Houthis Claim Responsibility for Drone Attack on Tel Aviv That Leaves 1 Dead

View of Tel Aviv skyline, Central Israel, on Sunday, April 14, 2024. Screenshot via NTD/Reuters

At least one civilian was killed and eight others were injured in a drone attack that hit the Israeli populous city of Tel Aviv on Friday, for which the Iran-backed Houthis have claimed responsibility.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the drone was launched from Yemen and struck a residential building in central Tel Aviv. The IDF also shared footage of the attack.

“We will continue operating to better protect Israelis against terrorism on all fronts,” the Israeli military said on a post on X.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the attack, which did not trigger any alarms in Israel, involved an Iranian-made Samad-3 weapon model that had been upgraded to extend the range of its flight.

The IDF was still investigating how the drone managed to bypass the country’s aerial defense system. Mr. Hagari said the defense system had detected the incoming drone but did not intercept it.

Another drone was fired from the east at the same time of the attack but it was shot down, the spokesman told a press briefing.

“We are investigating the connection between the two events,” Mr. Hagari said, adding that the Israeli military has ramped up aerial patrols to further strengthen the country’s air defense.

Houthi Claims New ‘Undetectable’ Drone Used in the Attack

The Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the drone attack, saying that it was done in solidarity with the people in Gaza.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Sare’e said in a statement posted on X that the strike targeted “one of the important targets” in Tel Aviv.

The spokesman claimed that the Houthis launched the attack using a new drone capable of “bypassing the enemy’s interception systems” and “undetectable by radars,” but he did not provide further details.

Mr. Sare’e said that Tel Aviv will remain “a primary target within the range of our weapons” and that such attacks will persist until the Israeli military operation against the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip ends.

The IDF stated on July 16 that it has killed or captured half of Hamas’s terrorist leaders and 14,000 of its fighters since the start of the war, following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel. Hamas also took over 240 hostages during the attack.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on July 17 that “IDF operations in Gaza have led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages.”

The Israeli offensive has killed more than 38,800 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gazan Health Ministry. The Epoch Times is unable to verify the number. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Dan M. Berger contributed to this report.