Yemen's Houthis insist Iran had no involvement in Tel Aviv drone attack

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have claimed that Iran had nothing to do with the group’s drone attack on Israel’s capital Tel Aviv this week, attempting to maintain its appearance of operational independence from Tehran.

On Friday, a drone exploded at the intersection of streets near the United States’ Embassy building in Tel Aviv, killing one and injuring nine others while inflicting damage on numerous buildings in the vicinity. It proved to be one of the rare strikes by the Houthis that have successfully landed on Israeli territory.

Only hours after the attack, however, Houthi spokesperson Nasr al-Din Amer said in a statement that “Iran had no part in the decision to attack Tel Aviv. We informed them afterward.”

His comments appeared to further assert the Houthis’ insistence that, while backed and armed by Iran, it operates largely independently and that it is not directly controlled by its sponsor.

READ: Yemen Houthi group threatens to strike ‘highly sensitive’ targets in Israel

The drone itself was particularly scrutinised following the attack, with Amer saying that the drone was “equipped with technologies that make it difficult to detect”, although the Israelis report that they detected the drone throughout its journey but failed to intercept it due to a human error.

Despite the Houthis’ growing drone capabilities, it surprised many that this drone could reach all the way to Tel Aviv from Yemen, with the rebel group claiming it was a new drone named “Yaffa”.

Israeli sources such as military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, however, have reported that the drone was an enhanced version of the Samad 3 – a drone which has a range of up to around 1,120 miles, insufficient to reach Tel Aviv from Yemen in its original form, but which was equipped with modifications to enable it’s flight trajectory.