Tel Aviv: Israeli military and emergency services said a long-range Iranian-made drone hit the centre of Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday, killing one man and injuring four others. The attack, which occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed the killing of a senior commander of the Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon, was claimed by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Israel's military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model. "Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv," he told a briefing with journalists. The attack on Tel Aviv is likely to fuel fears about further inflaming of tensions in the Middle East from the Gaza war, as Houthis and other Iran-backed proxies side with the Hamas militant group.
An Israeli official said the military was still investigating why the drone did not trigger air alarms on Friday, but initial reports suggested the drone was identified but the sirens were not sounded due to human error. "We're talking about a large UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that can fly large distances," the military official told journalists after the strike.
What did Houthis say?
A spokesman for Yemen's Houthis, which like Hezbollah are aligned with Iran, said the group had attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and would continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv a primary target "within the range of our weapons".
He further said the strike was carried out using a new drone called "Yafa", which he said was capable of bypassing interception systems and undetectable by radars. "The operation has achieved its goals successfully," Saree said.
The Houthis have repeatedly launched drones and missiles toward Israel throughout the nine-month-long war, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against Israel. But until Friday, all were intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region. 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 Hezbollah.
Israel's emergency services said the body of a 50 year-old man was found in an apartment close to the explosion and four people were taken to hospital with slight shrapnel injuries. Four others were treated for shock. All of them were later released, health services said.
Has Mohammed Deif been killed?
An Israeli airstrike intended for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif has killed at least 90 Palestinians in southern Gaza last week. Hagari said there were "increasing signs" that Mohammed Deif, head of the military wing of Hamas, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike last week.
Deif is believed to be the chief mastermind behind the Hamas-led October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war. He has been on the top of Israel's most-wanted list for years and is believed to have escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts in the past.
Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities in the enclave.
(with inputs from agencies)
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