Israeli authorities have identified Yevgeny Ferder as the man killed in a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv early Friday morning.
According to Israeli media reports, Ferder, 50, moved to Israel from Belarus alone in 1999. He leaves behind a niece in Israel and an older sister in Belarus.
“He was in the Russian army and loved playing ice hockey and soccer,” Ferder’s niece Anastasia told the Ynet news site. After arriving in Israel, Ferder joined the Israel Defense Forces and served in a combat unit, and continued to serve as a reservist.
Ferder was killed and several others wounded when an explosives-laden drone launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck Tel Aviv at 3:12 a.m. Friday. The drone took an unusual route, crossing Egypt and approaching Tel Aviv from the Mediterranean to the west. The military later said air raid sirens did not sound and the drone was not shot down due to human error.
It hit next to the building housing the Momo Hostel, where Ferder lived and worked as a maintenance worker.
According to Haaretz, Ferder was born in 1974 in Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port city in southern Russia. He served two years in the Russian army and worked as a truck driver before coming to Israel in 1999.
Israeli security forces are seen where a drone exploded in Tel Aviv on July 19, 2024. (Sharon Aronowicz/AFP)
In Israel, he first lived in an absorption center in Tiberias, where he studied Hebrew while working in the nearby Kibbutz Degania Bet. Later, he moved to Kiryat Gat to be near his father, who had come to Israel years earlier. Ferder’s mother remained in Russia, where she died.
After working in a factory in Kiryat Gat for a few years, Ferder moved to the Momo Hostel in Tel Aviv.
“I was his family here,” Ferder’s niece told Ynet. “He wasn’t married, he lived alone. We called each other every day and met up often.”
Yevgeny Ferder, 50, was killed by a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv overnight.
May his memory be a blessing. ????️ pic.twitter.com/HefQkWb7YE
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) July 19, 2024
The drone that killed Ferder was the first drone launched by the Houthis to reach Tel Aviv.
Iran-backed Yemeni rebels have launched more than 200 drones and cruise missiles toward Israel since November, according to the military. In addition to Friday’s drone attack in Tel Aviv, a cruise missile struck near Eilat in March.
The Israeli military says the vast majority of the threats were intercepted by U.S. forces and, in a few cases, by Israeli fighter jets and ground-based air defense systems.
The Houthis, who have also wreaked havoc on the Red Sea shipping lanes, say their offensive actions are aimed at supporting Palestinians in Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The war was triggered on October 7, when Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip launched an attack by several thousand troops on southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
