Israel’s Netanyahu: Attempt by Hezbollah to Assassinate Me Is ‘A Grave Mistake’

Israeli security forces secure a road near where Israel's government says a drone launched toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, Israel Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
Israeli security forces secure a road near where Israel's government says a drone launched toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, Israel Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
TT

Israel’s Netanyahu: Attempt by Hezbollah to Assassinate Me Is ‘A Grave Mistake’

Israeli security forces secure a road near where Israel's government says a drone launched toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, Israel Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)
Israeli security forces secure a road near where Israel's government says a drone launched toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Caesarea, Israel Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attempt of Iran's proxy Hezbollah to assassinate him and his wife on Saturday was "a grave mistake," after his spokesman said a drone was launched from Lebanon at his holiday home.

None of the groups firing on Israel over the last year, including the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, have claimed responsibility for that attack.

Israel’s government said a drone was launched toward the prime minister’s house Saturday, with no casualties.  

Sirens wailed Saturday morning in Israel, warning of incoming fire from Lebanon, with a drone launched toward Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea, the Israeli government said.

Neither he nor his wife were home, said his spokesperson in a statement.

The strikes into Israel come as its war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah — a Hamas ally — has intensified in recent weeks.  

Hezbollah said Friday that it planned to launch a new phase of fighting by sending more guided missiles and exploding drones into Israel. The armed group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in late September, and Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon earlier in October.  

A standoff is also ensuing between Israel and Hamas, which it’s fighting in Gaza, with both signaling resistance to ending the war after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this week.  

On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said Sinwar’s death was a painful loss but noted that Hamas carried on despite the killings of other Palestinian militant leaders before him.  

“Hamas is alive and will stay alive,” Khamenei said.



UN Housing Expert Says Gaza Has Experienced an 'Unprecedented Rain of Destruction'

Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

UN Housing Expert Says Gaza Has Experienced an 'Unprecedented Rain of Destruction'

Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians rest under the rubble of their destroyed house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza has experienced “a biblical, unprecedented rain of destruction” since Israel launched its military offensive following Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, the UN housing expert said.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN independent investigator on the right to adequate housing, told reporters Friday that “the ferocity” of destruction in Gaza wasn’t seen in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

By January 2024, Rajagopal said, 60-70% of all homes in Gaza were destroyed, and in northern Gaza it was 82% of homes. “It is far worse than that right now,” particularly in the north which is approaching the 100% level, he said.

Israel’s UN Mission had no comment on the UN rapporteur’s statements.

Rajagopal said a recent report by the UN Development Program estimated that in May there were over 39 million tons of debris in Gaza, and he said that rubble is mixed with unexploded ordnance, toxic waste, asbestos from collapsed buildings, and other material.

“The groundwater pollution and the soil contamination are so catastrophic that we don’t know if they can ever be remedied in time for people to move back at least within this generation,” he said.

How long will it take to rebuild Gaza?

Rajagopal said first the debris has to be removed, secondly there must be financing, and then “there is another big elephant in the room, which is that no reconstruction can happen unless the occupation ends.” That’s because Israel has restricted building materials and equipment to rebuild, which it contends have dual uses, he said.

After the 2014 war in Gaza, Rajagopal said, less than 1,000 homes were built every year.

The UNDP report estimated that about 80,000 homes have been destroyed in the current war, so it would take about 80 years to rebuild if the occupation continues, he said.