Israeli officials say terrorist drone which entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon may have targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s beach house.
By World Israel News Staff
An unmanned aircraft operated by Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon may have surveilled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence, according to a report Sunday.
The IDF has been unable to rule out the possibility that a Hezbollah drone penetrated Israeli airspace from Lebanon and was positioned off the coast of the ritzy Israeli coastal city of Caesarea, potentially to observe Netanyahu’s beach house property there, Israel Hayom reported Sunday.
According to the report, on Friday, an Israeli missile boat patrolling off of the coast of Caesarea detected a suspicious aircraft hovering in the area.
Israeli security officials immediately suspected the unidentified aircraft was a Hezbollah drone intended to monitor the Israeli premier’s residence, Israel Hayom reported, given the lack of other targets of strategic interest in the small coastal community.
The missile boat’s radar system detected the aircraft, though IDF monitoring equipment reportedly failed to corroborate its presence.
Israel Air Force jets launched to intercept the suspicious aircraft were unable to locate the alleged drone.
The IDF later concluded that the incident may have been the result of a false alarm, possibly the result of a flock of birds being erroneously identified by the missile boat’s radar system as a small unmanned aircraft.
However, the Israeli military has not been able to confirm this suspicion, or rule out the possibility that a terrorist drone aircraft had in fact been positioned off the coast of Caesarea.
Sources told Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Netanyahu was not present at his private residence in Caesarea at the time of the incident.
The Prime Minister’s Office responded to the report with a statement dismissing the alleged infiltration.
“This was determined to be a false alarm,” Netanyahu’s office said.