The Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack in central Tel Aviv, Israel, that crashed into a building near the U.S. consulate early Friday, killing at least one person. The Israeli military said it was still investigating the episode, including who had launched the drone, which was carrying explosives.
A large drone that can fly long distances struck an apartment building just after 3 a.m. local time, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more freely. No alarms were activated in the attack, the Israeli military said earlier in a statement.
A spokesperson 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. The militia, which is based in Yemen, used a new drone that can get past Israel’s defense systems and is not detected by radar, he added.
The Israeli military official said it was possible that the country’s defense systems had registered the drone but misidentified it. Because the drone was capable of traveling long distances, the military was not ruling out any possibilities and was looking into whether it had been launched from Yemen, the official said, adding that no more attacks were thought to be headed toward Israel.
Since November, the Houthis have been attacking ships in a vital route in the Red Sea in a campaign in support of Palestinians. The military official said that dozens of drones had been launched at Israel since the war with Hamas began in October.
Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has launched thousands of strikes on northern Israel since the start of the war, some of which have been thwarted by the country’s antimissile defenses. Israel has also launched thousands of strikes on Lebanon in that period. In both countries, tens of thousands of people have evacuated from areas near the border.
Tel Aviv is about 130 miles south of the border with Lebanon. The military official said that the drone that struck the city was not believed to have come from the north, but that nothing had been confirmed.
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.
Asked whether Israel would respond to the attack, the military official said it would first work to fully assess the situation.
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 spokesperson 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 said 10 people had been wounded and described them 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” that could be heard 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. The military said that security forces were at the scene and that the air force had increased patrols of Israeli air space.
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