Houthis claim responsibility for attack on Tel Aviv with Iranian-made drones

TEL AVIV:

An Iranian-made drone struck central Tel Aviv early Friday in an attack claimed by the Yemen-based Houthi militia, killing one man and wounding ten others, Israel’s military and emergency services said.

The explosion, which videos shared on social media suggested came from the sea and did not set off airstrike alarms, came hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. .

Chief spokesman Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military estimated the drone, which struck a building near the beach near the US embassy compound in Tel Aviv, was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.

“Our assessment is that he arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv,” he told a news conference.

A spokesman for the Houthis, who like Hezbollah are aligned with Iran, said the group attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and would continue to target Israel in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza war.

The attack, which came ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next week, is likely to heighten fears of further fallout from the Gaza war, as the Houthis and other Iranian proxies side with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with military commanders to review air defenses and said the country must be ready for all scenarios. “We must be prepared for defensive and offensive actions,” he said, according to a statement from his office.

An Israeli official said the military was still investigating why the drone did not trigger the alarm, but initial reports said the aircraft was identified but the sirens did not sound due to human error.

“We are talking about a large UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that can fly long distances,” the military official told reporters after the strike.

The military said air patrols were increased to protect Israeli airspace, but said it had not ordered new civil defense measures.

The mayor of Tel Aviv said the city, Israel’s financial center, had been placed on heightened alert.

In the hours after Friday’s attack, sirens sounded repeatedly in areas near the border with Lebanon, and Israeli air defenses intercepted at least one aerial target that crossed into Israel.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Shari called Tel Aviv a prime target “within the range of our weapons.”

He said the strike was carried out using a new unmanned aircraft called ‘Yafa’, which he said was capable of bypassing interceptor systems and was not detected by radars.

“The operation has successfully achieved its objectives,” Saree said in a televised speech.

Israel’s emergency services said the body of a 50-year-old man was found in an apartment near the blast, and four people were taken to hospital with minor shrapnel injuries. Four others were hospitalized for shock. All were later released, health officials said.

Israel has exchanged daily rocket and artillery fire with Hezbollah along its northern border and in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza, raising fears of a wider regional conflict if the situation escalates.

The Houthis have also stepped up attacks against Israel and Western targets, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, following Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip following last year’s attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel.

Hamas-led militants stormed Israeli cities on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back in Gaza, according to Israeli accounts. Since then, nearly 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities in the enclave.