One person has been killed in a Houthi rebel drone strike in Tel Aviv after the Israeli military detected the aerial weapon but failed to shoot it down “due to human error.”
Yemen’s Houthi group has claimed responsibility for an attack that caused an explosion at a building near the US embassy, which reportedly left one person dead and at least 10 others wounded.
An Israeli military official told a briefing that “a very large drone that can travel long distances crashed into an apartment building” at 03.12 a.m. local time.
The official, who remained anonymous, said the target was “terrorism” and that “the main goal of the rebel group is to kill civilians in Israel.”
They added that the drone was detected, but the alarm was not raised immediately due to “human error.”
Members of the Israeli security forces are seen in a cordoned-off area where an explosion took place near the US embassy in Tel Aviv on July 19, 2024.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it “targeted Tel Aviv in occupied Palestine.”
A Tel Aviv man stands next to a damaged car near the site of a deadly explosion, amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Tel Aviv.
‘There was no alert that sounded in Tel Aviv because it was not activated.
“There was human error that caused the interception and defense systems to not work,” the official said.
“Obviously, one of the possibilities we are looking at is Yemen because of the Houthis’ announcements, but we are not ruling anything out.”
The Israeli military said it had opened an investigation into the large and fatal explosion near the US embassy office and would determine why the country’s air defence systems were not activated to intercept the “aerial target” before any damage was caused.
Following the drone attack, Israel’s air force took to social media to say it had increased patrols to “protect the country’s skies.”
The official said another drone was detected on Israel’s eastern border.
‘Last night there was another incident where we thwarted a UAV on our eastern border, another UAV.’
He did not give details about his origin.
Shards of shattered glass can be seen on the streets of Tel Aviv following the drone strike after the “new” aerial weapon “evaded interception systems.”
Israeli police said the body of a man was found in an apartment near the site of the explosion and that the circumstances surrounding his death were also being investigated.
A Houthi military spokesman said in a social media post on Friday that the Iran-aligned group had “attacked Tel Aviv in occupied Palestine.”
He said he had used a new drone “capable of evading interceptor systems and being detected by radar.”
Images and videos from the devastating scene in Tel Aviv show mangled vehicles, shattered windows and debris strewn across the streets as authorities worked to detect casualties and assess the damage caused by the blast.
Israeli opposition politician and leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid said the attack was “further proof that this government does not know how and cannot provide security for the citizens of Israel.”
“Those who lose deterrence in the north and south also lose it in the heart of Tel Aviv,” he wrote in X.
“There are no policies, no plans, it’s all public relations and discussions about themselves. They (the government) have to go,” he continued.
This is a breaking news story. More to come soon.