The aerial strike rumbled through the streets causing shards of shrapnel to rain down and spreading shards of glass over a large radius.

The Houthis have launched drones and missiles toward Israel throughout the Israeli war on Gaza, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against Israel.

But until Friday, all were intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region.

Yahya Sare'e, the Houthis' spokesperson, said in a statement published on the social media platform X that the strike was made in retaliation for the war and had hit one of many of the group's targets.

The Houthis claimed their newest drones can bypass Israel's aerial defense systems. However, an Israeli military official on Friday that the explosive-laden drone had been identified on Thursday and attributed the hit to “human error.” The military's assessment of aerial threats has not changed because, the military said, Israel's adversaries have attempted such strikes for months.

“It was a terror attack that was targeted to kill civilians in Israel,” the official said of the strike, the first to threaten Tel Aviv in months.

Local police said the blast sounded at around 3:10 a.m., reverberating to nearby cities and physically injuring at least 10 people. Tel Aviv District Commander Peretz Amar said officers could not locate the point of contact, suggesting the explosion occurred in the air, however Israel's military said they had not determined whether the drone — or pieces of it — had struck buildings.

It blew out windows of a number of buildings and damaged cars in the neighborhood near the coastline. People thronged to the area as police helicopters hovered overhead.

Many of the roughly 60,000 Israelis evacuated from their homes earlier in the war have found housing in the area. For many, it reaffirmed feelings of disillusionment with how the military has handled the war over the past nine months.

Yossi Nevi, a retired evacuee from Kiryat Shmona living in a nearby hotel in Tel Aviv said the blast shook him awake to watch the aftermath from his balcony and decreased his faith in the army's management of the war. He said many expected such a strike to come from the north, which the military said had not been the case.

Hearing it was a human error, Nevi said, made him lose “all trust in the army, not that I had much after the past nine months.”

Eldad Namdar, who owns a camera store next to the intersection where the drone exploded, said some of his items had fallen but there was no major damage. While he hopes the war ends soon, he also wants it to be concluded in a way that secures his future.

“I don’t want this to happen again in six months, I want them to finish this situation until the end,” he said.

The Houthi strike hit hours after Israel’s military confirmed one of its airstrikes had killed a Hezbollah commander and other militants in southern Lebanon. Israel has so far not made attacks on the Houthis, allowing its allies instead to take the lead as it focuses its efforts on the war in Gaza and ongoing fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.

The Houthis have routinely claimed responsibility for hitting targets in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. They maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom.