Israel in panic mode as Lebanon drone targets Netanyahu’s home

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a drone was launched towards his residence in Caesarea on Saturday after the military reported a drone from Lebanon had “hit a structure” in the central Israeli town.

“A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was launched toward the prime minister’s residence in Caesarea. The prime minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether the structure reported hit by the military earlier was his private residence.

The military said three drones had been fired from Lebanon on Saturday and it had intercepted two.

A barrage of projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday, with sirens blaring across northern Israel at regular intervals.

Lebanese authorities meanwhile said two people were killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday in Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first strike on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year.

The health ministry said an “Israeli enemy raid” hit a car in Jounieh, with Lebanese state media saying the attack occurred on a key highway linking the capital to the country’s north.

Israel is fighting a war against Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, with Israel sending ground troops across the Lebanese border last month.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had destroyed Hezbollah’s regional command centre with an air strike.

Hezbollah said it fired a salvo of rockets at the Israeli city of Haifa and areas to its north.
The group later said it launched “a swarm of explosives-laden drones” at an “air missile defence base” east of the central Israeli city of Hadera.