At 3:12 a.m. Friday morning, loud explosions were heard on Ben Yehuda Street at the corner of Shalom Aleichem near the US Consulate in Tel Aviv. Emergency services later discovered the body of a man in his 50s with shrapnel wounds in an apartment near the explosion site.
Ten people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The Yemeni Houthis have claimed responsibility for the attack through their personal channel.
The massive explosion was heard from as far as Rishon Lezion - and the Houthis announced "a high-quality operation, aimed against Tel Aviv".
After an initial inspection by the IDF of the drone strike, the army admitted that "this is a bad incident that should not happen and the Air Force takes full responsibility for the incident as the defender of the country's skies."
According to the IDF, in hindsight the target was discovered and the detection systems saw the target in part of the flight path - but due to human error they did not act against it and it was not shot down.
The Saudi "Al Arabiya" network reported that the Houthis launched a ballistic missile and four unmanned aerial vehicles. "The United States intercepted the missile and three of the unmanned aerial vehicles, and the fourth one hit Tel Aviv," it was claimed.
However, the IDF said that those American intercepts happened yesterday morning, IDF fighter jets were in the air at the time - and it is possible that the UAV that hit Tel Aviv was a separate UAV.
The IDF said that they have thickened the air defense system, and clarified that there are no additional drones on their way to Israel.
* Ynet contributed to this report
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