A drone was launched towards it That of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu home on Saturday, the Israeli government said.
Sirens sounded Saturday morning, warning of incoming fire from Lebanon. The drone was launched towards Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, but neither he nor his wife were home, his spokesman said in a statement. There were no injuries.
No information was provided on where the drone was launched or who might be responsible for the attempted attack. Israel has not said whether the drone was intercepted or landed elsewhere.
It is the second attack on Netanyahu in recent months. In September, The Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a ballistic missile towards Ben Gurion Airport as Netanyahu’s plane landed. The missile was intercepted.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday, the Pentagon said in a statement, in which they discussed “regional security developments,” including the recent deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system. During the call, Austin told Gallant he was “relieved” that Netanyahu was safe after the drone strike.
Meanwhile, inside GazaMore than 50 people, including children, have been killed in several Israeli attacks in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and an Associated Press reporter.
Ariel Schalit / AP
Saturday’s attacks on Israel come as Lebanon’s war with Hezbollah – an ally of Hamas backed by Iran – has intensified in recent weeks. Hezbollah said Friday it plans to launch a new phase of the battle by sending more guided missiles and exploding drones into Israel. The militant group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September, and Israel sent ground troops to Lebanon earlier in October.
The Israeli military said some 55 projectiles were fired from Lebanon in two separate barrages into northern Israel on Saturday morning. Some were intercepted, the military said, and there were no immediate reports of any casualties.
Israel also said on Saturday it had killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander in the southern city of Bint Jbeil. The military said Nasser Rashid oversaw attacks on Israel
In Lebanon, the Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle on a highway north of Beirut on Saturday, killing two people. It is unclear who was in the car when it was hit.
A standoff is also emerging between Israel and Hamas, which it is fighting in Gaza, with both pointing to opposition to ending the war after the war. death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this week. On Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sinwar’s death was a painful loss but noted that Hamas continued despite the killings of other Palestinian militant leaders before him.
“Hamas is alive and will remain alive,” Khamenei said.
Since Israel announced Sinwar’s death on Thursday and a senior Hamas political official confirmed the death on Friday, Hamas has reiterated its position that the hostages from Israel from a year ago will only be released after a ceasefire is reached in Gaza and Israeli forces withdraw. The firm stance was pushed back against a statement by Netanyahu that his country’s army will continue fighting until the hostages are released, and will remain in Gaza to prevent a seriously weakened Hamas from rearming.
Israel says Sinwar was the chief architect of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has caused the deaths of more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. make no distinction between fighters and civilians, but say more than half of the dead are women and children.
Strikes hit Gaza again on Saturday. The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, and troops opened fire on the hospital building and courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff. At Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the upper floors of the building, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement.
In central Gaza, at least 10 people, including two children, were killed when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where the victims were taken. An AP reporter counted the bodies at the hospital. Another attack killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were taken. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital.
At least three houses were hit in northern Gaza on Friday night, killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. In Jabaliya, houses were hit and at least 80 people were injured.
The war has destroyed large parts of Gazadisplaced about 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, leaving them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.
Sinwar’s killing appeared on Wednesday to be an accidental frontline confrontation with Israeli forces and could change the dynamics of the war in Gaza even as Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah with ground troops in southern Lebanon and air strikes in other parts of the country . .
Israel has pledged to politically destroy Hamas in Gaza, and killing Sinwar was a top military priority. But Netanyahu said Thursday evening in a speech announcing the killing that “our war has not ended.”
Yet the governments of Israel’s allies and Gazans are exhausted expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.
In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded that the Israeli government use Sinwar’s killing as a way to resume negotiations to bring their loved ones home. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.
