Drone strikes Tel Aviv, killing one. Houthis claim responsibility : NPR

TEL AVIV, Israel — A drone slammed into an apartment building near the Tel Aviv oceanfront before dawn Friday, killing one man and wounding at least 10 more civilians. The Houthi militia in Yemen said it carried out the attack, marking the first time the group has penetrated a major Israeli city.

The drone set off a loud blast that woke Tel Aviv residents just after 3 a.m. The weapon struck an apartment building a block in from the Mediterranean seafront, spraying shrapnel at the point of impact and shattering glass in surrounding buildings.

Jonathan Karten, 27, said he and a couple of friends had been out on the balcony just beforehand.

“A friend of mine said, ‘What’s that over there?'” he said. “I turned my head to see. And then I heard a buzzing. It was maybe 30 meters above sea level. And then I saw an orange blast. I felt this heat, a blowback.”

The drone hit just a block from the U.S. Embassy Branch Office, which is on the oceanfront. The diplomatic compound previously served as the U.S. Embassy until it was moved to Jerusalem in 2018.

The Houthis have launched missiles and drones toward southern Israel since war erupted in Gaza last October, to little effect. The group had not previously been linked to a damaging strike on Tel Aviv or any other city.

Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system has largely protected Tel Aviv and other population centers from the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas out of Gaza and by Hezbollah from Lebanon. But this attack apparently caught Israeli forces off-guard.

Sirens typically provide a warning when Tel Aviv or other cities come under aerial attack. But an Israeli military official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said no alert was sounded because the detection system had not been activated. The official described it as “human error.” The official described the drone as large and capable of long-distance flight.

Given the location of the attack, the drone may have approached Israel from the Mediterranean Sea, but Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the route it took.

The Houthis, the most powerful group in Yemen, claimed responsibility and said this was a new type of drone “capable of bypassing the enemy’s interception systems and undetectable by radars. The operation has achieved its goals successfully.”

The group warned of more such attacks.

The Israeli military official said the initial evidence suggested the drone was launched from Yemen, but Israel was investigating a range of possibilities.

The Houthis have been firing for months on commercial ships in the Red Sea, off Yemen’s western coast. The U.S. Navy has been leading the effort against the Houthi attacks. The Houthis say they are acting to show solidarity with the Palestinians over the war in Gaza, though the civilian shipping traffic involves vessels from around the world.

Tel Aviv came under heavy rocket fire from Hamas in the early weeks of the war last fall, but the attacks have long since stopped. Hamas occasionally fires rockets into southern Israel.

The main aerial threat to Israel has been coming from the north, with Hezbollah and Israel trading rocket fire across the border on a daily basis.

Maya Levin contributed to this report.