TEL AVIV: Yemen’s Houthis military spokesperson said on Friday the group attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and will continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.
A statement from the militia, who have carried out dozens of attacks against Red Sea shipping in what they say is an act of solidarity with Palestinians during the Gaza war, said their “UAV force” attacked “one of the important targets in the occupied Jaffa region, what is now called Israeli Tel Aviv.”
The drone attack killed one man and slightly wounded four others, the Israeli military and emergency services said.
The explosion, which did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.
An Israeli military official said a “very big” drone was used in an attack on Tel Aviv on Friday that killed one person, and “human error” led to the missile not being intercepted.
The military official told a briefing that an attack by the Iran-backed Houthis was “one of the possibilities” being investigated.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “a very big drone that can travel long distances” was used in the attack which was at 3.12 a.m. (0012 GMT).
He said the drone “crashed into an apartment building” and “it wasn’t a tiny drone.”
The official said the aim was “terrorism.” “Their main goal was to kill civilians in Israel.”
The official said the drone was detected but the alarm was not immediately raised because of “human error.”
“There was no alert that sounded in Tel Aviv because it wasn’t activated.
“There was a human error that caused the interception and defense systems not to be operated,” the official said.
“Obviously, one of the possibilities we’re looking into is Yemen because of the Houthi announcements. But we’re not ruling out anything.”
The official said another drone was detected on Israel’s eastern border.
“Last night, there was another incident where we thwarted a UAV on our eastern border, another UAV.” He gave no details on where it came from.
The attack on Tel Aviv is likely to fan fears about further fallout from the Gaza war, as the Houthis and other Iranian proxies side with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
It said air patrols had been increased to protect Israeli airspace but said it had not ordered new civil defense measures, however the mayor of Tel Aviv said the city, Israel’s economic center, had been moved to a state of heightened alert.
A spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi militants, which like Hezbollah are backed by 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.
In a televised speech, spokesperson Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv a primary target “within the range of our weapons.”
Israel’s emergency services said the body of a 50 year-old man was found in an apartment close to the explosion and said the circumstances were being investigated.
Four people were taken to hospital with slight shrapnel injuries and four others were treated for shock. All of them were later released, the hospital said.
Footage from the site showed an apparent impact on a building located close to US embassy premises in Tel Aviv. Broken glass could be seen strewn across the city pavements as crowds of onlookers gathered nearby. The site was sealed off by police tape.
Israeli media said fragments from an drone of a kind widely used by Iranian-backed militia groups in the region had been recovered nearby.
Israel has been exchanging daily missile and artillery fire with Hezbollah along its northern border and in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza, prompting 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.
Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel in October last year.