Houthi drone strikes Tel Aviv: How significant is the attack?
Al Jazeera
It’s the first time that the Yemeni group are known to have hit Tel Aviv, signalling their growing reach.
Yemen’s Houthi group has claimed responsibility for the drone that struck overnight in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing one person and injuring eight.
Israeli media identified the dead man as 50-year-old Yevgeny Ferder, who had moved to Israel from Belarus at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Last night’s strike is unique — it’s the first time the group is known to have hit Tel Aviv, though the Houthi have waged a continued campaign against targets they claim are linked to Israel since the ongoing devastating war on Gaza broke out in October.
The drone struck in central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday morning. The site itself is thought to be close to a number of hotels, many hosting those displaced from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. A US embassy office is also close to the site of the attack.
“An initial inquiry indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the falling of an aerial target, and no sirens were activated. The incident is under thorough review,” the Israeli military said in a statement, attributing its inability to detect the drone to human error rather than a system failure.
