A drone was launched towards Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea. This was announced by the Israeli prime minister’s office after the army announced that a drone from Lebanon had hit a “structure” in this coastal city in central Israel. “The prime minister and his wife were not present and there were no casualties,” Netanyahu’s office said.
It was unclear whether the residence was the “facility” referred to by the military, which had previously said two other drones had been intercepted. For several hours, northern Israel has been the target of rockets launched from Lebanon. Air raid sirens were activated in several locations. In Lebanon, two people were killed in an Israeli attack that targeted, for the first time since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the road connecting Beirut to the north of the country, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The Israeli Prime Minister, nothing will discourage me
In a pair of videos posted in Hebrew and English on social media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that “nothing will deter him” and that Israel will win “this war.” The Times of Israel newspaper reports it. His messages are a provocative response to the drone attack that hit his residence in Caesarea (center), targeted from Lebanon, in the morning. At the time of the impact, Netanyahu and his wife Sara were not present in the family home.
Lebanese Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones into northern Israel for a year in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which carried out the unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel from Gaza. The pro-Iranian movement claimed responsibility on Friday for attacks on the cities of Safed and Haifa (north) and on a military base in the center of the country.
Israel has been conducting ground operations in Lebanon’s southern border regions since late September, supported by a campaign of airstrikes.
Hamas is alive
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is “alive and will remain so” despite the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar who was killed during an Israeli military operation. This was stated by the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “His loss is certainly painful for the resistance front” against Israel “but it will not stop at all with Sinwar’s martyrdom,” the Supreme Leader assured in a press release.
Sinwar’s body, a bargaining chip?
The body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could be used as a “bargaining chip” in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Israeli sources told CNN. The remains of the ‘mastermind’ of the October 7, 2023 attack are currently being held in an undisclosed location in Israel, local media reported, after he was killed last Wednesday by Israeli forces in southern Gaza. Two sources told CNN that securing the hostages’ release would likely be Israel’s priority in deciding how to exploit the man’s remains. More than 100 hostages taken in Hamas-led attacks remain captive in Gaza. Israeli authorities are currently considering how to “quickly build pressure” on Hamas to let them go, an Israeli source said. “If Hamas wants to exchange its remnants for Israelis, living or dead, then fine,” he said. A hostage exchange is probably the only way Sinwar’s remains will return to Gaza, the Israeli source said, “otherwise they won’t hand him over.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog held a security meeting Friday about the “significant window of opportunity” that Sinwar’s killing presents for the return of the hostages, Herzog’s office said in a statement. In remarks on Thursday, Netanyahu also called on Hamas members still holding Israeli hostages to lay down their weapons and return the prisoners, saying that anyone who does so will be allowed to “go out and live.”
The attacks of the night
The Civil Protection of the Gaza Strip has announced the death of 33 people in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp, in the north of the territory. “The number of victims amounts to 33 dead and dozens injured,” said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the organization dependent on the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, after a medical source from Al-Awda hospital told AFP that his facility had reported “22 dead and 70 injured” following this raid which hit the Tal az-Zaatar area of the Palestinian refugee camp.