Iran-backed Houthis claim responsibility for deadly drone strike on Tel Aviv

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a drone strike near the US embassy in central Tel Aviv, leaving one person dead and at least four injured.

A district police commander has said the explosion took place in the air at around 3:10am local time (1:10am UK time) on Friday morning and reverberated to nearby cities.

The blast rumbled through the streets causing shards of shrapnel to rain down and scattering broken glass across a large area, with a man in his 50s later found dead in an apartment by emergency response workers.

The Israeli military has said four people were injured while police said earlier at least 10 were hurt.

The Houthis claimed their newest drones can bypass Israel’s aerial defence systems.

However, a spokesperson for Israel’s military said on Friday that the explosive-laden drone had been identified on Thursday and the strike, which did not trigger alarms, took place after “human error”.

The Houthi rebels have repeatedly launched drones and missiles towards Israel since the 7 October attacks in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinian people.

However, until Friday, all had been intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region.

Yahya Sare’e, the Houthis’ spokesperson, said in a statement published on X that Friday’s strike was made in retaliation for Israel’s attacks on Gaza and had hit one of many of the group’s targets.

An Israeli military spokesman described the strike as a “terror attack” that was “targeted to kill civilians”.

“We’re talking about a large UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that can fly large distances,” the Israeli military official added.

The official did not confirm the claim from the Houthi militia but said: “We’re not ruling out any possibilities right now.”

The attack on Tel Aviv has far wider implications than the damage and the loss of life. For Israel’s government and the military it is a major blow. A militant group thousands of miles away has managed to penetrate the country’s air defences striking at the heart of the nation.

Sitting on the Mediterranean on a coastal plain Tel Aviv is Israel’s commercial capital – it’s the economic pump that keeps the Jewish state working.

The Houthi drone strike will set alarm bells ringing. As part of Iran’s axis of resistance it demonstrates how vulnerable Israel is to a multi-front war.

With the conflict in Gaza entering its ninth month the IDF is already stretched. The attack will be celebrated and cheered by Israel’s enemies.

Although not as devastating as it could have been it is symbolically a major victory. The Houthis have in the past hit parts of Eilat in the south, including a naval base, but to hit Tel Aviv without detection or air raid sirens sounding ushers in a potentially dangerous new horizon and a significant threat.

It’s not clear where the drone was launched but if it travelled directly from Yemen that would indicate that the Houthis have new long range capability – putting all of Israel in striking range.

Israel’s security establishment will now have to work out how to deal with this new threat.

The Israeli military said earlier that a blast had taken place in the city due to the “falling of an aerial target and no sirens were activated”.

The military added that it was increasing air patrols but had not ordered new civil defence measures.

A district police commander in Tel Aviv said: “The explosion was in the air, and the destruction was caused by the impact. We do not have a targeted crash site. It is not clear to us at the moment what the device was that exploded.”

Zachi Heller, a spokesman for Israel’s national emergency service the Magen David Adom, said medics and paramedics from the organisation provided medical treatment and evacuated eight people to the Wolfson and Ichilov hospitals.

A 37-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman were injured at home, while a woman in her mid-20s and a man in his late 20s or early 30s were injured out in the street.

MDA paramedic Roy Klein and MDA medics Yoel Rosenthal and Asher Greider said in a joint statement: “They were fully conscious and suffered from injuries – shrapnel in the shoulder and limbs and one suffered from a head injury, we gave them initial treatment and evacuated them to the hospital in a minor condition.”

They added that the 50-year-old man who died was found unconscious “without signs of life” in an apartment and was confirmed dead a short time later.

The Houthi strike hit hours after Israel’s military confirmed one of its airstrikes had killed a commander from Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group and other militants in southern Lebanon.

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Israel has so far not launched any attacks on the Houthis, allowing its allies instead to take the lead as it focuses its efforts on the war in Gaza and ongoing fighting with Hezbollah.

Israel has also for the most part avoided a direct confrontation with Iran throughout the war in Gaza.

Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel during a single incident in April in response to Israel’s alleged assassination of a pair of Iranian generals in Syria.

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