A drone was launched towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea on Saturday, just hours after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli military operation. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that neither the prime minister nor his wife were at the residence at the time of the attack, and there were no casualties. “A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was launched toward the prime minister’s residence in Caesarea. The prime minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said in a statement.
The Israeli military stated that the drone was launched from Lebanon and struck a building near the prime minister’s residence. Two additional drones that crossed into Israeli territory were intercepted by Israeli defense systems. Although the source of the attack has not been officially claimed, speculation has pointed towards Hezbollah, which has been in conflict with Israel since early October. However, Hezbollah has not made any immediate claims of responsibility, and no other militant group has come forward.
The drone attack follows an escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and its northern neighbors. Israel is currently engaged in a conflict with Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, which has seen exchanges of rocket fire since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The October 7 assault, masterminded by Yahya Sinwar, left over 1,200 Israelis dead and resulted in the capture of more than 250 hostages, who were taken into Gaza. Yahya Sinwar’s death in a recent Israeli military operation in southern Gaza has only intensified the volatile situation in the region.
Earlier, the Israeli military confirmed that it had destroyed a Hezbollah regional command center in an airstrike. The ongoing war between Hezbollah and Israel has claimed at least 1,418 lives in Lebanon, according to figures from the Lebanese health ministry. However, the true toll is expected to be much higher. In a separate incident, Lebanese authorities reported that two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Jounieh, a town north of Beirut. The strike hit a vehicle on a major highway linking Beirut to northern Lebanon.
With the recent killing of Yahya Sinwar and the escalating violence across the region, the already fraught Middle Eastern conflict is expected to intensify further. Israel’s operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are likely to continue in the face of increasing militant activity along its borders.
