Drone launched at Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in ‘first assassination attempt’

A drone was launched towards Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in northern Israel, in a first assassination attempt on the Prime Minister.

Netanyahu’s spokesman said neither he nor his wife were home at the time the drone was launched at the building in Caesarea.

The Israeli military said the drone was launched from Lebanon and it had hit a building but it was not immediately clear what the building was.

Two more drones that crossed into Israel were intercepted, the military confirmed.

There were no casualties reported, according to the Israeli ambulance service and police said explosions had been heard.

The drone attack was not immediately claimed by Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel since last October, or any other group.

Just last month an Israeli citizen was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a plot by Iran to assassinate Netanyahu and other top officials, Israel’s security services said.

Israeli police and domestic intelligence said the man was twice smuggled into Iran and received payment to carry out missions.

In a joint statement, they said the suspect was a businessman who had lived in Turkey and had Turkish contacts who had helped get him into Iran.

There are also fears of all out war in the area after Iran has launched 180 rockets into Israel in a major escalation of conflict in the Middle East a few weeks ago.

Netanyahu said at the time Iran has ‘made a big mistake and it will pay for it’.

He added: ‘The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.’

For months Hezbollah has fired rockets – more than 8,000 since October 8 – across the border in support of Gaza based Hamas.

Meanwhile Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – the architect of the October 7 raid on Israel, in which 1,200 people were massacred – was killed in Gaza.

Sinwar had led Hamas within Gaza since 2017, having joined its ranks in the early 1980s.

Hezbollah’s top leaders are also dead and thousands of members were injured in walkie-talkie explosions, while 90,000 people have fled due to Israeli airstrikes.

Source » metro.co.uk