A drone of unknown origin crashed into a school in the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel on Thursday, causing no casualties, the Israeli army said.
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“A drone crashed on a civilian building in the city of Eilat,” the Israeli army wrote on the social network X. “The identity of the drone and the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.”
According to an army spokeswoman on site, a school building in which people were present at the time of the explosion was damaged. Rescue workers treated seven people in shock.
According to an AFP journalist on site, the drone crashed into a primary school in Eilat. The coastal city is currently hosting tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated from northern Israel and the Gaza border region, where fighting is raging between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Hamas.
The area around the school was cordoned off by dozens of police and soldiers.
In recent weeks, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have claimed to have launched drone strikes against Israel in response to Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip, carried out in retaliation for an attack of unprecedented magnitude by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 on Israeli territory.
On November 6, the Houthis claimed to have launched a new drone attack against Israel. The Israeli army then stated that it had discovered an “enemy” aircraft outside the city of Eilat.
The war between Israel and Hamas is raising fears of a regional conflagration.
Since the Hamas attack, more than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, most of them civilians who were killed on October 7, according to Israeli authorities.
In retaliation, Israel shelled the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, these bombings have killed more than 10,800 people since the start of the war, including 4,412 children.