Yemen’s Houthi group has claimed responsibility for a drone strike that struck Tel Aviv, Israel, overnight, killing one person and wounding eight.
Israeli media identified the deceased man as Yevgeny Ferder, 50, who had moved to Israel from Belarus at the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Last night’s strike is unique: it is the first time the group has hit Tel Aviv, although the Houthis have waged a sustained campaign against targets they claim are linked to Israel since the start of the devastating ongoing war in Gaza in October.
What happened?
The drone struck central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday morning. The site itself is believed to be near several hotels, many of which are hosting displaced people from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. A U.S. Embassy office is also near the scene of the attack.
“A preliminary investigation indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the fall of an aerial target, and no siren was sounded. The incident is being thoroughly investigated,” the Israeli military said in a statement, attributing its failure to detect the drone to human error rather than a system failure.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video released Friday night that the plane struck 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 allegations.
“We are fighting a war on several fronts.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, militias in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Houthis in Yemen, all Iranian proxies and Iran itself.Watch IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari’s statement on the drone 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,” capable of flying undetected through Israel’s extensive air defense systems.
بيان القوات المسلحة اليمنية بشأن تنفيذ عملية استهدفت هدفا مهماً منطقة يافا المحتلة ما تسم ى إسرائيليا “تل أبيب” بطائرة مسيرة جديدة تحمل اسم “يافا” قادرة على تجاوز المنظومات الاعتراضية ولا تستطيع الر ادارات اكتشافها. 19_07_2024م pic.twitter.com/MxTc88ud4W
– العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) July 19, 2024
How unusual is this?
Despite being only 80km from Gaza, Tel Aviv has been largely unaffected by the carnage that has been unfolding in the enclave since October. More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
The drone attack in Tel Aviv, the center of much of Israel’s diplomatic functions, underscores the growing reach of the Houthis’ arsenal, analysts say.
The Houthi group has made extensive use of drones in its latest campaign. However, almost all of the missiles and drones launched against Israel have been intercepted. None have reached Tel Aviv.
“The Houthis have claimed numerous attacks on Israel before, but there is no evidence that most of them have been effective, and certainly not that they have caused deaths and injuries like this one,” Nick Brumfield, an independent Yemen analyst, told Tel Aviv Tribune. “This is the first publicly confirmed Houthi strike in the Mediterranean rather than the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.” Along these vital shipping routes, the Houthis have targeted numerous ships that they believe have links to Israel.
Additionally, “they have claimed responsibility for strikes on Haifa in cooperation with Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, but so far it seems mostly like grandstanding,” Brumfield said. “This is huge.”
Is this something new?
Not really. The Houthis have for some time made extensive use of drone warfare, including aerial and maritime craft.
Houthi drones have also been a frequent target of Western strikes, with the UK, France and the US military all reporting destruction of unmanned targets before their possible hostile use.
“I think last night’s attack is part of the Houthis’ continued escalation,” said Maysaa Shuja al-Deen, of the Yemen-based Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, suggesting that repeated incidents of Houthi drones hitting distant targets were set to become more frequent. “What’s interesting is the target and the long range,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Could this trigger an escalation across the region?
In the short term, this is unlikely.
Since the April conflict between Iran and Israel, both countries and their allies have been acutely aware of the risks that Israel’s war on Gaza could engulf the entire Middle East.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has already threatened revenge. In addition to strengthening the country’s defense systems, he has said he will “settle scores with anyone who harms the State of Israel or directs terrorism against it.”
“Israel will probably feel compelled to do something since one person was killed,” Brumfield said, referring to past instances of isolated but unclaimed Israeli strikes in Yemen. “You could see Israel doing something like that now.”
It is unclear whether Israel will launch “more severe retaliations, such as assassinating Houthi commanders, similar to what we have seen the Israelis do with Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he said. This is due to the “uncertain status of Israeli intelligence capabilities in Yemen,” Brumfield said.
Are the Houthis really a “proxy” force for Iran?
The Houthis are known to be allies of Iran. 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 precision of Tehran’s control over a rebel group that has proven consistently unpredictable is uncertain at best.
“Iran has long had this strategy of allowing non-state allies to build their own missiles. There is a good chance that the Houthis also have domestic production capabilities,” said Fabian Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
