By Dr Marwan Asmar
It is a distance of 2000 kilometres and is seen as a major feat for the Houthis and a win for Gaza
Yedioth Ahronoth has revealed new details about the “Jaffa” drone that attacked Tel Aviv leading to the death of an Israeli and the injury of at least 10 others.
[https://twitter.com/AdameMedia/status/1814501042987393365]
The Israeli newspaper reported the drone attack on a residential building in central Tel Aviv killing ex-Israeli sniper Yevgeny Perder was launched from Yemen and travelled for 2,000 kilometres to land on the Israeli city.
This in itself is baffling the Israeli authorities. They admit they saw the drone travelling in the night skies of Tel Aviv, Friday, but thought nothing of it. Now they say it was a “human error” on the part of the Israeli forces that should have intercepted the drone quickly and neutralized it.
The Israeli media have since become interested and amazed at how the Yaffa drone travelled all the way with no detection whatsoever and across many countries and seas.
Some of the fly routes taken by the drone were new compared to the previous trajectories that frequently landed on Eilat, a once dazzling touristic city in southern Israel.
This time the paper said the drone was ordered to make a more complicated fly path to make the matter difficult and confusing to sway the detection systems in the Israeli army, the paper said. And it succeeded.
[https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1814248215354474554]
The Israeli daily stated the Jaffa drone warhead was “relatively small and contained several kilograms of explosives,” to allow it to travel a long distance but the paper claimed “the extent of the damage was limited.”
The social media have been active and covering the drone flight and show the chaos this created Tel Aviv between Shalom Aleichen and Yehuda Streets and since embarrassed the Israeli authorities.
[https://twitter.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1814168172615917780]
“The full flight path is still under investigation, but according to preliminary assessments of the Israeli army, the drone passed through Sinai and crossed the Mediterranean Sea off the southern coast,” of Tel Aviv according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
[https://twitter.com/AdameMedia/status/1814501042987393365]
The explosion occurred at dawn on Friday, about 100 meters from the US Embassy’s branch office complex according to Anadolu.
[https://twitter.com/AdameMedia/status/1814367462650966527]
The Yemeni “Ansar Allah” movement – Houthis – stated “the Yemeni Armed Forces’ air force carried out a qualitative military operation targeting one of the important targets in the occupied Jaffa region, the so-called Israeli Tel Aviv.”
[https://twitter.com/Ahmed_hassan_za/status/1814381142067515745]
The Houthis explained the operation was carried out “with a new drone called “Yafa” capable of bypassing the enemy’s interception systems and being unable to be detected by radars. The operation successfully achieved its goals.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an assessment of the situation after such targeting, with officials confirming “there will be a reaction, and that a response within the territory of Yemen is on the table” according to Jo.24 website.
The Houthis say they will continue to strike Israeli cities as long as Israel maintains its slaughter of Gaza.
Dr Asmar is an Amman-based writer covering Middle East affairs.
20 July 2024
Source: countercurrents.org