A drone exploded last night (Friday night) at around 3:15 AM, at the corner of Ben Yehuda and Shalom Aleichem streets in Tel Aviv. The explosion was heard in many areas throughout the Dan Bloc - including Rishon LeZion, Givat Shmuel, Holon, Ramat Gan and Givatayim. One person was killed in the explosion and 10 were slightly injured. They were evacuated to Wolfson and Ichilov hospitals. Among the injured: those injured by shrapnel and the blast and those injured by panic. Many police forces arrived at the scene, including bomb squads. The IDF reported that an "aerial target" penetrated the country's territory, fell in Tel Aviv and did not trigger an alarm. An IDF spokesman said: "An initial examination indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the fall of an aerial target, which did not trigger an alarm. The matter is under in-depth investigation. Many forces are currently operating at the scene. The Air Force will increase the aircraft patrols operating to protect the country's skies. There is no change in the Home Front Command's instructions." Later, an initial IDF investigation revealed that the drone was identified by the Air Force, but it was decided not to intercept it because it was not classified as hostile. "The drone that exploded in Tel Aviv was not intercepted due to human error," the IDF says. The Air Force is investigating the serious incident and admits that it was a "bad incident." In retrospect, the Air Force says that the detection systems identified the target on part of the flight path, but due to human error, alerts were not activated and the target was not intercepted. "The detection systems identified the target and it should have been shot down and alerted." After the IDF's announcement, the Houthi spokesman announced that they accept responsibility for the incident - and announced that it was a "quality military operation." The Houthi spokesman wrote on the social network Twitter: "We will soon reveal the details of a special operation aimed at Tel Aviv." Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarie later responded in a statement: "We carried out a high-quality military operation in Tel Aviv - using a new drone called 'Yaffo' that is capable of bypassing Israel's interception systems and cannot be detected by radar. The operation successfully achieved its objectives." He added: "Declaring the Jaffa area an unsafe area that is a key target. Focusing on hitting the front of the Zionist enemy and reaching deep. We have a bank of targets in Israel, including sensitive military and security targets, and we will continue to hit them." The US military announced that four drones that were on their way to Israel had been intercepted. The Saudi Al-Arabiya channel reported that the United States had intercepted a ballistic missile and three drones that the Houthis had launched towards Israel. The report said that the fourth drone managed to reach Tel Aviv.
The security camera captured the buzzing sound - and the moment of the explosion.
The police said: "Large police forces arrived at the scene and are working to close the scene and conduct searches to locate suspicious objects and additional attackers. Yarkon Region Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Yechiel Bohedna, assessed the situation on the ground with all forces. At this stage, the Israel Police and police saboteurs, together with rescue forces, continue to operate at the scene. An MDA spokesman said: "During searches at the scene of the incident, a man aged about 50 was found unconscious in one of the buildings with penetrating injuries and no signs of life. MDA was forced to declare him dead." MDA paramedic Roy Klein and MDA paramedics Yoel Rosenthal and Asher Greider said: "We quickly arrived at the scene and saw chaos and destruction as a result of the explosion. We began to conduct scans and four injured people came to us, two of whom were injured at home, a man about 37 years old and a woman about 47 years old, and two others - a young woman about 25 years old and a man about 30 years old, were injured while they were on the street. They were fully conscious and suffered shrapnel injuries to the shoulder and limbs and one suffered from a blow to the head. "We provided them with first aid and evacuated them to the hospital in a minor condition. Further scans in one of the buildings found a man about 50 years old unconscious. He suffered penetrating injuries, we performed medical examinations and he had no signs of life. In a short time, we were forced to declare him dead." Tel Aviv ZAKA volunteers Avraham Brook and Avromy Eglander: "We arrived at the scene upon receiving the report. There was still smoke and uncertainty. Immediately after the evacuation of the injured, we scanned the various areas to rule out additional casualties, and at one of the scenes, a man in his 50s was located who was injured inside an apartment in a hospitality building and, unfortunately, he was pronounced dead at the scene. With the assistance of additional volunteers, we are taking care of the dignity of the deceased, and are assisting the sabotage and firefighting forces operating at the scene.".
""The whole house moved, we saw a yellow light in the sky""
A resident who lived in the area of the incident told Hadashot 12: "We heard a crazy explosion, the whole house shook, all the neighbors came out into the street." Another resident said: "I'm shaking, I saw a ball of fire in the air for half a second. I've never seen anything like it in my life." Hillel, who lives on Arlozorov Street in Tel Aviv, added: "I heard the noise. I was debating whether it was thunder or a plane. It didn't make sense that it was thunder, nor was it a passenger plane. Then there was an explosion. It was a drone, without a doubt." Another resident said: "I was at sea with a friend, we saw planes passing over the sea, suddenly a drone reached the height of the building here. I said to everyone, 'Do you hear?' It entered the building. Not a second passed, and you see yellow in the sky. It came from the sea, without an alarm and without anything." Yochai Afek, a resident of Shalom Aleichem Street in Tel Aviv, whose house the explosion occurred near: "My wife and I woke up to a very loud noise that shook the building, the noise of something very heavy falling and hitting things on the way. We tried to understand what was happening and saw from the window that the car had started to catch fire. We quickly got out and tried to put it out with a hose until the fire department arrived. The entire neighborhood came out. "There was a lot of paper coming in through all the windows in the house and then we saw that something had fallen next to the car and we started to get suspicious. The container for construction waste in front of our house also caught fire." [Gallery]
Photo: Erik Marmor/Flash90, Tel Aviv Police and ZAKA Spokespersons
The first successful attack by the Houthis
Doron Kadosh, the military correspondent for the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation on the drone explosion in Tel Aviv: 1. Israel has not yet officially confirmed that the Houthis are behind the drone's launch into Tel Aviv, but the Air Force will still have to investigate the route it took, and how it managed to evade detection systems and radars. The distance between Tel Aviv and the port of Hodeidah in Yemen (one of the main centers of power for the Houthis) is 2,100 km. This is a failure of the detection systems, and it is extremely significant because if the suspected target is not detected, it is also not possible to attempt to intercept it at all. Therefore, the IDF announced both an "in-depth investigation" and increased aircraft patrols in the country's skies. 2. Of all the arenas that have been operating against the State of Israel since October 7, the Houthis are the only factor that the State of Israel has not acted against directly so far. As Israeli officials have said in the past, Yemen is the only arena where Israel has not attacked - and this is out of a preference to allow the international coalition, led by the US and Britain, to operate in Yemen, while Israel is busy and focusing its attention and efforts on the closer arenas - Gaza and Lebanon. Just in the last 24 hours - the US Central Command announced the destruction of two surface-to-air missiles and four Houthi drones. This is a continuous American operation that has been going on for many months, even if some in Israel believe that it is too limited. 3. So far, since the beginning of the war, this is the first successful attack by the Houthi against Israeli territory (they had several other successful attacks in maritime space, but not against Israeli targets). They launched dozens of drones and missiles at Israel - but none of them hit a target in our territory. The vast majority were successfully intercepted in the Red Sea and Eilat areas by air defense systems before the targets even penetrated Israeli territory, and there were also a few that fell in open areas without damage or casualties (such as the cruise missile that exploded north of Eilat many months ago). This situation was convenient for Israel - as long as the Houthis did not manage to launch a single successful attack or cause casualties on the Israeli side. But now, when such an attack managed to penetrate Tel Aviv and kill an Israeli civilian - the question of direct Israeli action against the Houthis, who are located about 2,000 km south of Israel - a greater distance than the distance between Tehran and Tel Aviv, will be raised again.
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