Houthis launch deadly drone strike on Tel Aviv, evading Israel’s defenses

REHOVOT, Israel — In a rare breach of Israel’s multilayered air-defense system, a drone fired by the Houthi militia in Yemen slammed into an apartment building near the U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Friday, killing at least one person and wounding eight others.

Pentagon officials expressed doubt that the drone had specifically targeted the U.S. building, an attack that analysts assessed had possibly been an attempt by the Houthis to strike anywhere they could in Tel Aviv. The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia that has been attacking ships in the Red Sea, claimed responsibility for the strike on the city of 450,000 people.

The Israeli military’s chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the country’s defense systems had apparently picked up the presence of the drone but had failed to register it as a threat. No air-raid sirens warned residents before the drone crashed into the building, causing an explosion that jolted people from their sleep, shattered windows and left shrapnel scattered on the streets.

“We are investigating why we did not identify it, attack it and intercept it,” Hagari said Friday.

Another Israeli military official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said there was a possibility that human error had allowed the drone to penetrate Israeli airspace.

Israeli officials did not announce an immediate military response against the Houthis, who control much of northwestern Yemen. The group has attempted several attacks on southern Israel, but this one managed to reach farther into the country.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “anyone who tries to harm the state of Israel or sends terror against it” would meet an Israeli response “in a sharp and surprising way.”

Israel has already been fighting what it calls a multipronged war against several militias backed by Iran, including Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that led to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip; and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been trading cross-border strikes with Israel for months in a conflict that has displaced more 150,000 people on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

© 2024 The New York Times Company