Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim deadly Tel Aviv drone attack
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv on July 19th, according to a statement published by the militia and reported by AFP.
According to the Israeli military and emergency services, the attack killed a man and injured four others.
Yahya Sare’e, spokesperson of the Houthis, said that their “UAV force” carried out a “specific military operation” on the “occupied Jaffa region, which is now called Israeli Tel Aviv”. He also said the act was “in retaliation to the Zionist army’s massacres against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip”.
An Israeli military official said that the drone was not intercepted due to “human error”. The attack comes hours after a senior Hezbollah commander was killed by an Israeli air strike.
READ: Official says Israel is “not prepared” for war with Hezbollah
“There was no alert that sounded in Tel Aviv because it wasn’t activated,” said the official speaking on condition of anonymity. He also said that the Israeli army is looking into the possibility of Yemen due to the Houthi announcements, though they are not ruling out anything.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea since November 2023 in an attempt to attack Israel and its allies. Earlier this year, they sank a UK-owned ship and also forced the crew of another to disembark.
The drone attack on Tel Aviv is the first directed at the Israeli mainland. Israel has been exchanging fire with and launching missiles at Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon since the war on Gaza began in October last year.
Hezbollah states that it is striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, which is being targeted in an offensive by the IDF into Gaza since the October 7th attacks. The Shiite militant group is estimated by Israeli authorities to have 150,000 rockets, including precision-guided missiles.
AFP
