Hezbollah drone ‘cracked bedroom window’ at Netanyahu home

The Israeli PM tells Antony Blinken Hezbollah’s ‘significant’ drone strike on his Caesarea home ‘can’t be ignored,’ amid reports Iran envoys in Beirut helped co-ordinate the weekend attack.

The cracked window at Benjamin Netanyahu's Caesarea home after it was hit by a Hezbollah drone.

A drone fired by Hezbollah at Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in the coastal town of Caesarea, struck his bedroom window, Israeli media has confirmed.

The drone cracked the reinforced window but didn’t break it, with glass falling onto the Israeli Prime Minister’s lawn and into the swimming pool, the Times of Israel reports.

Mr Netanyahu and his wife weren’t at home at the time of the attack, but Mr Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, currently in Jerusalem, the attack was “of dramatic significance that can not be ignored.”

Hezbollah has claimed full responsibility for the strike, the first time a building linked with Mr Netanyahu has been hit since the start of the war in Gaza. The Iran-backed terror group said in a statement: it took “full, complete and exclusive responsibility for the Caesarea operation targeting … Netanyahu.”

Hezbollah’s statement came as Saudi owned al-Hadath news network reported Israel’s investigation into the strike had found Iranian embassy officials in Beirut were involved in the attack.

חיזבאללה נטל אחריות לשיגור הכטב"ם שפגע בשבת בבית רוה"מ בקיסריה.

צפו וככה נראה הפגיעה במעון ראש הממשלה! pic.twitter.com/cB1zzXsu3S

— מה חדש. What's new❓ (@Gloz111) October 22, 2024

At the weekend, Mr Netanyahu blamed “agents of Iran” for the attack and warned anyone harming Israelis would pay “a heavy price.”

On Wednesday (AEDT) the Israeli Defence Forces confirmed they had killed Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The IDF said Safieddine was killed alongside the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence division, Hussein Ali Hazima and 3 other commanders, in a strike on the terror group’s underground intelligence headquarters in Beirut on October 4.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched attack drones at an Israeli military base south of Haifa, with the group also saying it struck seven tanks at the border. Fighters launched “attack drones” on a “base south of Haifa,” the group said, also claiming throughout the day that it had fired on a total of five Israeli tanks inside Lebanese territory and two across the border in Israel’s north.

The attacks on Israel’s military came as Mr Blinken held talks with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem, with the Israeli PM saying they had discussed joining forces to counter threats from Iran, as Israel considers a strike in retaliation for Tehran’s missile barrage earlier this month.

“During the meeting, the Iranian threat and the need for both countries to unite forces against it were raised,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, adding that “the Prime Minister thanked the US Secretary of State for the United States’ support in the fight against Iran’s axis of evil and terror.”

Mr Blinken urged Mr Netanyahu to seize on the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, also calling for more aid to reach the war-battered territory.

He “underscored the need to capitalise” on the Israeli military’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

This would be done by “securing the release of all hostages and ending the conflict in Gaza in a way that provides lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” he added.

Mr Netanyahu told Mr Blinken that Sinwar’s death “could have a positive impact on the return of the hostages” seized by Hamas during the October 7 attack last year, according to a statement from the Israeli leader’s office.

Mr Blinken also pressed for more aid to be allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory as concerns rise for tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in the hard-to-reach north.

Washington has warned it may suspend some of its military assistance if Israel does not quickly improve humanitarian access to the area.

Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed, as did a bid spearheaded by President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to secure a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon.

Mr Blinken also again called for a “diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon and compliance with a UN resolution that ended an Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

Under Security Council Resolution 1701, Hezbollah should have withdrawn from areas in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, leaving only the country’s military and UN peacekeepers deployed there.

With AFP