Yemen’s Houthis pull off a direct drone strike on Tel Aviv!

Right, so the Houthis have a new drone and this one might have just proven to be the most powerful and deadliest yet as if their claims are true, they’ve succeeded in getting past ever single layer of defence Israel has to make a successful strike on Tel Aviv itself, causing significant destruction and which has sadly killed at least 1 man and injured 4 other people, though this figure is disputed it could be as many as 10. It marks a significant escalation in the Houthis actions, from taking pot shots at ships in the Red Sea, to becoming well armed enough to make strikes in the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean, but with Tel Aviv now within their range, is Israel itself now a viable target on another front, from the Houthis in Yemen, already having to deal with fallout to the North from Hezbollah and Iraq as they are, as Netanyahu continues his genocide in Gaza?
Right, so this has happened overnight and although Israel are claiming human error is responsible for this drone having got through, we only need see another follow suit to determine whether Houthi claims that their new drone is invisible to Israeli defence, or whether it was simply inattentiveness on behalf of someone in the IDF that resulted in this latest strike on Israel, which the government of Netanyahu are bringing on themselves frankly, by continuing it’s assault on Gaza.
The drone strike hit near the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, striking an apartment block or detonating just above, reports are still somewhat unclear but to get there, this drone would have had to fly some 2,000km from Yemen and if we assume it avoided Saudi airspace, meant it flew over the Red Sea and therefore it is not just Israeli air defence systems, like their Iron Dome, that this drone will have avoided and adding to that thinking are reports from Israel that the drone entered Tel Aviv from the direction of the Mediterranean, therefore the drone also would have evaded both the US and UK Navies stationed in the Red Sea and beyond, so for as much as Israel are saying human error on their part meant this drone, which they claim they did identify, but just didn’t shoot down was to blame, what is the excuse of the naval forces then? Sounds much more likely the Houthis are now capable of penetrating Israel’s defences and bypassing those of their allies stationed nearby.
As usual, the Houthi’s spokesperson Yahya Saree, went on TV and had his say, Reuters reporting him stating that:
‘A spokesman for Yemen's Houthi militants, which like Hezbollah are aligned with Iran, said the group had attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and would continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.
In a televised speech, spokesperson Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv a primary target "within the range of our weapons".
He said the strike was carried out using a new drone called "Yafa", which he said was capable of bypassing interception systems and undetectable by radars.
"The operation has achieved its goals successfully," Saree said.’
The new drone is something the Houthis are calling Jaffa, referring to the old name for part of the area modern day Tel Aviv now occupies, so I find it hard to imagine that this was a coincidental christening of the Houthis latest gadget that has come to them almost certainly via Iran, who are also arming Hezbollah to the north of Israel, though in fairness we really ought to refer to Israel as US armed Israel to be even handed about who is really backing who and who is arming who.
The attack may even have been co-ordinated since another drone coming from the direction of Iraq, where Israel is coming under attack from the Islamic State of Iraq, or Daesh as well, was shot down by Israeli jets, so Israel saying it will now increase the number of aerial patrols in light of this successful strike on Tel Aviv, does also tend to lend weight to the thinking that Israel just didn’t see this coming.

IDF response is to increase aerial patrols – worried their automated systems are missing something?
We don’t know much about this new drone yet that the Houthis are calling Jaffa, or Yafa depending on your news source, only what the Houthis themselves are claiming and what we appear to be observing in the aftermath of this strike. The Houthis claim it capable of bypassing aerial defence systems and also be undetectable to radar, essentially rendering it invisible to all but physical human eyes and Israel increasing the number of jets they have in the air around Tel Aviv, seems to lend credence to that, as does the apology issued by the Israeli Aerial Forces, the IAF, for failing to stop this strike in an event they say should never have happened. Given how much stock they have in their Iron Dome defence system though and also bearing in mind how that has been chipped away at in other strikes, is it more a case of Israel just didn’t think it was possible than a should have been allowed kind of situation though?
