Yemeni armed forces announced an operation against Tel Aviv as a powerful explosion hit an area near a US consular facility amid the failure of Israeli air defenses to intercept the drone.

According to The Iran Project, the blast occurred in the city’s Ben Yehuda Street on Friday, Israeli media outlets reported.

Meanwhile, Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced that the country had launched an operation against Tel Aviv on Friday morning.

He said that further details of the operation would be announced soon.

The Israeli military has said it is opening an investigation to find out why the country’s air defense systems were not activated to intercept the drone.

Other Israeli officials were quoted as saying that an “attack drone” had entered the occupied territories' airspace from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.