Tel Aviv, Israel: Yemen’s Houthis claim responsibility for deadly drone attack near US embassy

CNN
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On Friday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a deadly drone strike in Tel Aviv, the latest attack by the Iranian proxy group that they said was a response to Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The explosion in a central district that is home to several diplomatic missions, including a branch of the U.S. embassy, ​​killed a 50-year-old man and injured at least 10 others, according to Israeli emergency officials and police.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Sare’e said the “major military operation” was successfully carried out using a new drone capable of “evading the enemy’s interception systems.”

“We will continue to attack these targets in response to the enemy’s massacres and daily crimes against our brothers in the Gaza Strip,” Sare’e said. “Our operations will not stop until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”

CNN cannot independently confirm the Houthi spokesman’s claim.

The drone that caused the explosion was detected by an Israeli air defense system but was not intercepted due to “human error,” an Israeli military official said.

The drone was armed with a “warhead” and crashed into a residential building, the official added, without providing further details about the device’s payload.

The official did not confirm whether the drone was launched by the Houthis.

The Israeli military is investigating the attack and does not believe there are any imminent threats, the official said.

According to an initial investigation, “no sirens were activated” during the incident, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The Air Force increased its air patrols in response to the incident.

The explosion occurred about 100 meters from the grounds of the U.S. embassy, ​​according to a CNN analysis of open-source satellite imagery of the scene.

There was no damage to the US diplomatic mission and there were no reports of injuries to US personnel or “locally employed personnel”, the US State Department said.

“We are in close contact with Israeli authorities to fully investigate the source of the explosion and its intended target,” the spokesman said, adding that the embassy in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv branch are ready to provide consular assistance to U.S. citizens.

Rescue workers responded to the explosion of an “object” on Shalom Aleichem Street, the Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said.

“The dead man had suffered deep injuries,” said MDA paramedic Roi Klein.

At least four of the injured suffered shrapnel injuries, the MDA said.

Police urged residents “not to touch any rocket remnants that may contain explosives.”

“Following the explosion incident in the Tel Aviv area, large police forces have arrived on the scene and are working to secure the area and search for suspicious objects and other threats,” the Israeli police spokesman said.

The Houthis have been attacking US targets and commercial shipping in the Red Sea since Israel began invading Gaza, following an attack by Hamas on October 7 in which more than 1,100 people were killed and around 250 others kidnapped.

According to Palestinian authorities, Israel’s air and ground offensive against Gaza has killed more than 38,000 people in the enclave. The war has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip, which has a population of over two million people, reduced large parts of the territory to rubble and triggered a massive humanitarian crisis.

The war has also raised fears of a wider regional conflict that could cause further human suffering and shocks to the global economy. The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, for example, have forced some of the world’s largest shipping and oil companies to stop transiting one of the most important maritime trade routes.

The drone attack in Tel Aviv on Friday came after the Houthis said earlier this month that they had attacked ships in the Israeli port of Haifa with several drones as part of joint military operations with Iran-backed militias based in Iraq.

The Israeli military told CNN at the time that they were not aware of any such incident.

This is a developing story and will be updated.