TEL AVIV — Israel authorities are investigating the circumstances and potential security lapses around a deadly drone blast in Tel Aviv that killed one man and injured at least 10 others on Friday. The attack was claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, in what the Iranian proxy group said was a response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sare’e said the operation was performed by a new drone capable of “bypassing the enemy’s interception systems.”

“We will continue to strike these targets in response to the enemy’s massacres and daily crimes against our brothers in the Gaza Strip,” Sare’e said. “Our operations will only cease when the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.” The attack marked the first time Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center, has been struck by a drone in an attack claimed by the Houthis.

In a televised briefing on Friday, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the military suspects the drone was an Iranian-made Samad-3 model, launched from Yemen, which had been upgraded to extend its range. A second drone was intercepted outside of Israeli territory to the east at the same time as the attack, he said, adding that Israel is now upgrading its air defenses and increasing aerial patrols of its borders.

An Israeli military official said the drone was detected by an Israeli aerial defense system, but not intercepted due to “human error.” It was armed with a warhead and crashed into an apartment building, the official added, without providing further details of the device’s payload. The official didn’t provide details about what the human error was but noted that Israel’s aerial defense systems don’t always operate autonomously. The Iron Dome defense system, for example, can operate in manual mode, where its radar detects and tracks incoming threats but needs input from an operator before launching an interceptor missile. (CNN)…[+]