Tel Aviv hit by drone attack claimed by Iranian-backed Houthis
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[July 19, 2024]
By Rami Amichay
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A long-range Iranian-made drone hit the centre of
Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday, in an attack claimed by the
Yemen-based Houthi militia that killed one man and slightly wounded four
others, the Israeli military and emergency services said.
The explosion, which did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours
after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of
the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.
Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed
that the drone was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.
"Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv," he told a
briefing with journalists.
He also said there were "increasing signs" that Mohammed Deif, head of
the military wing of Hamas, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike last
week.
The attack on Tel Aviv, which comes ahead of a visit to Washington by
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week, is likely to fan fears
about further fallout from the Gaza war, as the Houthis and other
Iranian proxies side with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
An Israeli official said the military was still investigating why the
drone did not trigger the alarm, but initial reports suggested the drone
was identified but the sirens were not sounded due to human error.
"We're talking about a large UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that can fly
large distances," the military official told journalists after the
strike.
The military said air patrols had been increased to protect Israeli
airspace but said it had not ordered new civil defence measures. The
mayor of Tel Aviv said the city, Israel's economic centre, had been
moved to a state of heightened alert.
A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi militants, which like Hezbollah are
aligned with Iran, said the group had attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and
would continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the
Gaza war.
In a televised speech, spokesperson Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv a
primary target "within the range of our weapons".
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A man stands next to shattered glass pieces on the balcony of a
building, near the site of an explosion, amid the Israel-Hamas
conflict in Tel Aviv, Israel July 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
He said the strike was carried out using a new drone called "Yafa",
which he said was capable of bypassing interception systems and
undetectable by radars.
"The operation has achieved its goals successfully," Saree said.
Israel's emergency services said the body of a 50 year-old man was
found in an apartment close to the explosion and four people were
taken to hospital with slight shrapnel injuries. Four others were
treated for shock. All of them were later released, health services
said.
Footage from the site showed an apparent impact on a building
located close to U.S. embassy premises in Tel Aviv.
Israeli media said fragments from a drone of a kind widely used by
Iranian-backed militia groups in the region had been recovered
nearby.
Israel has been exchanging daily missile and artillery fire with
Hezbollah along its northern border and in southern Lebanon since
the start of the war in Gaza, prompting fears of a wider regional
conflict if the situation escalates.
The Houthis have also stepped up attacks against Israel and Western
targets, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians,
after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following last year's attack by
Hamas militants on southern Israel.
Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing around
1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza,
according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 38,000
Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip,
according to health authorities in the enclave.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; additional reporting by Ahmed Elimam
and Clauda Tanios Editing by Christopher Cushing, Christian
Schmollinger, Miral Fahmy, Peter Graff)
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