Damage caused to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Caesarea in a Hezbollah drone attack on October 19, 2024. (Courtesy)
A drone fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea on Saturday hit and caused damage to his residence when it exploded, the military censor permitted for publication on Tuesday.
An image, previously barred from publication by the military censor, showed the damage caused to the home by Saturday’s drone impact.
The blast cracked glass in a bedroom window but did not penetrate the home, apparently because of reinforced glass and other protections. Pieces of glass reportedly landed in the family’s pool nearby and in the yard.
There were no injuries, and Netanyahu and his wife were not home at the time.
Hezbollah in a statement Tuesday took “full, complete and exclusive responsibility for the Caesarea operation targeting… Netanyahu” — echoing Iranian statements attempting to distance the Islamic Republic from the apparent assassination attempt launched by its proxy.
The prime minister on Saturday laid the blame for the strike on “agents of Iran” and vowed that anyone who harmed Israelis would pay “a heavy price.”
Citing unnamed sources, the Saudi Al-Hadath news network reported Tuesday that Israel’s investigation into the strike has found that Iranian embassy officials in Beirut were also involved in the attack.
The IDF said Saturday that the drone was one of three launched from Lebanon, and that the other two were shot down. The military said it was investigating the incident, which apparently saw several failures of Israel’s warning system. No sirens sounded in Caesarea warning of the infiltration.
After two of the drones were shot down, the third dropped off the military’s radar during their pursuit, according to an initial investigation by the IDF, Channel 12 reported. Attack helicopters, which have the capability to intercept drones, were deployed to the area but did not successfully spot the aircraft, which had apparently been believed to have crashed.
Israel has signaled that its expected retaliation for an October 1 missile barrage — when the Islamic Republic fired 200 ballistic missiles that sent most of Israel to bomb shelters, killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, and caused minor damage in residential areas and at military bases — could be widened as a result of the drone strike, which Israel has referred to as an attempted assassination of the premier.
Iran said its missile assault had come in response to strikes in Lebanon that killed the top leadership of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group and a July blast in Tehran that killed Hamas politburo head, Ismail Haniyeh.