Israel’s military have certainly had a say in what they think the drone was as this comment published in Reuters by Israel’s Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, yes, Mr Pointy has had his say on this, goes to show:
‘Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.
"Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv," he told a briefing with journalists.’
This at least gave me something to google, and although I’m not typically one to quote from Wikipedia, there was a paragraph there, that struck me funny in a dark sort of way, given what this Jaffa drone has just done, if Hagari’s assessment of it is correct:
‘The Samad-3 is an "extended-range" version with a conformal fuel tank mounted on the top of the drone. The dimensions are estimated at 4.5m wingspan and a length of 2.80 m, like the Samad-2. According to the Houthis, it has a range of 1,500 km and carries an explosive payload. According to Mark Voskuijl et al, Samad-3 flight range is about 1800 km. Qualitatively, the Samad-3 is described as "inexpensive, small, slow and clumsy" and unlikely to strike targets with good accuracy.’
Small, slow and clumsy and unlikely to have good accuracy. Well, insofar as the range has been upgraded Hagari might not be far off, but the rest of the description of the drone this Jaffa variant is apparently based on doesn’t make me think much of Israel’s air defences at all now if true, it makes them sound even more ropey! Besides, other military sources described the drone as large, so it must be an extremely beefed up version of this Samad-3 if true.
There’s another side to this though that might make this drone story from the Houthis point of view and it’s claims about seem more legitimate, because it was claimed by the Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya that the Houthis actually fired a missile and four drones towards Israel and that the US Navy picked off the missile and three of the drones, but not the fourth. Now we don’t know if the other drones were of another sort, whether they were fired as a distraction for the one they wanted to get through, that it was missed might bear out the Houthis claims, that they needed to possibly send it up with some cover, might mean they weren’t too sure of their claims ahead of time. Adding to that is the Times of Israel saying the missile and drones shot down were unrelated to the other, but that could just be a damage limitation exercise on the part of Israel by one of its news outlets.
In all likelihood, whatever this drone is, it’s origin, it’s manufacture, it’s almost certainly come from Iran and if that is the case, then every other organisation that Iran supplies military hardware to, will have it as well, so assume Hezbollah will have the same tech potentially and they are a lot closer to Israel after all than the Houthis are and essentially that means that Israel is no longer safe anywhere. Certainly this sentiment is being laid out by others on social media.
For example journalist Seamus Malekafzali wrote:
‘Genuinely cannot believe what I have woken up to. I went to bed hearing of a blast in Tel Aviv, a drone attack hitting near the US consulate. I assumed it was Hezbollah, which itself would have been major. To find out it came from the Yemenis is nothing short of astonishing.’
Commentator Tiberius put it in the appropriate context though, saying:
‘Israel: *drops more bombs on Gaza than bombings in Dresden, Hamburg and London combined from WWII, up to 200k feared dead* Media: Israel has a right to defend itself
Yemen: *strikes Tel Aviv with one drone, one killed*
Media: Terror attack in Tel Aviv! We live in a circus.’
And Democrat Party Congress hopeful Jen Perelman tweeted out:
‘The Media will focus non-stop on the bombing in Tel-Aviv tonight. What they won’t talk about is how Israel just bombed Damascus & Al-Mawasi. At some point, the Genocidal bully gets their comeuppance.’
Not sure Genocide Joe would agree with her, but she’s not wrong and she’s right to highlight attacks that have got woeful coverage since they occurred, with much greater civilian harm done.
We’ll see I guess if this turns out to be a successful test or a successful one off that can’t be repeated, but either way the Houthis just keep escalating matter the longer Israel refuse to get out of Gaza and end their genocide. How much more harm, more damage will Netanyahu allow to be wrought on his people as a price worth paying for staying in power, because as we should all know by now, especially if you’re a regular viewer of this channel, that is what it all comes down to.
All of this will contribute more and more to Israeli media turning on Netanyahu for his handling of the situation in Gaza, his refusal to agree to a ceasefire, his constant wrecking of plans to bring this situation to an end, all the details of which you can find in this video recommendation here and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.