The Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a rare drone attack in central Tel Aviv that crashed into a building near the United States Embassy branch office early Friday, killing at least one person and wounding eight others.
The Israeli military said the drone had likely flown from Yemen, where the Houthis are based, before approaching Tel Aviv from the coast. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that the drone was a Samad-3, an Iranian model, that had been adapted for long-distance flight.
Israel’s defense systems had apparently picked up the drone but failed to register it as a threat, Admiral Hagari said. “We are investigating why we did not identify it, attack it and intercept it,” he said.
No air-raid sirens were activated to warn civilians of the attack, despite Israel’s extensive aerial defense system.
A spokesman for the Houthi militia, Yahya Sarea, said in a televised statement that the group had targeted Tel Aviv and that it would continue to target the city. He said the militia had used a new drone that can get past Israel’s defense systems and is not detected by radar, but Admiral Hagari denied that the drone had stealth capabilities that enabled it to evade Israeli surveillance.
Asked whether Israel would respond to the attack, Admiral Hagari said it would first work to fully assess the situation.
Iran-backed militants across the Middle East have fired masses of rockets and drones at Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack triggered Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza. Israel has intercepted most of them, leaving central Israel mostly unscathed in recent months — until Friday, when the explosive-laden drone struck the building just after 3 a.m.
Since November, the Houthis have also been attacking ships along a vital route in the Red Sea in what they have described as a campaign in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Admiral Hagari said that dozens of drones had been launched at Israel from Yemen since the war with Hamas began in October, most of which were intercepted by American or Israeli forces.
Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has launched thousands of strikes on northern Israel since the start of the war, many of which Israel’s antimissile defenses have thwarted. Israel has also launched thousands of strikes on Lebanon in that period. Over 150,000 people have fled border towns in both countries, with little prospect of returning home.
Ron Huldai, the mayor of Tel Aviv, said the city was on heightened alert.
“The war is still here, and it is hard and painful,” he said on social media, referring to Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The body of a 50-year-old man was found in a nearby apartment building as emergency workers were combing through the area around the explosion, according to a statement from Zaki Heller, a spokesman for Israel’s national emergency service. The man was found in his apartment and had shrapnel injuries, the Tel Aviv police said in a statement.
The police described the wounded as “lightly injured.” Four of them suffered penetrating and blunt-force trauma, Roee Klein, a paramedic for the national emergency service, said in a video.
Witnesses described a “very loud explosion” audible miles away. Surveillance video widely circulated on social media and verified by Storyful shows a bright flash of light, followed by a boom and the sound of an alarm.
The police said that a large number of forces were responding to the explosion. Israeli’s military said that security forces were at the scene and that the air force had increased patrols of Israeli air space.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Ronen Bergman contributed reporting.
