Updated July 19, 2024 @ 8:08am
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Iranian-made drone sent by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck Tel Aviv on Friday, leaving one person dead and at least 10 wounded in the group's first lethal strike into Israel.
The aerial strike — the first lethal Houthi attack in Israel — rumbled through the center of the city near the U.S. Embassy, causing shrapnel to rain down and spreading shards of glass over a large radius.
“We are holding an investigation today and in the coming days to understand exactly from where the threat was fired and what are the needed responses to defend the country and what are the attacking responses against who is threatening the state of Israel,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for Israel's military.
The Houthis have launched drones and missiles toward Israel throughout the country's war with Hamas. But until Friday, all were intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region.
Yahya Sare'e, the Houthis' spokesperson, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published on the social media platform X. He said it was in retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war and had hit one of many of the group's targets.
Israel's military said it believed the drone — an Iranian Samad-3 upgraded to travel long distances — had travelled from Yemen, but rebuffed the Houthis′ claim that their arsenal was capable of bypassing Israel’s aerial defenses.
An Israeli military official said the explosive-laden drone was identified on Thursday but penetrated Israel because of “human error" in operating the system. The assessment of aerial threats has not changed because, the military said, Israel's adversaries have attempted such attacks for months.
The Houthi strike, the first to threaten Tel Aviv, hit at around 3:10 a.m. Local police said it reverberated to nearby cities and physically injured at least 10 people.
Israel's military said they had not determined whether the drone exploded in the air or directly struck buildings, but it blew out windows and damaged cars throughout the coastal neighborhood. People thronged to the area as police helicopters hovered overhead. For many, it reaffirmed feelings of disillusionment with how the military has handled the war over the past nine months.
Yossi Nevi, a retired evacuee from Kiryat Shmona living in a nearby hotel, said the blast shook him awake to watch the aftermath from his balcony and decreased his faith in the army's management of the war.
Hearing it was human error, Nevi said, made him lose “all trust in the army, not that I had much after the past nine months.”
Eldad Namdar, who owns a camera store next to the intersection where the drone is believed to have exploded, said he hopes the war ends soon, but he also wants it to be concluded in a way that secures his future.
“I don’t want this to happen again in six months, I want them to finish this situation until the end,” he said.
The Houthi strike hit hours after Israel’s military confirmed one of its airstrikes had killed a Hezbollah commander and other militants in southern Lebanon. Israel has so far not made 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 Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.
The Houthis have routinely claimed responsibility for hitting targets in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Analysts and Western intelligence services have long accused Iran of arming the group, a claim that Tehran denies. In recent years, U.S. naval forces have intercepted a number of ships packed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and missile parts on route from Iran to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom, however many have little or no connection to the war.
Friday’s drone strike on Tel Aviv could resurface fears about the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas expanding into a regionwide conflagration as international mediators continue to push for a cease-fire. The deal under discussion would halt fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
Such fears run counter to renewed hopes that Israel signaling its operation underway in Rafah nearing its finish could foster an environment more conducive to negotiations. The country remains divided over striking a deal, with some wanting the government to take the necessary steps to free the hostages and others, including far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir disavowing the idea. On Thursday, Ben-Gvir visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site to pray for the return of Israeli hostages, he said, “without a reckless deal, without surrendering.”
Israel's multilayered aerial defense system has intercepted thousands of projectiles throughout the war. But officials warn they are not 100% effective, and the systems appear to have struggled against small and hard-to-detect attack drones. A military official said the system had identified the weapon but due to human error, was not set to alarm in case of attack.
Like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are backed by Israel’s archenemy, Iran. Israel for the most part also has avoided direct confrontations with Iran throughout the war. 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 at the time.
The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.
Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
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Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco. Ibrahim Hazboun contributed from Jerusalem, Jack Jeffery from Ramallah, West Bank, and Michael Wakin from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
