Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “nothing will deter us, we will keep going until victory,” after a drone struck his vacation home in northern Israel Saturday as the military continued its operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
Netanyahu, 74, was not in the area when the drone was fired from Lebanon at his residence in Caesarea, his spokesperson said.
The leader of the Jewish State has already spoken with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about the apparent assassination attempt, according to The Times of Israel.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson also spoke with Netanyahu, saying the Israeli leader is “safe, in good spirits, and undeterred.”
“I told him America stands strong with Israel and reiterated our ongoing commitment to help counter Iran and its terrorist proxies. This is a crucial moment and America must deliver,” Johnson wrote on X.
It is not clear if President Biden, who was in Germany Saturday, reached out to Netanyahu. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is potentially set to visit Israel on Tuesday.
Israel may now widen the range of its targets in Iran after the attack, an unnamed source told Channel 12 News.
US intelligence materials showing that Israel appears to be preparing to send both fighter jets and drones to strike Iran were leaked by a pro-Iranian account on Telegram Saturday, Axios reported.
The two documents, which US officials did not dispute, showed that the Jewish State has spent weeks conducting drone strike exercises in apparent preparation to retaliate against Iran. If the report is proven accurate, it also suggests that the US is closely surveilling Israel’s preparations.
In other developments, after combing through southern Lebanon over the last two weeks, the Israel Defense Forces uncovered what it said were “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of Hezbollah tunnels, replete with weapons caches and rocket launchers that pose a threat to nearby communities.
Israel also said that it killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander in the southern town of Bint Jbeil. The army said Nasser Rashid supervised attacks against Israel.
The drone strike on the prime minister’s residence came just days after Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The drone hit an undisclosed building, officials said. There were no casualties.
The attack was not immediately claimed by Hezbollah, which has launched rockets and drones into Israel for over a year, including more than 100 shots over the border from Lebanon Saturday.
“Iran tried to eliminate the Prime Minister of Israel,” one senior Israeli official said, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
Two other drones that crossed into Israeli territory were intercepted, according to the military.
“The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake,” Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday night.
“This will not deter me or the State of Israel from continuing our just war against our enemies in order to secure our future.”
He warned that anyone who tried to harm Israel and its citizens would “pay a heavy price.”
Earlier Saturday, Netanyahu spoke out in a video clip in which he insisted that Israel is “going to win this war.”
“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.
A photo of Sinwar’s dead body, along with a warning to the terror group, featured prominently in leaflets that Israel dropped over the Gaza Strip Saturday.
“Hamas will no longer rule Gaza,” the leaflets read in Arabic. “Whoever lays down his weapons and returns the kidnapped people to us, we will allow him to leave and live in peace.”
The papers echoed Netanyahu’s own statements during a Thursday night press conference in which he addressed Sinwar’s surprise elimination in Rafah.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, meanwhile, said Friday that Tehran was ready to negotiate with France over a UN resolution concerning southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops are currently on the ground battling Hezbollah.
The offer was dismissed by Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, who called the position a “blatant interference,” in the country’s affairs, the Times of Israel reported.
Iran followed up on Saturday with the warning that any attack by Israel would be met with “even stronger” retaliation.
“Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told reporters in Damascus.
“For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger.”
France’s role in the Middle East crisis also became somewhat tenuous over the weekend, as Netanyahu slammed French President Emanuel Macron as a “disgrace” over the latter’s ongoing call for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel.
“The axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this [axis] call for an arms embargo on Israel,” the prime minister scoffed.
Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut Saturday – marking the first attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in three days.
US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd warned Israel to “scale back” its attacks on the capital – warning that “the number of civilian casualties have been far too high.”
With Post wires. Additional reporting by Katie Donlevy.
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