Hezbollah boasts of drone attack on PM’s coastal home

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 the Prime Minister told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem that the attack was “of dramatic significance that cannot 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 the Saudi-owned al-Hadath news network reported Israel’s investigation into the strike had found Iranian embassy officials in Beirut were involved.

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 three other commanders in a strike on the 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 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 Prime Minister 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.

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 killing of 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.