Israel: A large explosion rumbled through the streets of central Tel Aviv early Friday morning after an apparent drone strike caused shards of shrapnel to rain down and injure at least 10 people, authorities said.
Israel's military said that they were reviewing the explosion and increasing air patrols after the incident, which its initial inquiries determined was caused by "an aerial target." It was not immediately clear how the strike evaded Israel's air defences or how Israel might respond.
Tel Aviv Mayor Terms Attack A Drone Strike
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on X called the attack a drone strike, though the military has not yet specified the nature of the attack. Yemen's Houthis have repeatedly launched drones and missiles toward Israel throughout the nine-month-long war in sympathy with Hamas. But until Friday, all were intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region.
The country has so far not made attacks on the Houthis, allowing its allies instead to take the lead as it focuses its efforts on the war in Gaza and ongoing fighting with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.
Local police said that the blast sounded at around 3:10 a.m. on Friday morning, reverberating to nearby cities and physically injuring at least 10 people. Tel Aviv District Commander Peretz Amar said officers could not locate the point of contact, suggesting the explosion occurred in the air.
"The force of the explosion caused damaged that is not great but is spread over a large area. At the moment we don't know what the object was," Amar said.
Israel possesses a multilayered aerial defence system, capable of intercepting threats ranging from long-range ballistic missiles to drones and short-range missiles. These various systems have intercepted thousands of projectiles throughout the war. But officials warn they are not 100% effective, and the systems appear to have struggled against small and hard-to-detect attack drones. It was not known which, if any, system was deployed.
Like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are backed by Israel's arch enemy, Iran. Israel for the most part also has avoided a direct confrontation with Iran throughout the war. Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel during a single incident in April in response to Israel's alleged assassination of a pair of Iranian generals in Syria at the time.
