TEL AVIV: Israel threatened retaliation on Friday after a drone claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels penetrated its vaunted air defenses and killed a civilian in a Tel Aviv apartment building near a US embassy annex.
The attack drew condemnation from UN chief Antonio Guterres and a plea for “maximum restraint” to avoid “further escalation in the region.”
The pre-dawn strike came hours before Israel was dealt another blow, a ruling by the UN's highest court that its occupation of the Palestinian territories was “illegal” and must end as soon as possible.
The advisory opinion from the Hague-based international court is not binding, but it comes amid mounting international condemnation of Israel's handling of its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' office hailed the court's decision as “a victory for justice”. Hamas said it is putting “the international system ahead of the demand for immediate action to end the occupation.”
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has overseen a major expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, insisted: “The Jewish people are not occupiers of their own land.”
The Houthis are one of a number of Iran-backed armed groups around the Middle East that have claimed drone and missile strikes against Israel in retaliation for the Gaza war.
The group, which controls parts of Yemen, including much of the Red Sea coast, has previously claimed attacks on Israeli cities including Ashdod, Haifa and Eilat, but Friday's strike appears to be the first to breach Israel's sophisticated air defenses.
The Houthis fired at Tel Aviv a “new drone called 'Yafa', which is capable of bypassing enemy interception systems,” their spokesman Yahya Saree said.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a “very large drone capable of traveling long distances” was used in the attack at 03:12 (0012 GMT).
He said the drone was spotted but due to “human error” the alarm was not raised in time and it crashed into an apartment building.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel believed the drone used was Iranian-made and upgraded so it could reach Tel Aviv from Yemen – at least 1,800 kilometers away.
Medical officials said one civilian was killed and four people suffered “relatively minor” injuries.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised revenge.
“The security system will deal with anyone who tries to harm the State of Israel, or sends terrorism against it, in a decisive and surprising way,” he said in comments posted on the X social media platform.
In grainy footage from security cameras, the buzz of what appeared to be the drone was followed by an explosion that shook the building and set off car alarms.
The explosion occurred about 100 meters (yards) from a US embassy annex, said an AFP journalist who saw broken windows along the street lined with apartment buildings.
“It woke me up because the vibration of the sound was like a 747 (jet) coming in,” said Kenneth Davis, an Israeli who lived in a hotel across the street from the building that was hit.
“And then the explosion … everything blew out in the room,” he told AFPTV.
Since November, the Houthis have also carried out dozens of drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that they claim is Israeli.
The US and UK launched a campaign of airstrikes in January to deter attacks on shipping.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 38,848 people in Gaza, including most civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-ruled territory, where fighting raged on Friday.
Residents said clashes were heard between Palestinian soldiers and the Israeli army, with explosions and shelling in the Tal Al-Hawa district of Gaza City.
The war has destroyed much of Gaza's housing and other infrastructure, leaving almost the entire population displaced and short of food and drinking water.
Many live in unhealthy conditions. Health authorities in Gaza and Israel said Thursday that polio virus had been detected in Gaza's sewage samples.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that no cases of the highly contagious disease have been detected in Gaza so far.
