Hanish Islands

Uncommon card · No. 181547

The Hanish Islands (Arabic: جزر حنيش, romanized: juzur ḥanīš, Tigrinya: ደሴታት ሓኒሽ, romanized: däsetat ḥaniš) form an archipelago in the Red Sea consisting of a trio of major islands at the centre of an array of smaller islets and rocks. The three major islands are the northern Zuqar Island, the southern Great Anish (Al-anīsh al-Kabīr), and the significantly smaller Little Anish (Al-anīsh al-Ṣaghīr) in between. The archipelago is largely under the control of Yemen, with only several small south-western rocks and islets granted to Eritrea by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 1998 following the Hanish Islands conflict in 1994–1995. The name may derive from a local word hanash meaning "snake" or "serpent". On 14 September 2026, the islands were captured by the Houthis (also known as Ansar Allah) during their ongoing conflict with the United Nations-recognized Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) of Yemen.

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