping company, MSC.
Iranian authorities did not immediately issue a public statement on the incident.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said on X that the vessel had been seized 50 nautical miles northeast of the Fujairah, an area close to the Strait of Hormuz that forms the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
When asked by NBC News, the Israeli government said it had no comment on the ship’s seizure.
In a separate statement on Saturday, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Iran would “bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.”
“Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond,” he said.
The attack comes after a strike, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, on the Iranian consular building in Syria’s capital, Damascus earlier this month. Israel did not take responsibility for that strike, but Tehran vowed revenge.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at a prayer ceremony celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday April 10 that Israel “must be punished, and it will be punished.” Since the building destroyed was a consular building, he said, it amounted to an attack on Iranian soil.
The United States has signaled its support for Israel and worked to persuade Iran to stop short of a significant escalation. While increasingly critical of the way Israel was pursuing the war in Gaza, President Joe Biden has pledged that America’s “commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is iron-clad.”
Tensions in the region have been at boiling point since Hamas’ Oct. 7 deadly terror attack and mass hostage taking and Israel’s subsequent fullscale assault on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the deaths of more than 33,000 and pushed the population to the brink of starvation.