This is the moment a ‘Houthi’ drone flew over a beach and the US embassy in Israel before causing an explosion that killed one person with the country now vowing to ‘settle the score’.
Footage uploaded to social media shows the aerial weapon skimming over the Tel Aviv beach and a nearby row of buildings early this morning before an orange flash erupts further inland within seconds.
The terrifying video comes after an Israeli military official told a briefing that ‘a very big drone that can travel long distances crashed into an apartment building’ at 03.12am local time.
The official, who remained anonymous, said the aim was ‘terrorism’, with the rebel group’s ‘main goal to kill civilians in Israel‘.
They added the drone had shockingly been detected by the military while airborne but the alarm was not immediately raised due to ‘human error’.
Footage captured the moment a ‘Houthi’ drone flew low over a beach and towards a row of buildings in Tel Aviv before causing an apartment building to explode
An orange glow is seen at the site of the explosion which left one dead and 10 more injured
Members of the Israeli security forces are seen at a cordoned-off area where the explosion took place near the US embassy in Tel Aviv on July 19, 2024
‘There was no alert that sounded in Tel Aviv because it wasn’t activated,’ he said
‘There was a human error that caused the interception and defence systems not to be operated,’ the official said.
‘Obviously, one of the possibilities we’re looking into is Yemen because of the Houthi announcements. But we’re not ruling out anything.’
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant today issued a chilling warning, claiming: ‘The defence establishment is working to immediately strengthen all defence systems, and will settle the score with anyone who harms the State of Israel or directs terror against it’.
IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the UAV was apparently launched from Yemen.
‘We are still investigating the incident in depth. From evidence found at the scene, it would appear that the aircraft is an Iranian Samad-3 drone,’ he said.
Yemen’s Houthi group earlier today claimed responsibility for the attack that caused the explosion.
A spokesperson for the Houthi armed forces said in a post on social media Friday that the Iran-aligned group had ‘targeted Tel Aviv in occupied Palestine‘.
It claimed that it had used a new drone ‘capable of bypassing interceptor systems and being able to be detected by radars’.
It’s armed wing also released a statement celebrating the attack, saying: ‘Triumphing for the oppression of the Palestinian people and their mujahideen, and in retaliation to the Zionist enemy’s massacres against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip’.
The Israeli military said it had now opened an investigation into the large, and fatal, explosion near the US embassy office and would work out why the country’s air defence systems were not activated to intercept the ‘aerial target’ before any damage was caused.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had ‘targeted Tel Aviv in occupied Palestine’
A Tel Aviv man stands next to a damaged car near the site of the deadly blast, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict in Tel Aviv
Following the drone strike, Israel’s air force took to social media claiming it had increased patrols to ‘protect the country’s skies’.
Israeli police said the body of a 50-year-old man was found in an apartment close to the explosion site, and that the circumstances surrounding his death were also being investigated.
Four people were taken to hospital with slight shrapnel injuries and four others were treated for shock. All of them were later released, the hospital said, according to France24.
Footage and images from the devastating scene in Tel Aviv show mangled vehicles, smashed windows, and rubble strewn across the streets as authorities worked to detect casualties and assess the damage caused by the blast.
Israeli opposition politician, and leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, said the attack was ‘further proof that this government does not know and cannot give security to the citizens of Israel’.
‘Those who lose deterrence in the north and south also lose it in the heart of Tel Aviv,’ he wrote on X.
‘There are no policies, no plans, all public relations and discussions about themselves. They [the government] have to go,’ he continued.
Shards of glass can be seen smashed across the streets of Tel Aviv following the drone strike after the ‘new’ aerial weapon ‘bypassed interceptor systems’
Emergency personnel assist a woman at the site of the explosion in Tel Aviv
Recalling the terrifying attack, local resident Alon told Haaretz: ‘The whole building shook’.
‘My neighbours’ windows shattered, so I was sure something had hit the building. It was only when I went outside that I realised that several buildings had been damaged.’
The incident came after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon on July 3.
A Hezbollah statement at the time identified the killed commander as Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who went by the name Abu Naameh.
A Hezbollah official speaking anonymously said he was head of the group’s Aziz Unit, one of three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.
Both Hezbollah and the Houthis have stepped up their attacks against Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip during an initial attack by Hamas militants on a southern Israel music festival on October 7 last year.
Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 others as hostages during the attack.
The war has so far killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says.