Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed a drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday that left one person dead, saying it marked a “new phase” in its operations against Israel.
The rebels fired a “new drone called ‘Yafa’, which is capable of bypassing the enemy’s interception systems,” their spokesman, Yahya Saree, said on social media.
It struck “one of the important targets in the occupied Jaffa region, what is now called Israeli Tel Aviv,” he said, adding “the operation has achieved its goals successfully”.
Israeli authorities said an explosion hit an apartment building in Tel Aviv at 3:12 am (0012 GMT), killing one person and wounding four.
The Israeli army said the blast was “caused by the falling of an aerial target”, based on an initial inquiry.
An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said a “very big” drone had been detected but the alarm was not immediately raised because of “human error”.
The Huthis pledged to turn Tel Aviv into a “primary target” after months of drone and missile attacks targeting shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in response to the Gaza war.
A member of the rebel movement’s politburo, Hezam al-Asad, called the strike “unprecedented”.
In an interview with the pro-Iranian channel Al-Mayadeen, he said the attack marked a “new phase” of operations against Israel which would increase in the coming period.
Another politburo member, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, said the attacks would not stop until a Gaza ceasefire was reached.
“Our demand is fair: stop the genocide in Gaza, lift the siege on its residents, and we will stop our military operations,” he said on social media platform X, sharing footage of the aftermath of the drone strike.
Top Huthi official Mohamed Ali al-Huthi said the “first operation” to strike Tel Aviv marked a “qualitative shift” in the group’s anti-Israel campaign.
The Huthis have previously claimed attacks targeting the southern Israeli resort of Eilat and port cities of Ashdod and Haifa, but Friday’s strike is the first operation claimed by the rebels against Tel Aviv.
The Huthis’ military spokesman declared the Israeli commercial hub “an unsafe area” on Friday, saying it “will be a primary target within the range of our weapons”.
Saree said the Huthis “have a bank of targets” in Israel, including “sensitive military and security targets”.
They “will continue… to strike those targets in response to the enemy’s massacres and daily crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Ship attack
Later on Friday, the Huthis said they struck a Singapore-flagged vessel with missiles and drones because its owner had docked ships in Israeli ports.
The attack was confirmed by maritime security firm Ambrey, which said “a Singapore-flagged container ship was ‘hit’ by projectiles” southeast of the Yemeni port city of Aden.
Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority identified the container ship as the Lobivia, saying the attack caused a fire which had since been extinguished.
“All crew are accounted for and are safe,” it said in a statement, adding the ship had sailed “under her own propulsion” to Berbera Port in the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia to assess the damage and determine necessary repairs.
The Huthis have attacked at least 88 commercial vessels since their campaign against shipping started in November, according to a tally compiled by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.
Huthi attacks have prompted some shipping companies to detour around southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of global trade, according to the International Chamber of Shipping.
Egypt’s Suez Canal reported a 23.4-percent drop in revenue on Thursday which it attributed to disruption to Red Sea shipping over the past year.
