A drone was launched toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea, Israel, on Saturday, according to his office. The prime minister and his wife were not at home at the time.
Two other drones were downed by Israeli air defenses on Saturday. The two drones triggered air defense sirens in Tel Aviv but for some reason, no sirens went off in the coastal enclave of Caesarea a short distance away. The IDF says the incident is under review.
As Ukraine discovered early in its war with Russia, drones present a particularly difficult challenge even for modern air defenses.
But drones — which are cheaper for its adversaries to acquire and operate — have occasionally evaded Israel’s air defenses. Experts say they pose a particular challenge for Israel because they emit less heat, often contain less metal and fly at lower altitudes and slower speeds than the rockets and missiles its air defenses are primarily designed to thwart.
On Saturday, as the Israeli military tried to determine how one drone had evaded the system in Caesarea, it said that dozens of other “projectiles” had entered Israel from Lebanon.
#Netanyahu was away from his residence in #Caesarea, #Israel, when a drone launched by #Hezbollah from #Lebanon attempted to target him. The drone traveled 70 kilometers undetected, even passing near an Israeli helicopter that was searching for it. #DroneAttack pic.twitter.com/6J8DWY1f26
— Govind Singh🇮🇳 (@Govindsmedia) October 19, 2024
🚨Netanyahu's response to the drone attack that hit his private residence earlier today: pic.twitter.com/dCm2uJuFMT
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 19, 2024
Netanyahu said in a statement that “the agents of Iran who tried to assassinate me and my wife today made a bitter mistake.”
“We will continue to eliminate your terrorists, we will return our hostages from Gaza, we will return our residents in the north,” he promised.
“You know, two days ago we eliminated the mass murderer [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar, as I’ve said, we’re in an existential war, and we’re continuing to the end,” the prime minister said in Hebrew in the video, the Times of Israel reported.
“And I want to say something else, I’m proud of our soldiers, I’m proud of our commanders, and I’m proud of you, the citizens of Israel,” he added.
Separately, a man believed to be a key adviser to al-Qaeda’s current leader called on Hamas to release the Israeli hostages, the Times of Israel reported, citing the American anti-jihadist monitoring organization SITE.
Hamas must “immediately” return the hostages and the bodies of those who have since died, said the online statement by Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri, who is the father-in-law of Saif al-Adel, the man widely believed to now head Al-Qaeda. “This file must be closed and not opened again, as we know its consequences,” the statement said.
Al-Qaeda has sat on the sidelines while Hamas has been pummeled for a year by Israel. Their terrorist brethren in al-Qaeda haven't fired a shot against Israel and they probably aren't going to start shooting now. This statement by Hamid appears to be a PR ploy to gain support for al-Qaeda after several years of the terrorists being kicked out of several countries by ISIS and other terrorists.
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