Israeli firefighters at the site where a Yemeni drone exploded on the top floor of an apartment block in the city of Yavne, the southern part of the Israeli-occupied territories, on December 9, 2024.    (Photo via social media)

Tel Aviv, December 9 (RHC)--  A combat unmanned aerial vehicle launched from Yemen has struck an apartment block in the central part of the Israeli-occupied territories, as Yemeni Armed Forces continue their operations against various Israeli targets in retaliation for the Tel Aviv regime’s bloody onslaught against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the drone struck the balcony of the apartment in the city of Yavne, located about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) south of Tel Aviv, on Monday after air defense systems failed to detect it.

The army added that it was investigating the failure of the air raid sirens to detect the drone, as is customary in such cases.  No injuries were reported in the attack, which caused damage to several apartments in the building, Israeli media outlets reported.

According to an initial probe of the incident, the drone had flown into airspace over Israeli-occupied lands from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, after making a long detour apparently over Egypt.

It crossed into skies over occupied territories near the southern cities of Sderot and Ashdod, close to the Gaza Strip, and headed north along the coast toward Yavne.

The Israeli military alleged that a fighter jet was scrambled to shoot down the drone, but it did not have enough time and ultimately the drone struck the apartment block.

Later on Monday, the Yemeni Armed Forces stated that it had launched a drone operation against “an Israeli target” in the city of Yavne.  It emphasized that the operation came in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid the atrocious Israeli military campaign.

The development came a day after the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces announced in a statement that the country’s aerial units had jointly carried out an operation with Iraqi resistance fighters against strategic Israeli positions.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the strike was conducted with a number of combat drones, and the designated targets were hit with high precision.  "Our operations will not stop until the aggressive war against Gaza ends, and the siege on the strip is lifted," Saree pointed out.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the territory’s resistance movements carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity.

The Yemeni armed forces have said they will not stop their attacks until Israel’s ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.

Israel has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians, a considerably large number of them women and children, in Gaza.

Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement maintains that it targets ships linked to Israel, the United States, or the United Kingdom to force an end to the Tel Aviv regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.

In October, the U.S. military unleashed B-2 stealth bombers to bomb Yemen in support of Israel.