TEL AVIV, Israel (news agencies) — 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, injure at least 10 people and leave one dead, 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 defenses or how Israel might respond.
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 strike hit hours after Israel’s military confirmed one of its airstrikes had killed a Hezbollah commander and other militants in southern Lebanon. Israel 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.
It comes as international mediators continue to hold out hope for a ceasefire agreement, pushing Israel and Hamas toward a phased deal that would halt fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
Local police in Tel Aviv 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 defense 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.
The war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the coastal Palestinian territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and triggered widespread hunger.
Hamas’ October attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
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