A drone, apparently launched from Iraq, struck a building in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat early Monday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The IDF said it had identified a “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace “from the east” and then impacted “in the Eilat Bay area.”
Slight damage was caused to a building in Eilat Bay, and there were no injuries the IDF said.
The IDF statement did not say what structure was hit or if any attempt had been made to intercept the aircraft.
The reference to the projectile’s origin being to the east appeared to confirm a claim by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a coalition of Iran-backed paramilitary groups, that it had fired on Israel.
The Iran-backed militia said it had struck a “vital target” in Israel “with appropriate weapons,” without elaborating further.
Amid the overnight incident, drone infiltration alarms sounded in Eilat, with residents of the southern city reporting hearing a large blast.
The previous day, the IDF said a fighter jet had intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” — also thought to be a drone — that was making its way toward Israel from the direction of Syria.
The target was not detected as having crossed into Israeli territory. Large blasts were reported over southern Syria’s Daraa amid the incident.
In that incident, Islamic Resistance in Iraq had claimed to have attacked a “vital target” near the northern Israeli town of Eilabun.
The Iraqi group has claimed to have launched numerous drones at Israel amid the war in the Gaza Strip, most of which have failed to cross Israel’s border or were downed by air defenses. In one case, a drone struck an open area near the town of Eliad, causing minor damage to nearby structures.
Eilat has come under attack by other Iran-backed groups amid the war in the Gaza Strip, including Yemen’s Houthis and a group in Syria linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In November, a school in Eilat was hit by a drone launched from Syria, and last month, a cruise missile fired from Yemen struck an open area north of the city.