Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization on Saturday morning launched an unmanned aerial vehicle at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea. The drone hit a nearby building.
Netanyahu and his spouse were not present at the time and no injuries were reported.
A local resident told news outlet Ynet that “It was 7:50 [a.m.] and we heard a humming sound. A few seconds later an explosion and a hit were heard. In the beginning we thought it was a terror attack because the explosion was very loud, [at decibels] we are not used to. Then rumors started that an UAV hit a building. We thought it was maybe an Iranian attack.”
Residents in the seaside town south of Haifa said that in the early morning hours, a short convoy was observed leaving the premier’s residence, according to Ynet.
The premier’s office said that Netanyahu has not spent a night at his Caesarea home for at least a week.
The Israel Defense Forces said that Hezbollah had launched three drones from Lebanon, two of which were intercepted.
No warning sirens were sounded prior to the drone impact. The military stated it was investigating the event.
On Friday, Israeli naval forces reported a possible UAV sighting off the Mediterranean coast, hovering over Caesarea.
Security sources raised concerns that it could have been a Hezbollah reconnaissance drone, but the Prime Minister’s Office claimed in a brief statement that it was a false alert.
According to Hebrew media, Israeli Air Force fighter jets rushed to the scene and did not detect any suspicious aircraft.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Nour News media outlet reported on Friday that the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group “will soon step up its conflict [with Israel] to a new and advanced stage.”
According to military estimates, the drone that hit Caesarea on Saturday was of the Sayyad-107 type, an Iranian model now manufactured in Lebanon.
This is the same UAV that hit an IDF training base near Binyamina last week, killing four soldiers and injuring dozens more.
Following that incident, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pledged to find solutions to the threat posed by the terror group’s unmanned vehicles.
“Faced with the threat of UAVs, we are [conducting] a national effort and are engaged in developing solutions that will help deal with the threat,” he said.
