Israeli strikes in Gaza overnight killed 12 people, Palestinian medical officials said on Sunday. Israeli police, meanwhile, arrested three suspects after flares were fired at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in the coastal city of Caesarea.
In Lebanon, Israeli warplanes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut after the military warned people to evacuate from at least seven buildings. The Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence in the area, known as the Dahiyeh, and the strikes came as Lebanese officials are considering a United States-brokered ceasefire proposal.
Netanyahu and his family were not at the house when two flares were fired at it overnight, and there were no injuries, authorities said. A drone launched by Hezbollah struck the residence last month, also when Netanyahu and his family were away.
The police did not provide details about the suspects behind the flares, but officials pointed to domestic political critics of Netanyahu. Israel’s largely ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, condemned the incident and warned against “an escalation of the violence in the public sphere”.
Netanyahu has faced months of mass protests over his handling of the hostage crisis unleashed by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack into Israel, which ignited the continuing war in Gaza.
Critics blame Netanyahu for the security and intelligence failures that allowed the attack to happen and for not reaching a deal with Hamas to release scores of hostages still held inside Gaza. Israelis rallied again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to demand a ceasefire deal to return them.