Yemen’s Houthi group 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 moved to Israel from Belarus at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Last night’s attack is unique – it is the first time the group is known to have targeted Tel Aviv, although the Houthi have waged an ongoing campaign against targets they say are linked to Israel since the ongoing devastating war in Gaza broke out in October. .
What happened?
The drone struck central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday morning. The site itself is believed to be close to several hotels, many of them housing people displaced from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. A US embassy office is also near the site of the attack.
“An initial investigation indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the fall of an aerial target and no siren was activated. The incident is under close review,” the Israeli military said in a statement, attributing its inability to detect the drone to human error rather than a system failure.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video released Friday night that the aircraft hit an apartment building. He said the drone was a Samad-3, an Iranian-made aircraft that had been modified to extend its range. Iran has not yet commented on the attack or the Israeli allegation.
“We are fighting a war on several fronts.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Houthies in Yemen, all Iranian proxies and Iran itself.”Watch RAdm, IDF spokesperson. Daniel Hagari’s statement about the UAV attack in Tel Aviv earlier… pic.twitter.com/cUqqDJwCAW
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 19, 2024
According to Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree, the aircraft was a new type of drone, called a “Jaffa,” that was capable of flying undetected through Israel’s extensive air defense systems.
بيان القوات المسلحة اليمنية بشأن تنفيذ عملية عسكريب هماً في منطقة يافا ما تسمى إسرائيليا “تل أبيب” بطائرة مسيرة جديدة ل اسم ” يافا” قادرة على تجاوز المنظومات Clean and dispose of your product. 19_07_2024 pic.twitter.com/MxTc88ud4W
– العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) July 19, 2024
How unusual is this?
Despite being just 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Gaza, Tel Aviv has been almost untouched by the carnage that has unfolded in the enclave since October. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s relentless war against Gaza.
The drone attack on Tel Aviv, the center of much of Israel’s diplomatic functions, points to the growing reach of the Houthi arsenal, analysts say.
The Houthi group made extensive use of drones during its latest campaign. However, almost all missiles and drones launched against Israel have been intercepted. None of them reached Tel Aviv.
“The Houthis have claimed many attacks on Israel before, but there is little evidence to indicate that most of them have come close, and certainly not killed and injured like this one,” independent Yemen analyst Nick Brumfield told Al Jazeera. “Notably, this is the first publicly confirmed Houthi attack in the Mediterranean, and not in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.” Along these vital shipping lanes, the Houthi have targeted numerous ships they say have links to Israel.
Furthermore, “they have claimed attacks on Haifa in cooperation with Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, but until now these have mostly seemed like arrogance,” Brumfield said. “This is big.”
Is this something new?
In truth. The Houthis have been making extensive use of drone warfare, including air and water vessels, for some time.
Houthi drones have also been a frequent target of Western attacks, with the United Kingdom, France and the United States militaries reporting the destruction of unmanned targets ahead of their possible hostile use.
“I believe last night’s attack is part of the Houthi’s continued escalation,” said Maysaa Shuja al-Deen of the Yemen-based Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, suggesting that repeated incidents of Houthi drones striking distant targets are would become more common. . “What’s interesting is the target and the long range,” she told Al Jazeera.
Could this trigger a region-wide escalation?
In the short term, it is unlikely.
Since the April standoff between Iran and Israel, the two nations and their allies have demonstrated that they are perfectly aware of the risks of Israel’s war in Gaza engulfing the entire Middle East.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has already threatened revenge. In addition to strengthening the country’s defense systems, he said he would “settle accounts with anyone who harms the State of Israel or directs terror against it.”
“It is very likely that Israel will feel compelled to do something since one person has been killed,” Brumfield said, referring to previous cases of isolated, though unclaimed, Israeli attacks in Yemen. “You could see Israel doing something like that now.”
It is difficult to say whether Israel will launch “more severe retaliations, such as assassinations of Houthi commanders, like what we saw the Israelis do to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he said. This is due to “the unclear status of Israeli intelligence capabilities in Yemen,” Brumfield said.
Are the Houthis really an Iranian “proxy” force?
The Houthi are known to be allies of Iran. However, this does not mean that Iran ordered last night’s attack.
However, few doubt that Tehran’s support for the group extends to weapons and their components.
However, the extent to which Tehran’s control over a rebel group that has proven itself consistently unpredictable is uncertain at best.
“Iran has had this strategy of allowing non-state allies to build their own missiles for a long time. There are also strong indications that the Houthis likely have domestic production capabilities,” said Fabian Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
